WINTER PARK, Fla. – Florida Southern College volleyball split its two matches on the second day of the 2021 Rollins Invitational, as the Moccasins swept Georgia College in three sets before falling to Anderson University (S.C.) on Saturday.
It was a tale of two matches for the Mocs, who improved to 3-1 through their first weekend of regular-season action. They faced little resistance in the first two sets en route to a 3-0 victory over Georgia College, but the momentum didn't carry over to the second half of the doubleheader against Anderson.
Florida Southern 3, Georgia College 0
How it Happened
- Offensively, the Mocs recorded their best performance of the young season with a .216 attack percentage. The Bobcats, on the other hand, hit a lowly .049.
- In the second set, which featured the most lopsided score at 25-11, FSC hit the ball a blistering .417 with 16 kills and only one error.
- Erica Ronda led all Florida Southern players with 13 kills, followed by Emma Shaddix (9), Abby Knoop (9), and Jana Gilic (7).
- The only set that proved to be a challenge was the third, a back-and-forth battle that resulted in a 29-27 score.
- Trailing 14-11 in the third, FSC head coach Chris Keen called a timeout to regroup. The strategy worked, as the Mocs crawled back to tie the match at 19-19 before taking the lead at 23-22.
- The Bobcats had a chance to end the set after a kill from Sarah Stewart gave them a 25-24 lead, but Stewart committed two consecutive errors that allowed FSC to jump ahead 26-25.
- A big swing from Knoop made it 28-27, and an addition error from Stewart sealed the set and match for Southern.
Anderson 3, Florida Southern 0
How it Happened
- Just as Florida Southern enjoyed a strong showing on offense against the Bobcats, Anderson did so in the second match of the day.
- The Trojan hitters were explosive and attacked at a rate of .364, the highest of any FSC opponent this season.
- Anderson also held a 5-to-2 advantage in total blocks and logged fewer service errors (12-to-5).
- The tightest set of the match was the first, which also ended with a 29-27 score.
- In that set, the Trojans sided out 67% of the time, a narrow lead over FSC at 64%, and both teams had identical .357 attack percentages.
- Southern's only two blocks of the match were in the first, and both allowed the Mocs to take the lead. Cassidy Markel and Tierra Porter combined for the first rejection to break a 16-all tie, and the second block from Porter and Shaddix made the score 20-18 in favor of FSC.
- Facing the set point down 24-23, the Trojans were able to jump ahead by winning the next two points. They closed the first set with a kill from redshirt senior middle blocker Hannah Worsham.
In Their Own Words
Head coach
Chris Keen on the positive takeaways from Saturday's matches despite the varying results…
"Our entire team executed our game plans throughout the entire tournament, including at an elite level against Georgia College, and even in our loss versus Anderson. That's not easy to do over four matches in two days, but they never gave up that consistency. The SSC has a wide variety of systems and personnel that we need to plan for, and this weekend showed that we can handle that type of adaptation from match to match and still compete at a high level."
Inside the Numbers
- The match between FSC and Georgia College was the first-ever meeting between the two schools.
- Florida Southern registered a season-high .216 attack percentage in its first match on Saturday, while its .167 percentage against Anderson was the team's second-best.
- The Mocs tossed eight aces in both matches against the Bobcats and Trojans.
- Ronda paced all FSC players with 21 kills, including a team-high 13 against Georgia College.
- Ronda also had a double-double with 14 digs against the Bobcats.
- Knoop had a combined 15 kills with only one attack error on Saturday.
- Zoe Lowe's season-high nine kills led the Mocs against the Trojans.
- Libero Beatrice Formilan had a whopping 28 digs in the early match, her third performance in four matches this fall with over 20 digs.
- Markel finished with a team-high 58 assists, 37 of which came in Florida Southern's win.
Up Next
Sunshine State Conference play begins on Friday, September 17, when the Lions from Saint Leo University host the Mocs for a 7:00 p.m. match in Saint Leo, Florida.
