SCF Sports: October 2017

FGCU VB vs. Stetson Recap: Match 2

Junior Amanda Carroll produced a double-double as the FGCU volleyball team (17-6, 7-1 A-SUN swept Stetson (3-17, 2-6 A-SUN) 3-0 (25-20, 25-14, 25-19) in Alico Arena on Saturday.

In doing so, the Eagles have now won eight straight matches and 22 straight sets. The latter is the second longest streak in the NCAA Division I era for FGCU since the 2007 team won 30 straight sets. The win also keeps the Eagles in a three-way tie atop the A-SUN standings with Kennesaw State and Jacksonville.

"The first set wasn't particularly clean," FGCU head coach Matt Botsford said. "We had a few too many errors and kept it pretty close. We couldn't get any easy points off them. Overall, though, I thought the response after set one was much closer to what we would have imagined and the direction we want to be playing."

Carroll, the A-SUN's leader in points, recorded a game-high 17 kills while hitting .400 and adding 11 digs, two assists, one solo block and one block assist. It was her 10th double-double of the season and the 36th of her career. She also now has double-digit kills in all but three matches this season. Already the program's all-time kills and points leader, Carroll had 35 attacks on Saturday to pass Brooke Youngquist Sweat (3,139, 2004-07) for most in a career. She now has 3,147.

Freshman Snowy Burnam finished second on the team with a season-high 12 kills while hitting .429, adding three digs and picking up her first match with double-digit kills since Oct. 6 against USC Upstate.

Redshirt freshman Ciara DeBell finished third on the team in kills with seven. DeBell had a breakout match by hitting .545 and tallying two more kills than she has the entire season so far.

Sophomore Daniele Serrano, who leads the A-SUN in hitting percentage, added six kills, a game-high three block assists and two digs.

"It was mainly just a bunch of fun," DeBell said of her breakout match. "I missed it. It was one of the first games where I've been able to stay in. I started the third set, and stayed in the whole game. It gave me a flashback of last year."

Junior Maggie Rick, meanwhile was a big reason for the 53 kills and .353 hitting percentage that FGCU produced as a team. The junior setter tallied 44 assists along with four digs, three kills and two block assists. Her assist total tied her output on Sept. 1 vs UCF for her fourth most in a match this year.

Defensively, junior Karissa Rhoades had a game-high 17 digs along with four assists. During the team's current winning streak, she has produced double digit digs in every match, and she's now averaging 20 digs per match against Stetson this year.

Senior Courtney Stephens added nine digs to finish third on the team. She now needs just 14 more to become the fifth player in program history to record 1,000 digs in her career.

On top of that, every player for FGCU recorded at least one dig, including freshmen Cortney VanLiew with five and Alayna Ryan with two and junior Sharonda Pickering with one.

"Our floor defense was great," Botsford said. "I thought it was a little more challenging than it should of been because I didn't think our net defense was very good. (Stetson) got through a lot of holes. I thought we were pretty sloppy up front and to get those dig numbers behind a block like that is a testament to the reads Karissa was making. Courtney Stephens the same way and, of course, Amanda always has great instincts back there."

Junior Kaitlan Krivdo also contributed to the win with four kills and three digs.

FGCU's defense held the Hatters to a .173 hitting percentage. Stetson is now 0-17 this year when losing that statistic. On the flip side, they've won every match when it's in their favor.

The Eagles are now 19-2 all-time against Stetson, including a 9-1 record at home. The Eagles have won nine straight in the series, including the past four in straight sets, and Saturday's win gives FGCU a season sweep of the Hatters.

The Eagles will now play four straight on the road beginning with next weekend's matches against North Florida on Friday at 7 p.m. and Jacksonville on Saturday at 6 p.m. After closing the road trip against NJIT and USC Upstate the following weekend, FGCU will finish the regular season at home on Nov. 10-11 against Lipscomb and Kennesaw State.

Saturday's match concluded alumni weekend for the FGCU volleyball program. There was a dinner with all the attending alumni on Friday evening and then on Saturday, there was an alumni match at 11 a.m. and a tailgate prior to the match. The alumni were also recognized and honored between the second and third sets of the win over Stetson.

FGCU VB vs UNF Recap

In spite of a lesser crowd than last night's game against JU, the FGCU volleyball took it to a new level by playing UNF. The Eagles (15-6. 6-1 ASUN) shut out the Ospreys (8-15, 1-6 A-SUN) 3-0 (25-17, 25-20, 25-14)

Offensively, the duo of junior outside hitter Amanda Carroll and freshman outside hitter Cortney VanLiew led the charge. Carroll had 16 kills, two blocks and seven digs while VanLiew had 11 kills, one ace, two blocks and eight digs.

