“Tonight, we saw who we really are,” said head coach Lynn Burnett. “We saw glimpses of who we really are at the times of conference, when we would take the top teams in the nation and to the high 20s, so it has been a delicate, challenging process of finding the right chemistry, the right mix, the right time and right place and them taking everything they have learned in practice and bringing it to the court, while having confidence in themselves to bring it to the court and that's what we saw tonight.”
"Was this match perfect? No. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely yes. Overall, this was the foundation and piece that we needed for."
“I felt like this game, as a team, we all came together,” said sophomore Adelene Jideofor. “We were disciplined and we executed when we needed to. When we came in, we didn't start the set down, we came in strong and played the game we all knew how to play and the team that beat FSW, and took a set from them, came back and beat this team (Santa Fe) and we're going to make to states this year.”
“This match was amazing for us to get a 3-0 win,” said redshirt freshman Lison Stoffel. “We were ready for them compared to the last few weeks. We worked really hard on our team bonding and chemistry and I think we found the right thing to do on the court. It was just so amazing with so much energy.”
“I'm very proud of us,” said sophomore Giulia Rodrigues. “For me, I feel like we well deserved this win and I know that for myself, I really needed this as a player, mentally and physically. I'm very proud that we could get this win, finished through and pushed to end point-by-point instead of waiting until playing catch-up. We fought to the end and I'm glad we got a dub today.”
Prior to the match, the start time was originally suppose to be at 6 pm, but Santa Fe was running late due to I-75 being shutdown from an accident, so the match was pushed to 6:15 pm.
In the first set, the Manatees started with a 6-4 lead before the set was tied at 11 apiece. After a few adjustments, the Manatees went on a 3-0 run before taking the first set.
In the second set, while it was tied at four apiece, the Manatees then went on a 5-0 run before taking a 13-7 lead and eventually the set from a Stoffel ace.
In the third and final set, the Manatees got off to a slow start by being down 9-4, but after a 7-1 run, the Manatees tied it at 10 apiece before the Lady Saints called a timeout. After the Lady Saints took a 16-12 lead, the Manatees continued to fight and eventually took the set to seal the win.
It was freshman Anllel Caballero Fernandez that lead the Manatees offense as she finished with 13 kills, four digs and two blocks. Classmate Lana Sandanom and sophomore Jazmin Spencer followed with seven kills each. Sandanom added three digs, while Jazmin Spencer, despite being three kills shy of a double-double, had one of her best defensive games as she added a career-high 12 digs, two aces and two blocks.
Stoffel earned her first double-double with the Manatees as she finished with 13 assists and 11 digs to go along with two aces, while sophomore Kaylee Forman was two digs shy of a double-double as she finished with 11 assists, eight digs and an ace.
"I think I did pretty good out there," said Stoffel on her game. "I did make a couple of mistakes with my hands, but overall I'm pretty happy with my game."
"Lison found her hitters incredibly well," said Burnett on Stoffel.
Defensively, along with Spencer's 12 digs, it was Jideofor and Rodrigues that lead the way. Jideofor had five blocks (one solo) to go with four kills, one assist, two aces and two digs.
"I felt like I did my job and I felt like it was encouraging to keep my team in check and to make sure we were doing our job together as a whole," said Jideofor on her game.
Meanwhile, Rodrigues, who was one dig and three assists shy of a double-double, had nine digs, seven assists and one ace.
"We played with a few different defensive systems and we continued to push her to be a really strong leader on the court and tonight it came out," said Burnett on Rodrigues. "The one that we needed to have finally gelled and everybody was where they needed to be, so I'm super proud of Giulia for her effort tonight."
Sophomores Kaysha Kahai-Enos (one kill and two blocks), Jennifer Rivera (one ace) and Faith Blaise (three kills and one block) and freshman Shelby McGee (two digs) also contributed in the game.
Notes:
For Stoffel, it was her first collegiate win in her career after transferring from Independence Community College where they went 0-21.
For Jideofor, she was recently named the FCSAA Defensive Player of the Week.
"It's a blessing," said Jideofor on the accolade. "I definitely prayed that I would get this and said that one day I would get this and I am so grateful to earn that accolade."
"Winning defensive player of the week is an extremely rare feat for a middle blocker when it's usually the defensive specialists, but Adelene's energy, leadership, tenacity and grit challenges her every play," said Burnett on Jideofor winning FCSAA DPOW. "She truly is a defensive monster when she's at the net. She does not get down if there's a mistake, she goes right back in there and goes after it again. You may get a couple of violation calls, but she doesn't back off, instead she stays aggressive. She earned it this week and universities should be looking at her for that. She's a game-changer."
Up Next:
The Manatees are back on the road as they travel to Melbourne to take on Eastern Florida State (4-11, 2-9 Suncoast) Saturday afternoon, October 9 at 3 pm
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