SCF VB Prepares for Daytona Invitational

The SCF volleyball team (5-5) will head for their third and final invitational of the season as they travel to DME Academy in Daytona Beach for the two-day Daytona State Volleyball Invitational Friday and Saturday, September 6-7, hosted by Daytona State College. The Manatees will face Palm Beach State (2-1) and Broward College (2-0) on day one before facing Indian River State (3-1) and Daytona State (3-1) on day two.

Pensacola State (5-5), Santa Fe (3-2) and #7 Polk State (6-0) are also scheduled to compete in the invitational. SCF will not be playing Pensacola State, Santa Fe or Polk State in the invitational. Originally, Monroe College was scheduled to participate, but have dropped out.

Hurricane Dorian:
Most of the junior college's seasons in Florida were assumingly going to be affected by Hurricane Dorian, so for the safety of all the student-athletes, coaches and fans many of the volleyball matches were cancelled. Turned out Dorian did not hit Florida thanks to a jetstream of air pushing it away.

Last Time Out:
The Manatees played Broward College in a match prior to the tournament where they lost by a score of 3-1. They are still looking for their first win of the season.

Offensively, sophomore Lakeesha Esseboom leads the team with 42 kills and 10 blocks. Against Broward College, Esseboom finished with 8 kills and a block.

Following behind Esseboom is freshman Lelani Wilcox-Nanai. The New Zealander has 37 kills and 50 digs in her name. In the match against Broward, Wilcox-Nanai had a double-double of 16 kills and 10 digs.

Freshman Gracee Carpino leads the team with 128 assists and seven aces. Carpino had 27 assists and an ace while adding five digs and two kills.

Defensively, sophomore Daviya Bernard is tied for first with Esseboom with 10 blocks while adding 22 kills of her own. Meanwhile, freshman Brooke Henry had 51 digs and three aces. Freshman Lisa Jaunet is behind Esseboom and Bernard with eight blocks to go with her 14 kills. Against Broward, Bernard had four kills and two blocks, Henry had 11 digs and an ace and Jaunet had five kills and three blocks.

25 Dig Club x3+1,000:
For sophomore Sydney Jaco, she has joined the NJCAA Region 8 25 dig club for the third time this season. Jaco had 27 digs in her match against Broward and has 124 in her name currently. In addition, Jaco's 27 digs put her at 908 and now needs 92 to have 1,000 career digs.

Scouting PBSC:
The Panthers have not competed since the Santa Fe/Campus USA Classic. They were originally scheduled to compete in the Patriots Invitational, but due to  Hurricane Dorian, the invitational was cancelled.

Freshman Madison Barton leads the team with 37 kills, five aces and 18 blocks (three solo) while sophomore Aleksandra Hamuda follows with 29 kills. Sophomores Bella Magrino and Martha Torres have 20 kills each.

Defensively, Torres leads the team with 20 blocks (five solo) while classmate Madison Monahan takes over in the backrow with 45 digs.

The Manatees and Panthers met with each other in the Santa Fe/Campus USA Classic with the Panthers winning 3-2 in a nail-biter of a match. Overall, the Manatees are 7-7 against the Panthers (2012-present).

Scouting Broward:
Offensively, sophomore Raytchelle Miranda had a double-double of 16 kills and 10 digs against SCF. Currently, Miranda has 31 kills and 23 digs in her name, while classmate Mia Thomas, who had 42 assists against SCF, has 81 assists.

Defensively, freshmen Kawana Jeronimo and Yasmin Figueirdo lead the team with a combined 30 blocks while classmate Bruna Torres has 36 digs and 10 aces.

Broward holds a 2-1 lead in the overall series which includes Wednesday's loss.

Scouting Indian River:
The Pioneers opened their season at home with a 3-1 win over Florida State College at Jacksonville before splitting at the HCC Tournament with a 3-1 loss to HCC and a 3-2 over Lake Sumter before defeating South Florida State College 3-2.

Offensively, freshman Tessa Raadsheer leads the team with 51 kills, 45 digs and seven aces. In her match against SFSC, Raadsheer had a double-double of 12 kills and 17 digs while adding five aces. In fact, Raadsheer has three double-doubles so far.

Following Raadsheer is classmate Mallory Roney. Roney has 39 kills in her name. In her last match, Roney had 10 kills against SFSC.

Sophomore Jada Bivins has 88 assists in her name. She did not play against SFSC.

Defensively, sophomore Jacki Schmitz leads the team with eight blocks. Schmitz was held to no blocks but added one kill. Sophomore Valentina Beltran has 69 digs and four aces. Beltran had 18 digs against SFSC.

Both teams are tied 3-3 in the overall series.

Scouting Daytona State:
The Falcons finished their last match getting shutout by HCC.

Offensively, freshman Carla Hernandez and freshman Hallie Huth lead the team with 39 and 38 kills respectively. Against HCC, Hernandez had six kills while Huth had five kills, 13 digs and three blocks. Sophomore Bruna Avila has 128 assists in her name. Avila had 26 assists in her name against HCC.

Defensively, sophomore Alexis Thompson has 18 blocks to go with her 19 kills while classmate Nicole Rodriguez has 55 digs. Against HCC, Thompson had nine kills and six blocks while Rodriguez had 11 digs.

SCF is 2-11 against the Falcons.

How to Keep Up:
Fans can keep up to date with all four teams on Twitter:
SCF: @SCFVolleyball
Broward: @BrowardATH
IRS: @irscvb
Daytona: @DSCFalconSports
PBSC: @PBSCPanthers