FSW’s Mission: Defend National Volleyball Championship

The FSW volleyball team is gearing up for the NJCAA Division I National Tournament.

That’s the long way of saying they’re getting ready to defend their national title.

Sophomore middle blocker Isabella Collier said the formula to repeat is simple.

“We don’t have to worry about what’s going on on the other side of the net,” Collier said. “We just focus on us to do what we need to do, what we’re supposed to do, and everything works out as it should.”

The 27-1 Buccaneers are the odds-on favorite, but top seeds get beat all the time.

Sophomore setter Roberta Purashaj said the Bucs know they’ll get everyone’s best and they’ll be ready.

“The difference is the energy that we put and we have on the court that maybe the other teams that lost don’t have,” Purashaj said.

This is the fourth straight national tournament appearance for the program, which is only five years old.

Head coach Thais Baziquetto Allen believes the key to success year in and year out is getting everyone involved.

“It takes the whole team,” Baziquetto Allen said. “We talked about it over and over again this year. It’s going to take everybody for us to win. At some point, someone’s going to have to step up at some point in the season and win a match for us or make a difference for us coming off the bench or as a starter. It doesn’t matter.”

The top-seeded Bucs will find out who they’ll play first when the bracket is revealed on Thursday.

Then, they have about a week to prepare to defend their crown at the tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas.