FAMU good enough for victory

By Heath A. Smith, DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

When it comes to conference play Florida A&M women's volleyball coach Tony Trifonov is not just looking for his team to win. With 91 consecutive MEAC victories heading into Wednesday's game against rival Bethune-Cookman, winning is not always good enough.

The Rattlers cruised to a 30-24, 30-14, 30-18 victory in their conference-opener, improving to 3-5 on the season. The game was aired on ESPNU in front of a crowd of almost 600 people at Gaither Gymnasium.

“We didn't play as well as I wanted them to play, but not many of my teams have played up to my expectations,” Trifonov said. “We played good enough to win. The kids were probably a little bit nervous about being on TV.”

The Rattlers just had too much offensive firepower for the Bethune-Cookman (2-6, 0-1). The duo of freshman Jovana Blazeski and senior Iva Lakic, both from Serbia, combined for 32 total kills.

Bethune-Cookman had 34 total kills. FAMU had 50 total kills and just 14 errors compared to 22 for Bethune-Cookman.

“We committed a lot of unforced errors,” Trifonov said. “We'll work on that and get better. We need to be a little bit more aggressive offensively. We don't have that killer instinct. We're not hitting the ball as hard.”

FAMU, behind four kills from Lakic, won the first game 30-24 but never really pulled away from the Wildcats.

Photo: FAMU's Jovana Blazeski earns one of her 15 kills in the Rattlers' sweep over Bethune-Cookman.

FAMU won the second game in more convincing fashion 30-14. Blazeski, who is playing with a torn ACL in her left knee, dominated that game with eight kills and just one error. Blazeski isn't expected to have surgery to repair the ACL until December.

“Her mobility is not all there,” Trifonov said. “She is playing with a lot of guts.” As if playing with a blown knee wasn't tough enough, Blazeski also took ball to the face in the second game.

“Volleyball can be physical, especially when someone hits you in the head,” said Lakic, interpreting for Blazeski. “She got hit in the head, but she is powerful and can survive” Lakic topped the freshman in the third and final games with nine kills, leading FAMU to 30-18 win.

“I didn't think that I played very good in this game,” Lakic said. “I saw that I had 17 kills and that was good. Coach wants us to get our percentages better individually and as a team."