LAKELAND, Fla. – The Florida Southern College beach volleyball team is set to participate in the inaugural Sunshine State Conference tournament hosted by Saint Leo University on April 11-12 in a double elimination tournament at the Saint Leo Beach Volleyball Courts. The Moccasins (18-8) are selected as the fourth seed facing the fifth seed in Eckerd (6-18) on Friday morning.
Â
2025 Inaugural SSC Beach Volleyball Tournament
Dates – April 11-12, 2024
Opponent - #5 EckerdÂ
Times – 8:30 AM
Location – Saint Leo Beach Volleyball Courts | Saint Leo, Fla.
Â
The SSC BVB tournament will be double elimination except for when the remaining team in the winner's bracket plays the advancing team of the consolation bracket one time to determine the champion. All tournament matches will take place on five courts simultaneously and will be played to a decision. Sunday, April 13th, will be utilized as a rain date if necessary.
Â
Following the tournament, SSC teams may receive an invitation to play in the
National Collegiate Beach Volleyball Tournament or the
AVCA Small College Beach Volleyball Championships. The NC event will be played May 2nd through 4th at Huntington Beach Pier in Huntington Beach, California. AVCA Small College will be held April 17th to 19th at Gulf Shores Public Beach in Gulf Shores, Alabama.
Â
Â
"I'm excited for this to be the first SSC conference tournament," stated head coach
Makena Wilson '20. "It's exciting to see the conference grow and even though we play each other throughout the season, it's awesome to now have a specific tournament where it's like anything could happen. It's double elimination, we are going to play Eckerd first, which we've played a couple of times so it's exciting to see that match-up at the end of the year as well. It'll be great to see teams like Tampa, PBA, and Saint Leo. It's great to see everybody, actually, but I think this will help us prepare to compete well at AVCA as well. This will be a good tournament to kind of wrap up the season and get us ready for the championship. It is going to be exciting after seeing some pairs mixed up to see where we could go from there, but the girls are ready to compete and it's exciting to see that."
Â
Â
Fourth - Seed Florida Southern Moccasins
The Moccasins will participate in the inaugural SSC postseason tournament entering the tournament as the fourth seed and an 18-8 overall record. FSC will potentially face all but one team that they faced during the regular season as the top-seed University of Tampa never faced FSC. Highlights from this year included a 7-0 run during the middle of the season. The Mocs went 4-4 against Sunshine State Conference opponents and are currently on a three-match win streak against Eckerd defeating the Tritons in both meetings this season, the first one on March 5 winning 4-1 and then March 15 winning 3-2. Florida Southern hosted 12 events at the Judy and Joe P. Ruthven Beach Volleyball Courts this season to go 9-3 at home with wins over Warner and Polk State College in the season opener, and Ave Maria, St. Johns River, Barry, State College of Florida, two wins against Stevenson, and Lake Sumter on senior day.Â
Â
Florida Southern has moved pairings around all season but the most consistent is the top flight of
Ashli McKenny and
Emma Winford. The duo owns a 16-10 record all at the #1 flight. With an 18-6 overall record,
Isabella Muti and
Zoe Lowe are on a six-game winning streak splitting time at courts three through five. Also, on a six-game winning streak are
Hailey Carefoot and
Reagan Carlton earning a 15-7 record for the season also splitting time between courts two through four.Â
Â
Projected Lineup
- Emma Winford / Ashli McKenny
- Sydney Melcher / Nicole Eden
- Zoe Lowe / Reagan Carlton
- Isabella Muti / Hailey CarefootÂ
- Hayley St. Martin / Mary Olivia Muti
The SSC announced the addition of beach volleyball on December 13th, 2023, and the inaugural season kicked off on February 1st, 2025. Beach volleyball will be the first league sport to award a maiden title since women's lacrosse in 2015.
Â
Â
Â
Â
