MIAMI SHORES, Fla. -- Barry's regular season final match ended a little prematurely as the Buccaneers fell to No. 7 Tampa, 25-10, 25-10, 25-19, Saturday.
The Buccaneers (17-13, 9-7 Sunshine State Conference) finished fourth in the league, winning six of their last eight matches, including an exciting five-set victory over South Region No. 2 seed Eckerd at home Friday night.
Barry will await its NCAA Tournament hopes. The Bucs entered the week as the No. 8 seed in the South. The top eight teams in each region qualify for the national tourney. Barry won two of three matches this week.
The NCAA Tournament field will be announced at 10 p.m. Sunday night on www.ncaa.com. The NCAA Tournament South Regional will be held Nov. 29-Dec. 1 at Tampa, the region's No. 1 seed.
Seniors Mima Hajdukovic, Alicia Guerrero, Tania Torres and Mari Lisboa were honored before Saturday's match. Hajdukovic finished with 14 assists Saturday, giving her 1,024 this year, which ranks 10th in school single-season history. She ranks seventh all-time in career assists with 1,741 in her two-year career at Barry. In four years, including two at Miami Dade, Hajdukovic had 3,588 career assists, which would have ranked second all-time at Barry had she played all four years for the Bucs.
The Bucs were outblocked 8-0 Saturday, and had 23 kills, while Tampa (27-3, 16-0 SSC) finished with 44.
Barry had 12 kills in the final set, and attacked at a .206 clip. Laine Cielena and Torres each had four kills. Hajdukovic had two aces. Lisboa had 10 digs and three kills, hitting .286. Jayla Trombley had three kills. Torres had one of the Bucs' three aces.
Tampa hit .409, committing nine errors in 78 attempts. Barry had 18 errors in 91 attack attempts.
The Buccaneers improved their win total by four from a year ago in coach Steve Hendricks' first season.