FGCU Women's Tennis: A-SUN Conference Tournament Set in Stone

After so much hard work, the FGCU women's tennis has set its path in conference as they begin their route to the NCAA Women's Tennis National Tournament, which will take place at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Georgia.

FGCU (14-4, 6-0 A-SUN) is set as the number one seed in the A-SUN conference and earned a bye-week in the first round of the tournament.

Prior to that, FGCU played their last season matchup to become the number one seed against conference rival UNF (13-8, 5-1 A-SUN) as both teams were battling for first place and the number one seed in the conference tournament.

It was FGCU who came out on top with a 4-3 win over UNF on senior day. This marked as the first time in program history that FGCU has beaten UNF in women's tennis. UNF won 12 straight times against FGCU including the last year's A-SUN conference finals.

Thanks to wins from lone senior Breana Stampfli, sophomores Julia Ascua and Laura Falceto Font, the Eagles claim a first round bye and will play the winner between no. 4 Stetson and no. 5 Lipscomb. Previously, FGCU beat both teams in the season. They beat the Hatters 6-1 at Stetson and Lipscomb 6-1 at home.

The seeds are setup as followed including overall and conference records:
1. FGCU (14-4, 6-0)
2. UNF (13-8, 5-1)
3. NJIT (6-12, 3-3)
4. Stetson (6-13, 3-3)
5. Lipscomb (6-16, 2-4)
6. Kennesaw State (5-14, 1-5)

USC Upstate (3-18, 1-5 A-SUN) was eliminated from playoff content, which honestly to me is no surprise really because Upstate has its fair share of bad seasons including going 0-21 last season.

Here are 10 facts to recap about the FGCU women's tennis team this season:
1. FGCU has never beaten UNF until this past Saturday, so now the record between the two teams is UNF is still 12-1 overall.

2. Brena Stampfli is the only senior on the FGCU women's tennis team.

3. FGCU beat USF 5-2, marking as the first time in program history that FGCU beat USF in women's tennis.

4. FGCU had four shutouts with three of them being in non-conference.

5. Freshman Maja Ornberg is the only FGCU women's tennis to earn A-SUN Player of the Week three times.

6. Four of FGCU's players earned A-SUN Player of the Week (Stampfli, Falceto Font, Ascua and Ornberg (3x)).

7. Last season, the doubles team of Ascua and junior Julianna Curtis were 19-2 overall and 6-0 in conference. They are currently 18-8 overall and 3-1 in conference and are now 37-10 overall as a team.

8. Stampfli, Font and Ascua are the only players that were unbeaten in singles play in conference this season (Stampfli (6-0), Font (6-0) and Ascua (4-0)).

9. FGCU captured its first-ever A-SUN Regular Season title.

10. Stampfli is 96-39 overall in singles and doubles combined overall including postseason wins.

A-SUN Award Winners:
As a result of their progress, the Eagles earned 15 accolades as listed:

Coach of the Year: head coach Courtney Vernon
Freshman of the Year: Ornberg
A-SUN All-Conference First Team: Ornberg, Stampfli and Ascua
A-SUN All-Conference Second Team (singles): Falceto Font
A-SUN All-Conference Second Team (doubles): Ornberg and Stampfli (#2 doubles)
A-SUN All-Freshman Team: Ornberg, Sara Kelly and Bridget Forster
A-SUN Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Curtis
A-SUN All-Academic Team: Curtis, Falceto Font and Ascua

The A-SUN Conference quarterfinals starts at noon April 21st. No. 3 NJIT will play No. 6 Kennesaw State while No. 4 Stetson plays No. 5 Lipscomb. UNF will play the winner between NJIT and KSU while FGCU will play the winner between Stetson and Lipscomb on Saturday at noon.

The final championship match will be on Sunday at 10 am and will air on ESPN3 and the winner will secure their automatic conference ticket to the NCAA National Tournament in Athens, Georgia.

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