Moccasins Take Key Region Battle Over West Florida in Five

VALDOSTA, Ga. – The Florida Southern College volleyball team traveled to Valdosta, Ga. Friday for the first of two matches against South Region foes. The first Moccasin opponent was perennial top-25 team. The University of West Florida. The Argonauts, who just recently dropped out of the top-25, could not outlast the Mocs as FSC took home a 3-2 victory.
 
The Moccasins are now 5-2 on the season while the Argonauts fell to 5-4.
 
Senior Zoe Lowe led the Moccasin attack as she had a team-best 16 kills on just 26 swings for a .462 hitting percentage. She also added three solo blocks and a pair of digs. Senior setter Kiersten Kraus nearly picked up her first triple-double of the season with 14 kills, 22 assists, seven digs, three blocks and a pair of service aces. Graduate student Sandra Sasaki picked up 13 kills and eight digs in the victory while graduate student Mackenzie Petermann rounded out the double-digit hitters with 10 kills and 12 digs.
 
Graduate student libero Caroline Chambers led the backline with 20 digs while sophomore setter Mary Kate Mulvaney came in right behind with 18 digs and 33 assists. Senior Madison Fowler led the blocking effort with four total stops including three solo.
 
The Mocs out-hit the Argonauts .211 to .166 including holding UWF in the negatives in the fifth and deciding set. FSC also won the blocks (12-8), digs (73-72) and kills (66-60) categories as well.
 
The opening set of the match, the Mocs took an early 3-1 lead but the Argonauts responded and quickly knotted up the set at 7-7. Just four points later at 9-9, the Argos began an 8-1 run to open up a 17-10 lead. A couple points later, FSC began a 6-1 run of its own to cut the deficit to just two at 19-17. That would be the closest the Mocs would get to the Argos down the stretch as UWF went on to take the opening set 25-20.
 
The second set was tight early but UWF took a slight lead late, 20-16. The Mocs responded with a 7-2 run to take their own 23-22 advantage. Following a timeout, the Argos scored two quick points to force the first set point of the second stanza, 24-23. Head Coach Ashlee Crowder called a timeout and following the break, Lowe was able to get a kill and tie the set at 24-24. UWF forced another set point at 25-24, but another Lowe kill ended the threat. Mulvaney then delivered an ace to give the Mocs their first set point of the day at 26-25. The final point came from the middle and Fowler as she closed out the set 27-25.
 
The Argonauts nearly led from start to finish in the third set as the Mocs could never get the upper hand. UWF went on to secure a 25-19 third set victory. The Mocs opened up the fourth set with a quick 3-0 run and led early before UWF tied the set at 10-10. The tying swing was in the midst of a 9-1 run which gave UWF a 15-11 lead. Back-to-back blocks by the Mocs ended the run and began a 9-2 spurt by FSC to retake the lead at 20-17. The Argonauts cut the lead to 20-19 but the Mocs would not relinquish the advantage as they fought for a 25-22 victory to even up the match.
 
The Mocs came out firing in the fifth set taking an 8-3 lead at the switch. FSC continued to cruise on the other side of the net, scoring two of the first three points to force UWF to take its final timeout, 10-4. The Argos scored three of the next four points out of the timeout before the Mocs began a 4-0 run to close out the set and match, 15-7.
 
FSC will be back in action tomorrow night at 6 p.m. against the host Valdosta State for the final non-conference match of the season. Read Full Article