Mocs Drop Close Match on Senior Day

LAKELAND, Fla. – The Florida Southern volleyball team welcomed in 16^th-ranked Barry as the Mocs closed out the 2022 regular season while also celebrating Senior Day for three deserving student-athletes. The Moccasins honored Mika Garza, Beatrice Formilan and Emma Shaddix in a pre-match ceremony before falling 3-1 in a tight contest with the nationally-ranked Buccaneers.
 
The loss gives the Mocs a final regular season record of 15-14 including 8-11 in Sunshine State Conference play. The Bucs, who face Eckerd tomorrow afternoon, hold a 25-4 mark including 16-3 in league action.
 
Junior Mackenzie Petermann led the way for the Mocs as she tallied a match-high 20 kills while digging up 18 balls for her eighth double-double of the season. The 18 digs ties a career-high for the Richmond Hill, Ga. native. Senior Ali Travis chipped in 12 kills and eight digs while senior Jana Gilic added eight kills and a team-best seven blocks including two solo stops. She also had a pair of service aces. Graduate student Emma Shaddix had seven kills and five blocks in her final match inside Jenkins Field House.
 
Senior Mika Garza dished out 45 assists for the second-straight match while also posting 10 digs and a pair of service aces. She now has a team-leading 11 double-doubles this season. Graduate student libero Beatrice Formilan went over the 30-digs mark for the first time this season as she led with a match-high 31 from the back row.
 
The Bucs were led by NCAA DII kills leader Diana Akopova who had 20 kills to match Petermann's. Djuly Schmorantz added 19 kills to the winning effort as well.
 
FSC had more kills (54-51) and more service aces (9-7) than the Bucs and the two programs tied in digs 77-77. Barry edged Florida Southern in blocks 8-7 and had four fewer hitting errors.
 
FSC won the opening set 25-19, after taking a dominating 22-13 lead in the set. The second set saw the Mocs lead nearly the entire way but a 7-1 run by Barry to close the set gave the Bucs their first victory of the match at 25-22. The third set began with a 9-1 run by the Bucs and they never looked back. The Mocs cut the deficit to just four on several occasions before finally cutting it to three at 24-21 but that was as close as they would get as Barry won 25-21. The fourth and final set saw the Mocs open up an early lead but the Buccaneers kept it close and eventually pulled ahead for the 25-21 victory.
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