Junior setter Maggie Rick had three kills, one ace and six digs to go with her 30 assists.

Defensively, the duo of junior middle blocker Kaiti Krivdo and freshman outside hitter Snowy Burnam took the reins. Krivdo and Burnam each had three kills. Krivdo added seven blocks while Burnam added six blocks and four digs.

Junior libero Karissa Rhoades had five assists and 10 digs.

Lone senior defensive specialist Courtney Stephens had two aces and five digs.

Sophomore middle blocker Dani Serrano and freshman defensive specialist Alayna Ryan also contributed in the game. Serrano had two kills, three blocks and a dig while Ryan added one assist and one dig to the mix.

"I was really pleased with the bounce back offensively," FGCU head coach Matt Botsford said. "Each set, we played a little bit smoother, a little bit cleaner. We wanted to manage the game. I thought the left sides took the lead on that. We didn't get the result we wanted to in terms of our numbers from the left side yesterday, and it was completely different today. I thought they created a lot more opportunities for themselves, so that was nice to see."

For UNF, no player got 10 or more kills.

Freshman middle blocker Devyn Wheeler and sophomore middle blocker Taryn Griffey had eight kills each. Wheeler added three digs while Griffey added one block and one dig.

Senior setter Carinne Turner had six digs and 17 assists.

Junior defensive specialist Ashley LaBorde had one assist and 14 digs.

Senior outside hitter Katarina Raicevic had six kills, one assist, three aces, one block and one dig.

With the shutout, FGCU has shutout their opponents 114 times since being in D1 in 2007.

During the matchup at the same time, Kennesaw and JU won their games as well. KSU beat NJIT 3-0 while JU beat Stetson 3-1. Also, Lipscomb beat Upstate 3-0.

Up Next:
FGCU will play return with one final non-conference match at home against Bethune-Cookman on Tuesday at 6 pm before returning to conference play facing Stetson and then hitting the road to face UNF, JU, NJIT and Upstate to wrap up their final road games.

FGCU VB vs JU Recap

After a a lot of hype in front of almost 800 people, the FGCU volleyball team took the roll of the dice against JU and it paid off with success. The Eagles (14-6, 5-1 A-SUN) beat the Dolphins (11-8, 5-1 A-SUN) 3-0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-20). This game was a battle for first place in the A-SUN Conference, and with the win, FGCU ties JU for first place, but at the same time as the Eagles/Dolphins match, Kennesaw State beat USC Upstate 3-0, so as of now, FGCU, KSU and JU are in a three-way tie for first place in conference.

Offensively, freshman outside hitter Cortney VanLiew led the team with a double-double of 12 kills and 13 digs. VanLiew also added one assist and three blocks to the mix.

Junior outside hitter Amanda Carroll had eight kills, snapping her streak of 10+ kills. Carroll, however, did have an assist, three blocks and 13 digs. With the eight kills, Carroll now has a career total of 1,193 kills.

Junior setter Maggie Rick had one kill, one ace, six digs and a block to go with her 27 assists.

Sophomore middle blocker Daniele Serrano had seven kills, two digs and a team-leading seven blocks in the game.

Junior libero Karissa Rhoades had 12 digs and four assists.

Senior defensive specialist Courtney Stephens had one ace, two assists and eight digs.

Junior middle blocker Kaiti Krivdo had six kills and three blocks.

Freshman outside hitter Snowy Burnam had three kills, three blocks and three digs.

From the bench, freshman Alayna Ryan contributed with one ace and an assist while redshirt freshman Ciara DeBell added two digs to the mix.

"Offensively, we were not our typical selves and that has a lot to do with how Jacksonville was defending us," FGCU head coach Matt Botsford said. "I thought (Jacksonville) did a great job, but I was really pleased to see us match that level of intensity. The blocking set the tone, and I thought the defense behind it really complemented that block. Hopefully we can continue to play that way. Winning when the offense is not exactly where we want it is a step in the right direction."

For the Dolphins, sophomore Mallory Mattingly led the team with a double-double of 13 kills and 12 digs. Mattingly also added two aces and a block.

Sophomore setter Alleah Stamatis had three kills, a block and five digs to go with her 24 assists.

Senior libero Mackenzie Swan had 19 digs, two assists and an ace.

Sophomore outside hitter Natalie Wehner had seven kills, one assist, three aces, a block and nine digs.

