Strong Third Set Not Enough for SCF Volleyball on Sophomore Night

The SCF volleyball team (2-20) closed their final home match with a loss as they fell 3-1 (21-25, 26-28, 25-21, 19-25) to Monroe College (18-8).

"I thought we played a really good game for the last time playing on this court," said sophomore Daviya Bernard. "I feel like everyone including the freshman and sophomores gave everything, their heart and grit. It was a really good game despite a hard loss, but overall I'm really proud on how we played."

"It was a great match and we all enjoyed it," said sophomore Barbora Tichackova. "We went out with everything. I don't feel like we lost because we played with our hearts and that's the most important thing and we enjoyed it."

Prior to the match, the Manatees recognized six sophomores on the team: Sydney Jaco, Hannah Strickland, Emily Sauceda, Lakeesha Esseboom, Bernard and Tichackova. Esseboom was not in attendance due to a concussion. After the recognition of the sophomores, I was announced to do the national anthem for them, which everyone loved and the fact that I was the "Fan Favorite" to do so.

Offensively, it was freshman Leilani Wilcox-Nanai that the led the Manatees as she finished with a double-double of 12 kills and 17 digs. Wilcox-Nanai added an ace and a block.

Following Wilcox-Nanai was freshman Bailey Sikkema as she finished with nine kills and two digs, while classmates Lisa Jaunet and Jazmin Spencer added seven kills each. Jaunet added two aces, 10 digs and a block, while Spencer added four digs and a block.

Freshman Gracee Carpino finished with 22 assists to go along with her eight digs, while Strickland followed with 18 assists, and two digs.

Defensively, Jaco finished her last home match with 25 digs to go with her lone kill, two aces and two assists, while Tichackova added three blocks (one solo) to go with her three kills and six digs while Bernard finished with two solo blocks to go with her five kills and two digs. Freshman Brooke Henry added six digs.

"I started off kind of shaky," said Bernard. "My coaches were telling me 'press, press, press' and I was like 'ok, I got to press press' and then I started pressing, got a few blocks in a row and a few kills and I was really proud of that it really fueled me as I started getting kills and just fueled off my teammates' energy."

"I think I did pretty good," said Tichackova on her performance. "There were a few things that weren't working, but there were also some that did work. I'm pretty satisfied that we worked together."

Sophomore Julia La Longa led the Mustangs with 13 kills, two blocks and two digs while classmate Chiara Mottola followed with 10 kills and six blocks (two solo) and freshman Melanie Orsini had 26 digs and an ace. The freshmen duo of  Yarianne Gonzalez and Alondra Garcia had a combined 52 assists.

Heading into the first set, the Manatees earned the first point from Carpino and continued to hold on to the lead after an ace and a kill by Wilcox-Nanai and a kill by Spencer to make it 4-2 SCF, but soon Monroe scored six straight points before SCF called timeout.

Down 10-5, the Manatees continued to fight and were able to cut the Mustangs' lead to one before the Mustangs scored four straight points for a 16-12 lead. The Manatees then cut the lead to two before the Mustangs scored four straight again, but then scored four straight points of their own before cutting the Mustangs' lead to one again. The Manatees continued to fight before losing the first set.

The second set proved to have the Manatees' fight in them as they took a 6-3 lead before the Mustangs cut the deficit and eventually took a 10-7 lead but the Manatees managed to regain the lead with six straight points from Sikkema and Spencer along with four Monroe attack errors before a Monroe timeout with the score 17-13 SCF.

The Manatees continued to hold on to a 20-16 lead, but six straight Mustangs point gave them a 22-20 lead, but both teams traded back and forth in ties before the Mustangs took the second set.

In the third set, the Mustangs and Manatees took swats at each other for the lead with the Manatees leading by as much as five points. A kill by Spencer gave the Manatees the third set.

The fourth set got the Mustangs the mojo they needed as they pulled away with a six-point lead for the win.

This was the last home match for the Manatees and for Jaco, Strickland, Esseboom, Bernard and Tichackova. Sauceda still has one year of eligibility remaining after redshirting for the entire season due to injury.

"I feel like the whole season we were really fighting ourselves and we were up and down like a roller coaster," said Bernard on her last home match. "But I feel like going into the next year, the freshman are going to be set. They know how to work with each other, know how to talk and know what it takes to fight and win these battles. I feel like we're going to be really good next year and I'm really proud of these girls."

"The freshman prepared it for us," said Tichackova on her last home match. "They did all these cute decorations and the atmosphere was great. It was really nice for our last match."

Up Next:
The Manatees' season is not quite over yet as they will travel to Daytona Beach to take on Daytona State (13-8) Tuesday night, October 22 at 6 pm.