FORT LAUDERDALE – Facing a highly touted and nationally ranked team on Friday night, the Nova Southeastern University volleyball team (15-9, 6-5 SSC) picked up a huge 3-2 Sunshine State Conference win over No. 17 Florida Southern (17-6, 5-6 SSC) at the NSU Arena at the Don Taft University Center. With tears in their eyes in celebratory fashion, the Sharks enjoyed the five-set win by set scores of 25-17, 21-25, 25-22, 15-25, 16-14.   
 
"This is definitely a program win because it's been so long since we've been this caliber of a team," said head coach Jenn King. "But it is more than that. To be playing so well at the right time of the year and see the reactions on our three seniors' faces; it's just an indescribable feeling. That's the biggest thing for me. This just instills that much more confidence in us as a team and what we are capable of doing."
 
In the first meeting between the two teams this season, NSU faced off with an undefeated Moccasin team at that time on the road and fell in three straight sets. But that blow came without the presence of senior outside hitter Sydney Cook (Miami, Fla.) who missed 10 matches in the middle of the Sharks' schedule. However, four matches after her return she came up big in Friday's win with back-to-back service aces in the fifth set to close out an emotionally charged victory over nationally ranked FSC that has left the team booming with confidence.
 
Dana Holger (Sr., Lino Lakes, Minn.) once again led the Sharks with 19 kills on the night, while freshman outside hitter Denvyr Tyler-Palmer added 18 kills of her own. The big statistical difference on Friday for NSU was Megan Burns (Fr., Sylvania, Ohio) who became the first defensive player this season for the Sharks to eclipse the 30-dig mark finishing with a career and match-high 31 on the night.
 
Katie Pyles (Jr., Denver, Colo.) added her 10^th double-double performance this season finishing with 52 assists and 16 digs, while Cook and Kaelyn Brock (So., La Quinta, Calif.) added 11 and 10 digs respectively.   

The Sharks opened the match fully energized and jumped out to an early 7-2 lead forcing Florida Southern to take its first timeout of the match. Coming out of the early break, NSU continued to build on their early lead outscoring FSC 18-15 to close out the first set with a 25-17 win and took a 1-0 lead in the match. In the second set, both teams fought off 11 ties in the early portion of the frame, but the Moccasins then took a 14-13 lead over NSU and never trailed again as they evened the match at one set apiece with a 25-21 set two win.
 
The third set was nearly a duplicate of the second, but this time it was in NSU's favor as the Sharks took an 8-7 lead and never trailed again taking the third set 25-22. In the fourth, it was all Florida Southern as they dominated the Sharks 25-15 to even the score at two sets and sent that match in to a final decisive set five.

As the Sharks have done all season, they once again battled their way to a fifth set win for the seventh time this season to remain unbeaten in five-set matches. Trailing 8-5 when the teams switched sides, the Sharks began to claw their way back into the match. Florida Southern had NSU on the rails at match point 14-11, but after their final timeout, NSU scored the last five points to win 16-14. Cook's back-to-back service aces sealed the deal as the Sharks grabbed the 3-2 conference victory.
 
NSU will be looking to carry that confidence and momentum in to Saturday's match against Florida Tech at 4 p.m. Earlier this season, NSU faced the Panthers in Melbourne and came away with a 3-2 win.