SCF Sports: FGCU Volleyball: First Match of the Season Recap

FGCU Volleyball: First Match of the Season Recap

The FGCU volleyball team prepared for their opening matchup in the FGCU Hilton Garden Inn Invitational with a win against FIU. The Eagles (1-0) tamed the Panthers (0-2) with a 3-0 (25-13, 25-21, 25-23) shutout.

Before FGCU played their match against FIU, I got to witness the other teams that we are scheduled to face in for the invitational since I didn't have classes on Fridays. FIU played Georgia Southern (1-1) in a 10 A,M, matchup where the Eagles beat the Panthers with a 3-0 (26-24, 26-24, 25-19) shutout.

"I loved the way we focused and prepared today for the match vs. FIU," said head coach Dustin Wood. "We had a great warm up, and we could see the kids were focused. There was some rust, but that's expected in our first match. We started out fast in each set, which is one of our goals as a program. We found a way to score big points in pressure situations to come out on top of the first two sets, and I am proud of the team for finishing strong in the third to put them away."

Junior middle blocker Lauren Reichard led the Eagles with 12 kills and seven blocks.

Senior outside hitters, Cathrine Murray and Anna Wenger, had seven kills each.

Junior setter April Luther had 35 assists and five blocks.

Sophomore defensive specialist Brooke Birch had four aces and seven digs.

Junior libero Joscelin Morrow had 20 digs.

For FIU, junior outside hitter Margherita Bianchin had a double-double with a team leading 12 kills and 13 digs while junior outside hitter Taija Thomas had 11 kills. Bianchin and Thomas each had 13 points in the match.

Senior middle blocker Mariana De Paula Silva had six blocks.

Freshman setter Molly Feldmeth had three kills, three blocks and 29 assists.

Junior outside hitter Sheyanne Sullivan had six kills and 20 digs.

GSU would remain on the court and play IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis) (1-0) later at 4:30 pm. The Jaguars would beat the GSU 3-1 (25-20, 25-27, 25-20, 25-21).

"It was good to get the first win of the season with our play at the net being the key," IUPUI Head Coach Steve Payne said. "Fourteen blocks is a good way to shut down a good offensive team like Georgia Southern. Our aggressive serving took them out of their offense, causing us to get some easy balls for us to convert to kills. We still need to be better in our communication, but it was a good win early in the season."

"We came out a little flat, and we hung in there in the second match. IUPUI did a great job of exposing some weaknesses. We had an opportunity to get the match to the fifth but ran out of steam. We struggled in the setting game tonight, and offensive timing was an issue for us. The kids fought hard but lacked execution," said Wood.

Senior right side hitter Kori Waelbroeck had a team-leading 22 kills, three aces and four blocks.

Junior setter Maggie Gibson had double-double of 47 assists and 15 digs along with seven blocks.

Senior libero Jessica Helms had a team-leading 16 digs.

For GSU, Reichard had 18 kills and four blocks.

Luther had 45 assists.

Freshman defensive specialist Landon Jones had 10 digs.

Morrow had 24 digs and three assists. Morrow, Birch and Jones had two aces each.

Now we fast forward to tonight with FGCU and FIU. Before the game began, I noticed there was a really big crowd in the student section. It was the most excited crowd I have seen at a volleyball since we played Indiana last season.

Here's a recap on a couple of things between FGCU and FIU:
1. FGCU is 8-2 when play their first opening match at home.

2. Before the win, FGCU was 6-5 overall against FIU.

The announcer announced the starting lineups for both teams. I couldn't really remember FIU's lineup, but for FGCU it was junior libero Karissa Rhaodes, sophomore middle blocker Danielle Serrano, junior setter Maggie Rick, junior right side hitter Kaiti Krivdo, senior defensive specialist Courtney Stephens, freshman outside hitter Cortney VanLiew and junior outside hitter Amanda Carroll. VanLiew was the only freshman to be in the starting lineup to start the 2017 season.

As the match began, FIU already started with a service error from freshman outside hitter Lexie Mesa to give FGCU a 1-0 lead before the Eagles scored two more points to make it 3-0 after Rick got a kill and Rhoades got an ace. After Sullivan put FIU on the board with a kill, Krivdo countered with a kill of her own before Rick, the defending A-SUN Setter of the Year, added to the score with an ace and sophomore Giovanna Borgiotti added a kill of her own to the score. After back-to-back-to-back service errors from both teams, Borgiotti added another kill to make it 8-4 for FGCU before freshman Alana Ryan made her on court debut and subbed in for Krivdo while Borgiotti added another kill.

Bianchin countered with a kill of her own, but Serrano got a kill and blocked senior middle blocker Giovannie Jean-Louis from getting a kill. After a Bianchin attack error, Carroll stepped up with a kill to give FGCU a 13-5 lead before Bianchin recovered with a kill of her own.

