DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - In Sunday's highly anticipated matchup between two teams battling for MEAC Southern Division position, the Florida A&M Lady Rattlers played a dominant match, defeating Bethune-Cookman to maintain their undefeated conference record. FAMU dropped B-CU in three sets, winning by scores of 25-23, 25-14, and 25-15.
The LadyCats opened the match highly motivated and focused, setting the tone for a shootout with the highly-talented Lady Rattlers. The first set featured 13 tied scores and seven lead changes, as B-CU led several times with its largest lead at three, on top 17-14. Coming out of a timeout, FAMU rallied and shortly claimed the lead and held off B-CU to take the win, 25-23.
In the second set, it was a whole different story and looked like a totally different match on the court, as FAMU started to accumulate a lead early in the match. FAMU got solid attacks for kills and took advantage of errors on B-CU's part. FAMU went on to win by its largest lead of the match, claiming victory by a score of 25-14.
In the third set, FAMU continued to roll past the LadyCats, breaking out of the early deadlock and pushing away from B-CU. Florida A&M displayed why they are the win leader in the MEAC Southern Division, running away from B-CU and doubling up scores on the LadyCats, leading to a victory of 25-15.
"We've talked about bringing up the energy, making sure that we were positive, and shake off any of the errors that we make," said Head Coach Vanessa Cogswell of the team's mindset and making adjustments in times of adversity. "No one is going to play solid, perfect volleyball out there, but you need to go out and focus on the good things happening on the floor. That positive energy is very important."
Continuing her outstanding season, Jovana Blazeski hit .513, collecting 24 kills in the match, while also chipping in on defense with 8 digs. Defensively, FAMU's libero, Susan Egoavil led the team with 9 digs in the match. As a team, Florida A&M only committed 11 team errors in the match, while also notching 45 team kills and hitting .386 as a team.
Although the LadyCats were able to spread around the offense, which has brought them great success as of late, they were limited by FAMU in kills. Leading B-CU offensively, Jessica Wilson finished with 8 kills, also 5 digs. Behind Wilson, three players finished with 4 digs apiece, Julie Gibson, and Julie Gibson collected 11.
The LadyCats (10-14, 4-3 MEAC) continue their home stand next week to close out the season, as Stetson (1-25) travels to Moore Gymnasium for the 2009 rematch. The match begins on Nov. 11 at 6:30 pm in Daytona Beach.
"We'll definitely be viewing the footage from when we faced Stetson last," noted Cogswell of the upcoming matchup, "making sure that we adjust to certain hitters; we need to just be all-around disciplined in our execution of our hitting and passing so that we can make that win happen."
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