In addition, Botsford edges closer to the 100 milestone with his 96th win.
"Last night, we struggled with outlet attacking, and I thought we made a much more concerted effort to make good decisions today when we were put in those situations, and the outside hitters did a better job with their creativity," FGCU head coach Matt Botsford said.
UCF (9-3) would end up winning the entire invitational after defeating Yale (6-3) 3-2 in their final match of the tournament.
The biggest help for the Eagles came defensively from the Block Party (juniors Daniele "Dani" Serrano and Giovanna "Giogio" Borgiotti, sophomore Snowy Burnam, freshman Tori Morris, and seniors Sharonda Pickering and Kaiti Krivdo). The squad, led majorly by Pickering, finished with total of 17 blocks (Serrano: 3, Borgiotti: 1, Burnam: 1, Morris: 2, Pickering: 7, Krivdo: 3).
Pickering and sophomore Cortney VanLiew lead the team with eight kills each VanLiew also added 12 digs.
"Sharonda continues to play extremely well for us," Botsford said "She had some issues lining up the block last night and was focused on that this afternoon, and it showed. I was pleased with what she did out there. And Dani continues to play high efficiency."
VanLiew, along with senior Karissa Rhoades had four aces each. Rhoades added three digs
Freshman Dana Axner was held to eight digs, thus ending her streak of 10 or more digs. The libero did add two assists to the mix.
Freshman Chelsea Lockey and senior Maggie Rick combined for a total of 23 assist (Lockey: 11, Rick: 12). Rick's 12 assists put her at 3,987 in her career and the Alpharetta native is 422 away from passing Gigi Meyer (4,408) for the all-time leader in career assists.
The Eagles had 12 aces in the match (Rick: 1, VanLiew and Rhoades: 4 each, Axner: 2, Lockey: 1).
The only stat that the Hornets has was from senior Kori Kutsch. Kutsch finished with 13 assists.
Afterwards, the VolleyKnights Invitational team was announced:
Representing Yale was senior Kelley Wirth and Kate Swanson.
For FGCU, it was Serrano and Pickering.
For UCF, it was senior Jordan Pingel, redshirt sophomore Nerissa Moravec and freshman McKenna Melville. Melville was also named MVP of the invitational.
Pickering (.382) and Serrano (.351) have now moved up to second and third on the program's career hitting percentage list.
Quotes From Other Coaches:
"I thought with fought really hard and played great team volleyball," Yale head coach Erin Appleman said.
"I give Yale a lot of credit," said UCF head coach Todd Dagenais. "They are a great team, which is why we wanted them to come down here. That was a war. We didn’t play our best today, but we found a way to win. We’re going to find ourselves behind in some situations. We found ourselves behind at 13-10 in the fifth, and that’s gut check time. I told them to sideout and play some defense. We were able to tie it up and finish it on a five-point run."
"I thought our energy level and toughness of our team was great," Dagenais added. "Our bodies may not have been where we wanted them today, but we’re 12 matches into the season, and we played our third match in 24 hours. I was proud of how the team was able to battle, take some shots and find a way to win."
Up next, the Eagles open up conference play on the road as they begin in Jacksonville against Jacksonville and UNF.
"We have some stuff we need to work on and clean up," Botsford said, looking forward to next weekend. "Ultimately for us, I think it's about consistency. Our top level is pretty good. We just have to shrink those stretches during a match where it gets away from us a little bit. So, that's going to be our focus. First contact looks good, blocking continues to look good. But I think outlet attacking is going to be important for us - and continued effort on serving."
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