Volleyball team opens regular season Friday at FSW tournament
The Eastern Florida State College women's volleyball team will open the regular season Friday with a pair of nationally-ranked matches at the FSW Battle at the Beach Tournament
The Eastern Florida State College women's volleyball team will open the regular season at the FSW Battle at the Beach Tournament Aug. 23-24.
The Titans come into the tournament ranked 19th in the NJCAA Division I preseason poll and have been nationally ranked for 11 straight weeks. They will be one of six nationally-ranked teams in the tournament.
Eastern Florida State College will play No. 5 Trinity Valley in one of the first matches of the day on Friday. Trinity Valley finished fourth at the national tournament last season and had 32 wins. The Cards have an experienced group returning led by Genesis Rodriguez and middle Emma Bednarek.
The match will begin at 10 a.m.
The Titans will be back on the court at 3 p.m. against No. 11 Utah State-Eastern. USU-Eastern reached 20 wins for the fifth straight season in 2023 and, like the Titans, have a lot of new faces this season.
"We have some young girls, but everyone had to sacrifice something to be here, regardless of how old they are or how many years they have been playing, they all gave up something to be a part of this team," sophomore outside hitter Dominae Jordan said. "It was definitely a tough preseason, but you have to go through tough things to get to great outcomes and one of the best things is when you go through those things with your teammates you come out more connected."
On Saturday the Titans will take the court at 11:30 a.m. in another nationally-ranked matchup, facing No. 4 Salt Lake Community College. The Bruins finished sixth at the national tournament last season and have two big hitters in Fuka Kikuchi and Logan Lindsey.
Eastern Florida State College will wrap up the tournament at 4:30 p.m. against Missouri State-West Plains who return their top two hitters from last season. Gibson Beckler and Maja Bochenek were first and second on the team in kills last season and will look to lead the team.
The Titans are coming off a 14-win season last year and will be led by sophomores Dominae Jordan, Libby Ashline, Sarah Henault and Mariana Bueno Lopes all returning.
Fans can watch all of the matches live at fswbucs.com/FSWBucslive