Fast forwarding after FIU used their last timeout in the set, Carroll started with back-to-back-to-back aces. After a service error from the former A-SUN Freshman of the Year, sophomore libero Helene Thelle hit an ace before causing a service error to end the set. FGCU would win the first set 25-13.

After a three minute break, the second set went underway. Krivdo would start it off with a kill. De Paula Silva would counter with a kill for FIU, but Krivdo would get another kill followed by another ace from Carroll. After a kill by Thomas and an attack error from Bianchin again, VanLiew would strike with back-to-back kills before Ryan hit a service error.

Fast forward with the score 23-21 FGCU, Carroll got another kill before Rhoades would hit an ace to end the second set 25-21 and go to halftime.

At the start of the third set, FIU took control of the first three points, but after back-to-back kills from Serrano and Carroll, Carroll added another kill from before FIU countered with another kill.

With the score 4-3 in favor of FIU, the long awaited return of my BFF, redshirt freshman Ciara DeBell, came as she subbed in for Stephens. Krivdo would reduce the deficit to one before FIU bounced back with three straight points of their own before a kill from VanLiew and an attack error from Feldmeth stopped the run briefly before a kill by senior middle blocker Jennifer Ene.

With the score 11-8 still in favor of FIU, kills from Carroll and Krivdo continued to give FGCU the lead briefly, but back-to-back kills from De Paula Silva and sophomore setter Sophia Sires plus an attack error put the Panthers back on top before FGCU called a timeout.

After the time out, Carroll got another kill before DeBell subbed back in. After an attack error from Ene that tied the score and another kill from Bianchin to give FIU a short one point lead, back-to-back kills from both teams occurred as ties and score changes before DeBell got her first kill since her season ending injury to tie the score. FIU would get three straight points to make it 20-17 before FGCU called its final timeout. VanLiew would get a kill, but De Paula Silva returned the favor with another kill.

With the score 22-19, it looked like FGCU's chance to sweep the third set were dwindling, but with the chants of the almost 900 fans in attendance backing up FGCU, the Eagles found the motivation they needed. After VanLiew's service error, Carroll got another kill and De Paula Silva would cause another attack error to give FGCU the lead. Carroll would get another kill to set up mach point for FGCU. After a Sullivan kill, Carroll would seal the deal with one final kill and FGCU would sweep FIU with a final score of 25-23 in the third set.

Carroll had a team-leading 17 kills, nine digs and four aces.

Krivdo had nine kills and three blocks.

Rick would have one kill, one ace, one block and 39 assists.

Serrano and VanLiew had seven kills each.

Rhoades had three aces and 15 digs.

The first matchup was the debuts of VanLiew and Ryan. Junior college transfer middle blocker Sharonda Pickering and freshman outside hitter Snowy Burnam have yet to make their on-court debuts.

For FIU, Bianchin had nine kills, nine digs and three blocks on 10.5 points, Feldmeth had one kill and 16 assists, Thelle had 13 digs.

FGCU outlasted FIU in kills (47-32), aces (8-2) and assists (41-28).

With the win, FGCU is 7-5 overall against FIU.

"The first set, defensively, it was exactly what we were looking for," said FGCU head coach Matt Botsford. "That was something we were hoping would carry over into sets two and three. Although that didn't necessarily happen, I thought we did some nice things offensively to balance it out. Obviously, we got into a tight one in the third and were happy to finish that one out as well. Our middles were fabulous tonight. Katie (Krivdo) was pretty darn good with both blocking and from an offensive standpoint, and Dani (Serrano) was her usual self and a real big threat that FIU had to pay attention to. If we can get that kind of production from those positions, it will open things up for our other players."

"I think we are getting better and better with each set. The team is very positive and working hard. We need to continue to focus on the process and good things will happen consistently. I thought everyone did a great job of working for each other today," said FIU head oach Rita Buck-Crockett.

During the match, along with almost 900 fans in attendance, former volleyball players Leigh Pudwill, Caroline Jordan and Marina Adami were in attendance, which was nice that volleyball alumni would come see their team play after they graduated. After the match, I was talking to assistant coach Kim Maroon about her digs record and she told me she really wanted to either Courtney or Karissa to attempt to break her record. Maroon still holds the record for most dig per set in a single season (6.87 digs per set).

"If I want my record to be broken, then I want it to be from one of my players I coached." -Kim Maroon.

FGCU will have a double header tomorrow starting with Georgia Southern at 11 am before wrapping up their part of the invitational with a matchup against IUPUI at 7 pm. FIU will also be playing IUPUI at 2 pm, so tune in for those matches for the next blog entry.

Below are photos from all three matches of all four teams.