SAINT LEO, Fla. – The Florida Southern College volleyball team went on the road Tuesday night and extended its win streak to a season-long five matches after downing Saint Leo University 3-1. The Moccasins took the first, second and fourth sets from the Lions and posted 16 blocks as a team, the second-most this season.
The victory moved FSC one win away from 20 for the season as the Mocs improved to 19-9 on the year including 12-7 in Sunshine State Conference play. The Lions fell to 9-18 overall and 4-14 in league action.
Juniors
Madison Fowler and
Kiersten Kraus led the blocking effort as they each tallied eight in the match. Fowler had one solo block and seven block assists while Kraus tallied eight block assists in the contest. Fowler chipped in seven kills while Kraus had seven kills, 18 assists, nine digs and a team-best two service aces.
Senior
Mackenzie Petermann led the offensive effort with 19 kills while also collecting a career-high tying three solo blocks. She was also able to dig up 10 balls from the back to record her 31
st career double-double and 15
th of 2023. Junior
Zoe Lowe finished with 12 kills and just four hitting errors for a strong .308 hitting percentage. She also added two digs and two blocks.
Senior libero
Caroline Chambers led the way in the back with 13 digs while freshman setter
Mary Kate Mulvaney had a team-best 21 assists while grabbing five digs and a service ace.
FSC out-blocked the Lions 16-8 while Saint Leo won the digs battle 54-49.
The Lions came out string early and took a quick 5-1 lead but the Mocs were able to battle back to take a 6-5 lead of their own minutes later. The two teams battled back and forth until a 5-0 run by the home team opened up an 18-12 lead for the Lions. FSC continued to battle and with the score set at 21-17 the Mocs began an 8-2 run which would flip flop the lead and end the set in FSC's favor, 25-23. The run began with back-to-back-to-back kills from Lowe, Petermann and Kraus before a Lions' kill ended the opening 3-0 run. Following the Saint Leo kill, a service error from the Lions followed by an attack error and an FSC block from Fowler and Kraus gave the Mocs a 23-22 lead. The Lions were able to get a kill to knot the score at 23-23 but a kill from Petermann followed by a Chambers ace ended the set, 25-23.
The second set saw the Mocs take the early lead at 5-2 but just like the first the slow starting team came back and this time the Lions tied the set at 6-6. The Mocs would not be deterred as minutes later they opened up a six-point lead thanks to a 5-0 run that featured kills from Lowe and Fowler, and blocks from the pairings of Kraus/Fowler and graduate student
Elena Djokovic/Fowler. Just a few points later another 4-0 run by the Mocs opened up an eight-point advantage as the run opened with a Petermann kill followed by the first of two blocks from Kraus and senior
Emily Crescenzi. The fourth point came from a Saint Leo attack error. The Lions mounted a short comeback, going on a 6-1 run to cut the lead to 19-16 but the Mocs were able to outlast the hosts, taking a 25-19 victory in the set. Petermann capped off the set with a kill.
Saint Leo took an early lead in the third and never relinquished it. The Mocs were able to get to within a few points late but a consistent performance from the hosts kept the Mocs at bay. SLU went on to take the set 25-19.
The fourth set was tight early on before the Lions were able to open up a small lead. Trailing 17-12 late in the period, the Mocs began a 13-2 run which would close out the match including opening the run with a 7-0 spurt. After Lowe opened the comeback with a kill, the Mocs scored four of the next five points off of blocks with the lone exception being a Saint Leo attack error. The final point of the opening 7-0 run was a service ace from Mulvaney. The next section of the run was a 5-0 sprint to force the first match point of the night. A kill from Djokovic opened the stanza followed by back-to-back kills from Petermann. The final two points came off an attack error and a bad set from the Lions to put the score at 24-18. Saint Leo was able to fight off one match point but a Petermann kill ended the contest at 25-19.
Florida Southern will close out the regular season this Saturday, Nov. 18 at 4 p.m. on the road at Embry-Riddle.
