FAMU Volleyball wins 9th Straight MEAC Championship

MEAC Player of the Year, Jovanna Blazeski leads Florida A&M Lady Rattlers to 9th consecutive MEAC Championship and 2009 NCAA Tournament.

FAMU claims ninth straight MEAC volleyball title

Jovanna Blazeski pounded out 16 kills and Jessica Bond dished out 41 assists to help Florida A&M defeat Maryland-Eastern Shore in four sets for the MEAC volleyball title at Coppin Center in Baltimore Sunday. The Rattlers (17-8) won 25-17, 25-23, 20-25, 25-23 to claim its ninth consecutive championship. Maria Gomez had 15 kills for FAMU and Susan Egoavil scooped up 16 digs, one of four players in double figures in digs for the Rattlers. As a team, FAMU edged the Lady Hawks 61-56 in digs.

FLORIDA A&M DEFEATS UMES IN MEAC TITLE GAME, 3-1

Box Score

BALTIMORE, Md. - Sophomore Christine Edwards (Lakewood, Calif.) posted 21 kills and senior Whitney Johnson (Prince Frederick, Md.) had 13 but the University of Maryland Eastern Shore volleyball team fell in the MEAC championship game to Florida A&M, 3-1 (17-25, 23-25, 25-20, 23-25), for the third consecutive season Sunday at the Coppin Center. The loss for UMES snapped a 15 match winning streak and ended the Hawks' season at 24-7 while giving Florida A&M (17-8) its ninth consecutive MEAC title and the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Senior Caylin Woodward (Garden Grove, Calif.), one of three Hawks playing their final match for UMES, chipped in with nine kills and team highs of 15 digs and a .304 hitting percentage. She also had four block assists and two assists. Freshman Bella Jade Romero (Arlington, Texas) tallied a double-double for the Hawks with 48 assists and 10 digs. Redshirt junior Samantha Chukwura (Brooklyn, N.Y.) contributed eight kills, a match-best six block assists and three digs.

Both Jovana Blazeski (16) and Maria Gomez (15) finished with double-digit kills for the Lady Rattlers, who registered a .208 team hitting efficiency to .233 for UMES. UMES held a slight advantage in kills, 54-52, and the teams each had 9.0 blocks. The Lady Rattlers had 61 digs, five more than the Hawks, and also led in service aces, 5-2. The match featured 38 ties and 16 lead changes.

Down, 6-5, in the first game, Chukwura and Edwards combined to block Pamela Barrera's attack to knot the game at 6. UMES tallied only one of the next points and called a timeout to try and shift momentum. The Hawks went on a 5-1 run to cut the FAMU advantage to three at 15-12 but that was as close as they got in the game as the Rattlers pulled away. Blazeski had a pair of kills in a 4-0 run to extend the lead to 19-12 and the Rattlers won the game with the help of a sophomore Zoe Bowens (Long Beach, Calif.) service error, one of 19 on the day.

The second game opened with a block from Romero and senior Thonya Joseph (Bridgetown, Barbados) and the Hawks led by as many as two on three occasions, the third time at 16-14 on a Edwards kill but Florida A&M to tie things at 16 on a Gomez kill and then take the lead for good on a block by Barrera and Maria Ceccarelli. The Hawks got back to with 24-23 on a Blazeski error forcing a FAMU timeout but the Lady Rattlers regrouped to close the door with another Barrera kill.

The Hawks won the third game, taking nine of the final 13 points to get on the board and make it 2-1. Three Hawks contributed kills in the run, including two from Woodward. Florida A&M had an 8-3 lead in the final game before UMES called timeout. The Hawks battled back to 13-all, getting the tying point off a Gomez service error. The game saw four more ties, the last at 20-all, before The Rattlers took the match on a Woodward error.

Barrera finished with nine kills and a match-high .389 hitting percentage. Jessica Bond had a double-double of 41 assists and 10 digs. Blazeski and Gomez also threw in 13 and 12 digs, respectively, for a double-doubles of their own. Susan Egoavil led all players with 16 digs.

by UMES Sports Information

FAMU's Blazeski MEAC's top player

Florida A&M University junior Jovana Blazeski was named the 2009 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Player of the Year. Blazeski leads the conference and is ranked 10th in the nation in kills per set (4.61). The outside hitter guided her team to an 8-0 record in conference play and 14-8 mark overall. She totaled 364 kills in 79 sets played during the regular season along with 3.04 digs and 5.05 points per set. In addition, Blazeski tallied 10 double-doubles along with six 20-plus kill performances this season.

Joining Blazeski on the All-MEAC first team are teammates Jessica Bond and Susan Egoavil.

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Winning resolutions for black college sports

by Herb White, Black Voices

Excerpt:
It's a new year, and many of us will resolve to do something differently. Why shouldn't black college sports? Here are a few that just beg for attention.

Develop platinum programs.
The best programs bring good athletes to campus, coach them up and put resources behind the product. That takes commitment and money for the long haul, something too many administrators and fans fail to understand. S.C. State football is an example of how to do it right. The Bulldogs win consistently, including the 2008 MEAC title with a competitive effort in the first round of the Division I playoffs. Grambling is on the same level if the Tigers could actually get into the playoffs, which the SWAC championship game prevents. Among non-revenue sports, St. Augustine's track is a national program that can hold its own on an international stage. Coach George Williams has produced a string of all-Americans and Olympians, proof that the program is top of the line.

