#17 Lynn Downs Mocs at Home

LAKELAND, Fla. – The Florida Southern College volleyball team welcomed in 17^th-ranked Lynn University which was coming off just its third loss of the season the night before. The Moccasins came out strong and held a commanding lead in the opening set before the Fighting Knights stormed back to take the period along with the next two for a 3-0 sweep.
 
The loss drops Florida Southern's record to 12-10 overall and 6-8 in Sunshine State Conference play while Lynn improves to 22-3 on the year and 12-3 in league action.
 
Senior Sandra Sasaki once again led the Moccasin offensive effort with 11 kills along with six digs and a block. Sasaki was the lone Moccasin in double-figures as seniors Kiersten Kraus and Madison Fowler each finished with six kills in the loss to sit second in the team. Kraus added two assists, a block and a dig while Fowler shared the team lead in blocks with four. Fowler also had an excellent hitting night as she picked up her six kills on just nine swings with one error for a .556 hitting percentage.
 
Freshman Lindsay Piktel came off the bench to play the final two sets and earned four kills on just seven swings without an error for a team-best .571 hitting percentage. Sophomore setter Mary Kate Mulvaney dished out a team-high 14 assists while also earning two service aces. Mulvaney also picked up eight digs on the defensive side. Freshman setter Mallory Baruch handed out 10 assists, just one shy of her career-high. Graduate student libero Caroline Chambers dug up 13 balls to finish second on the team behind classmate Mackenzie Petermann who posted 14.
 
Junior Morgan Word had a strong night at the service line with a team-best five service aces while also sharing the team lead in blocks with four including a team-best two solo stops.
 
The Fighting Knights were paced by Samantha Wolf who finished with 16 kills in the victory.
 
FSC hit just .119 in the match while the Fighting Knights posted a .238 hitting percentage for the afternoon. FSC edged Lynn in service aces (9-8) and blocks (8-6) while the Fighting Knights held the edge in digs (49-48).
 
Florida Southern came out strong in the opening set eventually building up a 20-11 lead before the Fighting Knights began to crawl their way back into the match. Lynn went on a 9-1 run to cut the lead to just 21-20. Petermann stopped the bleeding with a kill to put the Mocs up 22-20 but Lynn was not stopping as the Fighting Knights scored four-straight to earn the first set point of the night at 24-22. A kill by Fowler followed by a block from Fowler and Petermann tied the set at 24-24 before Lynn forced another set point at 25-24 on a kill from Wolf. Fowler answered with a kill of her own but a Lynn kill followed by a FSC attack error gave Lynn the opening set, 27-25.
 
The Mocs jumped out early in set two as well, finding themselves ahead 10-5 after the opening 15 points. Lynn once again responded and used a 10-0 run to flip the advantage to the Fighting Knights at 15-10. The two teams traded points down the stretch but the Mocs could never get closer than three points as the Fighting Knights went on to win 25-18.
 
The third and final set opened with a 14-4 run by the Fighting Knights and they never looked back. The closest the Mocs would get would be three points as the Fighting Knights hung on for a 25-19 victory.
 
FSC will now hit the road for its final three road matches of the regular season. The Mocs play at nationally-ranked Tampa on Tuesday, Nov. 12 before traveling to Saint Leo Wednesday, Nov. 13 in a make-up match from earlier hurricane cancelations. The final road match of the year will be at Barry on Saturday, Nov. 16 at 4 p.m.  
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