FGCU VB @ JU Recap

The FGCU volleyball (8-5, 1-0 A-SUN) opened up their part of conference on the road as they shutout Jacksonville (1-13, 0-2 A-SUN) 3-0 (25-23, 25-8, 25-18). With the win, the Eagles are now 16-11 overall against the Dolphins.

One of the main parts was from senior Maggie Rick. Rick, who only needed 13 assists to reach finished with 22 assists along with getting two kills and six digs. As a result, Rick became the second player to reach 4,000 assists and now has 4,009 in career assists. The Alpharetta native is now 400 away from passing Gigi Meyer (4,408) as the all-time leader.

FGCU start slow as they trailed 18-14 in the opening set following six straight from the Dolphins, but soon they would take control. An ace from senior Kaitlan Krivdo tied the set at 21, and the Eagles scored six of the final eight points.

The run continued with 12 of the first 14 points in the second as they opened up a 20-4 lead and cruised to a 17-point victory.

In the final set, the Eagles led by two midway through before rattling off 10 of the final 12 points with a final kill from Krivdo.

Although none of the Eagles reached double-digits, it was sophomore Cortney VanLiew that led the charge. VanLiew had eight kills, four aces and nine digs.

The Block Party (Krivdo, fellow senior Sharonda Pickering, juniors Daniele Serrano and Giovanna "Giogio" Borgiotti, sophomore Snowy Burnam, and freshman Tori Morris) combined a total 27 kills (Krivdo: 7, Pickering and Borgiotti: 8 each, Serrano: 4, Morris: 1) and seven blocks (Krivdo, Pickering and Burnam: 2 each, Serrano:1).

Freshman Chelsea Lockey had double digits in assists as she finished with 13 and added two kills and two digs.

Freshman Dana Axner finished with 10 digs, three assists and an ace.

Senior Karissa Rhoades and sophomore Alayna Ryan also contributed to the match. Rhoades contributed with two kills and six digs while Ryan had one ace and one dig.

Junior Mallory Mattingly led the Dolphins offensively with 11 kills while junior Natalie Wehner led on the defensive end with 13 digs.

"Our middles and Sharonda led the charge and were very effective, both blocking and attacking," FGCU head coach Matt Botsford said. "I thought Jacksonville did a good job at the service line pressuring us out of the gate, and we will need to manage our first contact better moving forward. We have seen a lot of progress in that department, but we weren't as crisp as we have been. I was pleased with our response after a shaky start, although we need to play smarter from the opening whistle and do a better job putting our setters in position to create for our offense."

Up Next:
The Eagles will wrap up their two-match series in Jacksonville as they face UNF at 6 PM at the UNF Arena.