FGCU VB vs. Stetson Recap: Match 1

The FGCU volleyball team (9-5, 1-0 A-SUN) opened conference play on the road as they shutout Stetson (1-12, 0-1 A-SUN) 3-0 (25-16, 25-14, 25-21). With the win, the Eagles are now 18-2 against the Hatters.

Beginning with set one, the Hatters would start with a service ace from sophomore Naina Ivanova, but junior Sharonda Pickering would tie the match with a kill. After an attack error, sophomore Giovanna Borgiotti would make it up with a kill to tie the match.

Sophomore Daniele Serrano and junior Hao Jin exchanged two kills each before freshman Riley Nieporte and junior Amanda Carroll added kills of their own. The Hatters would take a two point lead after a kill from Jin and an attack error from junior Maggie Rick.

The Eagles would cut the Hatters lead to one after a Carroll kill, but a Rick setting error brought the Hatters lead back to a two point lead. The Eagles would score four straight points from back-to-back kill from Carroll and freshman Cortney VanLiew, two straight aces from Carroll to take the lead before the Hatters called timeout.

With the score 10-8 FGCU, the Eagles would have back-to-back kills from VanLiew and Borgiotti before Jin got back-to-back kills of her own. After an Ivanova ball handling error gave the Eagles a three point lead, junior Julie Varga would get a kill to cut the lead to two. The Eagles scored seven straight points after two kills from VanLiew, one kill from Rick, a kill from Serrano and a block to senior Shelby Connors and two service aces from senior Courtney Stephens before the Hatters used their final timeout.

With the score 20-11 in favor of FGCU, Rick would get another kill before Nieporte got a kill to stop the Eagles scoring run before Serrano added another kill. Ivanova would add another kill to the Hatter sscore before Connors was blocked by Rick. Jin would then get a kill before VanLiew answered back with a kill of her own to make it 24-14.

With the first set in favor of the Eagles, the Hatters would score two more points off of a Rick ball handling error and block Varga and Jin, but it was the Hatters could add up as Pickering sealed the first set for the Eagles with a kill.

Going into the second set, The Eagles would get two quick points from a block by Pickering and Borgiotti, who would follow with a kill afterwards, but the Hatters would quickly tie the score at 2-2 after a Nieporte kill and a Carroll attack error. It would then be in reverse after another block by Pickering and Borgiotti and a Carroll before got a kill. The Eagles would then score four straight points on a Pickering block to Connors, two straight Hatter attack errors from Connors and Nieporte before a VanLiew sent the Hatters to call a timeout.

With the score 8-3 FGCU, the Hatters would get a kill from Jin after the timeout before VanLiew returned the favor with another kill. Carroll would then make an attack error before bouncing with back-to-back kills with Serrano before sophomore Eva Deisa got a kill.

The Eagles would then get a kill from VanLiew and two straight kills from Carroll. Deisa then would counter with three straight points of her own from a kill and two aces before causing a service error. The Hatters would get on the board with double digits after a Pickering attack error, but it looked brushed off as Pickering bounced back with Borgiotti to block junior Charlotte Earnhart from scoring, which was followed by a Jin attack error. Earnhart would then bounce back with a kill of her own, but to avail as the Eagles score two more points after a Borgiotti kill and a Serrano block before the Hatters called their final timeout of the set.

After the final Hatters timeout, the Eagles would get two more points from an ace from junior Karissa Rhoades and another Ivanova attack error, but a block from Ivanova and Connors occurred gave the Hatters another point before a Borgiotti kill and a third Stephens ace gave the Eagles a 22-12 lead. Back-to-back service errors from Stephens and freshman Chelcie Spence would follow, giving Eagles set point. After a kill by Deisa, Serrano would seal the deal for set two with her seventh kill of the match.

After halftime, set three went underway, but this time the Hatters took the quick lead after an Ivanova ace, an Eagle attack error from freshman Snowy Burnam, a hatter block to VanLiew from Varga and freshman Rebecca Ingram, who would follow with a kill before the Eagles called their first timeout of the set.

