FGCU Volleyball: Award Winners and Conference Tournament Opener

After another successful season, the FGCU Volleyball is now focusing on their next task at hand: The A-SUN Conference Tournament. The Eagles enter into the tournament as the No. 3 seed, and face No. 6 seeded USC Upstate in the quarterfinals of the tournament.

Before the matchup, the A-SUN Conference announced the winners of awards and members of honorable mentions.

Junior outside hitter Amanda Carroll was named A-SUN Co-Player of the Year with Lipscomb's Carlyle Nusbaum while freshman outside hitter Snowy Burnam was named A-SUN Freshman of the Year.

On the A-SUN All-Conference First Team, Carroll and sophomore middle blocker Daniele Serrano were selected to the team. Carroll was a unanimous selection.

Junior setter Maggie Rick was named a member of the A-SUN All-Conference Second team.

Burnam, along with fellow freshman outside hitter Cortney VanLiew, were named members of the A-SUN All-Freshman Team.

In addition, Carroll and Rick were named members of the A-SUN All-Academic Team. Carroll was also named A-SUN Co-Scholar Athlete of the Year with Kennesaw's Kristi Piedimonte and a College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District recipient.

The history between FGCU and Upstate remains with the Eagles having the upper hand in the series between the two teams: FGCU is 19-0 against Upstate including the two wins in the season prior to the quarterfinals

Fast forward to the quarterfinals, No. 4 seed Lipscomb played earlier against No. 5 seed UNF and won with a 3-0 shutout. With their win, the Lady Bison will face the No. 1 seed Kennesaw State.

“You first have to give credit to our girls as far as understanding what was laid in front of them and then going out and getting after it,” Lipscomb head coach Brandon Rosenthal said. “I couldn’t be more proud from top to bottom. Our defense was just absolutely tremendous tonight. We created a lot of havoc and the attention to detail and the discipline was superb."

"I thought Lipscomb played really well and put a lot of pressure on our passers. We weren't able to find any offensive rhythm. Even though things didn't go our way, we continued to battle. I am proud of the seniors and their contributions to our Osprey family," said UNF head coach Steve Loeswick.

After the match, FGCU (22-8, 10-4 A-SUN) defeated Upstate (8-21, 4-10 ASUN) 3-0. This was the seventh time the Eagles have made it to the semifinals.

"I don't think the first set was as clean as we would have liked," head coach Matt Botsford said.  "We had a different line up limiting Amanda to manage the amount of the time she was jumping and it took some time for that to gel, but I think we really took off heading into the second set. We continued to improve throughout, but I liked it, and I liked the way our girls picked it up. I thought Gio was terrific tonight. She blocked great, attacked well and had a real calming influence in out of system scenarios."

It was freshman outside hitter Snowy Burnam who took the reins offensively. The Palm City native that was named A-SUN Freshman of the Year was one dig shy of a double-double, but finished with 12 kills, nine digs, two assists, three blocks and an ace.

Sophomore outside hitter Giovanna Borgiotti had 11 kills, three blocks and two digs.

Junior setter Maggie Rick had a double-double of 35 assists and 13 digs. The Alpharetta, Georgia native who was named a A-SUN All-Conference Second Team member also added four kills to the mix.

Serrano had eight kills, one dig and one block.

Junior libero Karissa Rhoades had 19 digs, six assists and an ace.

Offensively, Carroll did not have her best game as she only had one kill, but defensively, the Albuquerque native had 20 digs, one block and two aces.

Lone senior defensive specialist Courtney Stephens had six digs, one assist and two aces.

Junior right side hitter Kaiti Krivdo had four kills and six blocks.

Other players that contributed to the match included freshman outside hitter Cortney VanLiew and freshman defensive specialist Alayna Ryan. VanLiew had five kills and one block while Ryan added one dig to the mix.

With the win, FGCU is now 20-0 overall against Upstate and will face No. 2 seed JU in the semifinals. The winner of that match will face the winner between No. 1 seed Kennesaw and No. 4 seed, host and defending champion Lipscomb.