Better support.
HBCU fans may love their team, but something's not right when half the crowd at a football team goes missing after the bands do their thing at halftime. Is the music really that much better than the game itself? If so, then perhaps the on-field product is in need of an overhaul. Basketball seems to be an afterthought on many campuses, where good seats can be found from tip-off to the final horn.

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FAMU's Coach Tony Trifonov has succeeded in leading FAMU to the top of the heap nationally in women's volleyball despite inadequate funding, incompetent athletic department support, seven less scholarship players, no recruiting budget, and attempts by ineffectual school administrators to destroy international recruiting pipelines for this valuable, inclusive program.

Herb White hits the nail squarely with this timely blog, especially in his comments regarding basketball and non-revenue sports. I can understand 1,000 fans not showing up for an NCAA Division I national championship bowling match at a local bowling alley (2008 NCAA Division I National Champions - University of Maryland Eastern Shore), but how do you explain only 100 fans or less consistently showing up at Florida A&M's Gaither Gym to support the Volleyball team? FAMU's volleyball program (until 10/18/08) had won 98 consecutive conference games over 10 seasons, eight straight MEAC conference championships and eight consecutive appearances in the NCAA Division I Championship Tournament.

The conference games win streak would probably be alive today, if the team had greater than EIGHT student/athletes in 2008. Division I volleyball is played with a SIX player team each -- i.e., the eight players on FAMU's roster made the Rattlers the smallest team in the NCAA Division I 64-team national championship tournament. How can the Lady Rattlers and other HBCUs truly compete at the Division I level with SEVEN less scholarship players than the other major conference opponents? How does FAMU compete successfully in the MEAC with FOUR less scholarship players than their own conference opponents? How does FAMU practice or scrimmage for an opponent with six starters and possibly two subs (if there are no injuries) for a 27 game season?

Although the deck is consistently stacked against Coach Trifonov, he has succeeded with his ability to select high quality new players from film and referral, which are typical of his teams in the past in that they’re very mature and have a lot of international experience. The Lady Rattlers come with a ton of game necessary to run with Florida, Florida State, Clemson, Michigan State, Long Beach State or Nebraska which have dominated the Rattlers out of conference schedule in guaranteed payment road games, necessary to keep the program afloat.

More importantly, the Lady Rattlers have been ranked nationally in the NCAA Top 25 Division I polls over the past few seasons, which brings increased positive notoriety to Florida A&M.

Do you think the 12,000+ FAMU student body and administration is punch drunk with the exceptional success of the underfunded and under supported Lady Rattlers volleyball team, so much so, that they believe the program can operate with neither adequate funding, less scholarships and little, if any, fan support?

No doubt, non-revenue programs need fan/student support and sufficient funding, too. It is a disservice to the student-athletes when HBCU administrations breach their commitment to the athletic program with disingenuous management of the university resources and facilities. The business community will never support athletic programs that are run into the ground with little support by the university stakeholders and fans.

FAMU sets a great example of how poorly managed athletic departments at HBCUs can totally destroy an existing championship program by cutting back funding to the point the program cannot possibly succeed on a regional or national level. Athletic administrators and fans should not expect to win NCAA Division I national championships on a budget less suitable for a intramural athletic program. After 30 years of trying, HBCUs -- especially Division I classified programs -- should know the outcome and set their sights on developing platinum programs as Mr. White describes.

Believe it or not, bloggers are tired of writing about the everyday occurrence with HBCUs that hit the road for a beat down--and a paycheck, that are routed, pounded, steamrolled, smashed, over-matched and blasted unmercifully in athletic competition by non-HBCU programs that didn't even field a sports team 25-30 years ago. And all HBCUs do in response is send their bands to shake their booty and entertain the opposition drunken fans as our sport teams, fans are embarrassed time and again by our lack of competitive capability. If money is so much in short supply--the bands should stay on campus as marching and pep band is not a collegiate sport.

A change is overdue!

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UF Gators Volleyball rolls FAMU Rattlers in NCAA first round

Friday night at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center had the feeling of a battle of the bands, when all of a sudden a good volleyball match broke out. UF defended its home court in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, knocking out Florida A&M 25-20, 25-21, 25-15. The Gators hit a gaudy .451, led by freshman Cassandra Anderson’s 10 kills on 11 swings. The team percentage was the best ever by a Gator squad in an NCAA match. “As a team, I feel like we passed well,” Anderson said. “Connecting with the setters helped a lot to get kills around the block. As a team, we brought it all together.”

FAMU kept things competitive on the court and off, with members of its Marching 100 band drawing cheers from the 1,550 fans in attendance during timeouts. The roars at times rivaled the sound during the game. Both bands stuck around 30 minutes after the match, volleying turns to work the crowd up. The Gators (26-3) got a scare early in the match, trailing 3-0 to start the first set and battling all the way through an 18-all tie. Despite 11 ties and three lead changes, Florida closed the set out by scoring seven of the final nine points.

The Rattlers (14-13) got six kills in the set from Samara Ferraz, who finished with a match-high 15 (.290 hitting).

Photo Gallery
Boxscore
Pre-Game Notes
Post-Game Notes

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