After the timeout, the Eagles got on the board from an Ivanova serving error before the Hatters added two more points from a Burnam attack error and a Varga block to junior Kaitlan Krivdo before Burnam redeemed herself with a kill for the Eagles second point. After another Ingram kill, the Eagles would add two more points from a Serrano kill and a bad set from Ivanova before Jin added another kill for herself. The Eagles would score four straight from Borgiotti and Serrano. Borgiotti would get a kill and an ace while Serrano produced back-to-back kills to tie the set before the Hatters retook the lead from a VanLiew attack error before Serrano retied the lead with another kill.

After a kill from Deisa, would score four more straight points to take the lead in the third set after a VanLiew kill, a block from Krivdo and Burnam, a Varga attack error and a Krivdo kill before Deisa got another kill. The Eagles would add two more points from another Krivdo kill and block with Borgiotti before a VanLiew serving error cut the Eagles, but back-to-back kills from Krivdo and Burnam gave the Eagles a five point lead.

With the score 17-12 FGCU, the Hatters would get three straight points from two straight kills from Nieporte and a kill from Jin. After Rick got a kill, the Hatters would take advantage of an attack from redshirt freshman Ciara DeBell and two aces from junior Anna Bezhan. The Eagles and Hatters went back and forth with tying and retaking the lead with a Serrano, a Nieporte kill, a VanLiew kill and a serving error from freshman Alayna Ryan, but the Eagles would get a two point lead after back-to-back kills from Krivdo and Burnam before Stetson called their final timeout of the set.

After the timeout, the Eagle would bring the score to 24-20 after another kill from Krivdo and a Ivanova ball handling error. With match point in the Eagles sight, despite a block from Varga and Deisa, Krivdo would seal the deal with the final kill and win the match for FGCU.

Serrano and VanLiew lead the way with kills. Serrano finished with a team-leading 11 kills, two blocks and two digs while VanLiew finished with 10 kills, one assist, one block and seven digs.

Krivdo finished with six kills and two blocks.

Carroll was held to seven kills, snapping her 13-match streak of 10 or more kills. Carroll added two aces and five digs to the mix.

Rick had 40 assists, three kills, one block and three digs.

Stephens had two assists, three aces and seven digs.

Rhoades finished with 23 digs, one assist and one ace.

Borgiotti finished with six kills, an assist, an ace, three blocks and six digs

Burnam had three kills, one block and two digs.

Pickering had two kills, three blocks and a dig.

"We were really good from the service line and that's been something over the last couple weeks that's really dictated quite a few of our matches," said head coach Matt Botsford. "I thought we handled the ball pretty well in the first two sets, obviously things got pretty sloppy in the third but I'm glad the kids were able to battle it out. Dani (Serrano) and Kaitlan (Krivdo) both hit over .500 tonight and played really well in that third set. Krivdo hit at a really high efficiency and Dani, when we made some changes, stepped up and showed a lot of leadership."

The Eagles finished with seven aces and nine blocks throughout the match.

"[Serving] makes a big difference for us and it takes teams out of system," Botsford commented on his team's seven aces. It's still not as clean as we would have liked but we'll take it."

For the Hatters, no player reached double digits in kills. Jin lead the team with nine kills, two blocks and four digs. Jin was the closest to getting at least 10 kills.

Nieporte had seven kills and five digs.

Spence had 15 digs and two assists.

Ivanova had 19 assists, one kill, two aces, a block and eight digs.

Varga had one kill, five blocks and one dig.

Deisa had five kills, two assists, two aces, one block and nine digs.

Ingram had two kills and a block.

Earnhart had one kill.

Behzan had two aces, a dig and a block.

Connors had a block and two digs.

"I thought the girls had a little more energy than normal during the pregame warm-up," Stetson head coach Yang Deng said.  "The focus was really good.  They were really excited to start conference, but also to prove that they can do better this year. This game just teaches that we still have a lot of work to do to be more competitive, but the girls are on the same page and they know what needs to be done."

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