"Tonight was a tough night, but this is something we can look back on and learn a lot from," said Head Coach Julie Darty. "We just didn't get it done, offensively or defensively, and when you can't follow a game plan and execute it, you let the other team take over and control the match."

"We made some good adjustments, but we just really were not sharp tonight. It felt like we were a little shell-shocked and FGCU did a nice job of making us very uncomfortable. I am hopeful that we can learn from this loss and get better as a team."

The Eagles outlasted the Dolphins in points (52-41), kills (37-30), blocks (12-5), assists (36-28) and digs (59-56) while the dolphins led the match in aces (6-3).

UNF, FGCU's next scheduled opponent, won their first conference game against Stetson 3-2.

The conference are as shown below with conference record first and overall record next:

Kennesaw State 5-1, 11-4
FGCU 5-1, 14-6
Jacksonville 5-1, 11 -8
Lipscomb 3-3, 10-9
USC Upstate 2-4, 5-14
Stetson 2-4, 3-15
NJIT 1-5, 10-12
North Florida 1-5, 8-14

FGCU VB vs. Bethune-Cookman Recap: Match 2

The FGCU volleyball team (16-6) won their seventh straight match as they swept Bethune-Cookman (8-9) 3-0 (25-11, 25-15, 25-18) at home. With the win, the Eagles are now 12-0 against the Wildcats and have swept the season series for their final non-conference match.

Beginning with set one, junior Amanda Carroll began with a quick kill to put the Eagles up 1-0. Fellow junior Karissa Rhoades would follow with a service ace before an attack error from junior Kaiti Krivdo put the Wildcats on the board.

The Eagles would add two more points on the board after a kill from junior Maggie Rick and a Wildcat attack error from senior Alondra Bautista made it 4-1 FGCU before senior Jessica Emile would get a kill to make it 4-2 FGCU.

The Eagles would score three more points after a kill from Carroll, an attack error from freshman Jordan Jefferson, and a block from freshman Cortney VanLiew to Bautista before the Wildcats called for a timeout.

After the timeout, freshman Faith Landreneaux got a kill for the Wildcats, but the Eagles would score three more straight points from a VanLiew kill, a ball-handling error from senior Phelan Clark and a Landreneaux attack error before Bautista added a kill to the Wildcats board.

With the score 10-4 in favor of the Eagles, Landreneaux would cause a serving error before a kill from VanLiew made it 12-4 Eagles. The Wildcats would get another point from a Bautista kils before back-to-back kill from Serrano and Carroll and a Bautista attack error made it 15-5 FGCU.

The Wildcats would get another point after a serving error from VanLiew, but after a VanLiew kill and a block from Carroll and Krivdo gave the Eagles a 17-6 lead before Bethune called their final timeout of the set.

The Wildcats would get two points after the timeout from an Emile kill and an attack error from Carroll, but a Carroll kill and a Jefferson attack error put the Eagles up 19-8 before VanLiew made an attack error to make 19-9. The Eagles would add three more points after a Carroll kill and two attack errors from Bautista and sophomore Alana Handy, but the Wildcats would finally get into double digits after back-to-back kills from Handy and Landreneaux, but it would have little effect for the Eagles as they claimed the first set with back-to-back from Carroll and Krivdo and an attack error from Handy.

Going into the second set, Emile would get two Wildcat kills while Carroll got an Eagle kill, but freshman Snowy Burnam would tie the game with a kill and an attack error gave the Eagles a one point lead before a Rick service error tied the match back up to 3-3.

After a back and forth battle of kills between Carroll and Clark,back-to-back Eagle kills from VanLiew and Serrano gave the Eagles a two point lead before a Landreneaux kill cut the lead to 6-5.

After back and forth kills from Emile and Serrano and a Clark ball handling error, the Wildcats would cut the score by one after a Carroll attack error and another Emile kill. After a serving error from Landreneaux, Emile would cut the score to one yet again, but the Eagles would score three more straight points after a Krivdo kill, an attack error from junior Meraiah Hill and another Clark ball handling error before a Handy kill cut the deficit to three.

After a back and forth showing of kills from Burnam and Bautista, the Eagles took advantage of back-to-back Wildcat attack errors from senior Rechez Lindsay and Bautista. After a service error from freshman Alayna Ryan, the Eagles would recover and score five straight points after two kills from Serrano, a kill from Rick and two service aces from lone senior Courtney Stephens before a Wildcat timeout. After a Stephens service error gave the Wildcats another point, and back and forth kills from Serrano and Handy occurred, Carroll would get two straight kills to make it 24-14 FGCU. After a Rhoades service error, Krivdo would secure the match point for the Eagles.

Going into the third and final set, the Eagles would get a quick 2-0 lead after a block from Serrano and a kill from VanLiew. After a Handy kill, junior Sharonda Pickering would get a kill of her own before a Rick serving error and kill occurred to make it 4-2. After back and forth errors from redshirt freshman Ciara DeBell and Handy, Bautista would get a kill to cut the score to 5-4, but the Eagles would answer back with four straight points after a service error from Lindsay, and a block and two kills from Serrano and a Handy ball handling error before a Bethune timeout.

The Wildcats would take advantage for three straight points after a Stephens serving error, a kill from Landreneaux and an attack error from Burnam, but the Eagles would counter back with five straight points from a Clark serving error, a Bautista attack error, two kills from Serrano and a kill from VanLiew.

After another Emile kill, VanLiew would get two back and forth kills while countering an attack error in between. The Wildcats would then score four straight points after two kills from Jefferson, a kill from Clark and a VanLiew attack error, but the Eagles would counter and score three straight points after back-to-back kills from DeBell and Burnam and a service ace from Ryan to make it 20-13 FGCU.

The Wildcats would three more straight points after kills from freshman Tynesha Adams and Bautista and a Burnam attack error. After a kill from Serrano and another ace from Stephens, Serrano would then make an attack error before Rick and Serrano made back-to-back kills to set up match point for the Eagles. After a Carroll service error to make it 24-18 FGCU, Serrano would seal the deal with a final Eagle kill for the match.

Serrano lead the way with 14 kills, two blocks, and one assist.

Carroll finished with eight kills, one block, and nine digs.

Rick finished with 34 assists, four kills, and four digs.

VanLiew was one dig shy of a double-double as she finished with 10 kills, one block, and nine digs.

Rhoades also added 11 digs to go with one assist and one ace.

Stephens finished with eight digs, two assists and three aces.

Ryan had two digs and an ace.

Pickering finished with one kill

Debell had one kill.

Krivdo finished with three kills and a block.

Burnam had three kills and four digs.

"For us, to hit our optimal level in terms of offense, it's going to require Dani to play at a high level in the middle," FGCU head coach Matt Botsford said. "If she can do that, it alleviates the pressure on our outsides to do all the scoring for us, and when we've been at our best is when we've seen that kind of balance. And (Dani) did such a tremendous job that when we did go to the left side or right side, we were getting nice splits on the block. It just makes life a lot easier there. Dani's been like this all season long. This was especially impressive, but we've learned to expect that out of her."

For the Wildcats, no player had double digits in kills. Emile lead the team with eight kills and one block. Obviously, I was kind of stuck in a situation because I knew Emile from SCF, my junior college, but seeing her play, despite being on opposite teams, was really nice to see.

Jefferson was held to two kills, two digs, and one assist.

Clark had 18 assists, two kills, one block and five digs.

Landreneaux had three kills, one block and two digs.

Bautista had five kills, one assist and four digs.

Lindsay had 19 digs and two assists.

Higgins had one assist and seven digs.

Handy finished with four kills, one block and three digs.

Adams had one kills and one block.

Freshman Micaiah Hill had one dig.

The Eagles will continue conference play beginning with Stetson on Saturday at 3 P.M.

Why the "W" Flag at FGCU?

One question that always come to mind from people is "What's the "W" stand for and why do you wave it at every athletic event at FGCU?" The answer is this: The "W" on the flag stands for "Win" and usually when you see a flag like that, one team comes to mind: the Chicago Cubs.

Ever since I watched the Cubs win the 2016 World Series, FGCU sports changed within a heartbeat. I first had the flag in early January of the spring semester. It was a late Christmas present from my former roommate being is I am a born breed Chicago boy. I loved it.

The first time I waved it, it was at one of the men's basketball game for FGCU and we were victorious. Since that time, I waved at every basketball game, baseball game, tennis match, swim meet and softball game I have attended. After the spring semester, I started bringing it to volleyball and soccer games and everyone loved it including the athletes and fans.

Sometimes I ask the athletes afterwards if I can get a photo with them with the flag and of course they would say yes.

I remember one time one of the men's basketball players, Dolan Mahoney, took a picture with my flag, but couldn't touch it because he's a Pittsburgh Pirates fan. It was cool though and I didn't mind.

Even going back and forth between doing my internship and being a fan of the games was tough, it was well worth it.

Below are pics of me with the athletes and my "W" flag: