With the win, the Eagles are now 13-0 against the Wildcats, but in addition, head coach Matt Botsford earned his 104th career win as head coach for the Eagles, thus passing inaugural head coach Jaye Flood (103, 2004-07) for the most win as head volleyball.
The first set went underway with a brief struggle for the Eagles as they were down by as high as three points before the Eagles called timeout with the Wildcats up 9-6. despite the brief Wildcat lead, the Eagles brushed it off with numerous kills majorly from sophomores Cortney VanLiew and Snowy Burnam and junior Dani Serrano. VanLiew would finish the set with back-to-back kills to give the Eagles the first set.
In the second set, it looked like Déjà Vu for the Eagles as they were down 4-2 in the beginning of the set, but after a Wildcat attack error and an ace from freshman Chelsea Lockey, the Eagles were back in the lead. The Wildcats would tie the set with a kill from junior Sterling Williamson before the Eagles remained in the lead before VanLiew finished the second set with a kill before halftime.
In the third set, the Wildcats began to push a little harder and make the Eagles work while they were in the lead until they tied the Eagle in the third at 22-22, but a Wildcat attack error and two kills from Serrano including the final kill gave the Eagles the set and the match.
VanLiew and Burnam finished with a double-double each in kills and digs. VanLiew had a team-leading 16 kills and 12 digs while Burnam finished with 13 kills and a career-high 18 digs, although she did not get any blocks as part of the Block Party.
"I thought Snowy and Cortney both played a well-rounded match," FGCU head coach Matt Botsford said. "They took some really nice swings in outlet situations and defended extremely well. Karissa was terrific from the service line and her rotation always came through with some much needed point runs."
Senior Maggie Rick finished one dig shy of a double as she finished wit 23 assists, nine digs and four kills. With her 23 assists, Rick now has 4,220 assists and is 189 away from passing Gigi Meyer (4,408 2011-14) as the all-time leader in career assists.
Lockey would follow Rick with 16 assists and added two digs and an ace.
Defensively, it was all about freshman Dana Axner and the Block Party (Serrano and fellow junior Giovanna "Gigio" Borgiotti, seniors Kaiti Krivdo and Sharonda Pickering, and freshman Tori Morris).
Axner would finish with 20 digs and three assists. This was the 4x A-SUN Freshman of the Week's sixth match where she had 20 or more digs and her ninth straight match where she had at least 10 or more digs.
The Block Party had a combined 15 total blocks in the match with Serrano and Pickering leading with five each. The squad also added 28 kills with Burnam leading the squad while Pickering (five kills) and Serrano (seven kills) added kills of their own.
Borgiotti did not have any blocks, but did add one kill while Krivdo contributed with two kills.
Senior Karissa Rhoades and sophomore Alayna Ryan also contributed in the match. Rhoades had two aces and a dig while Ryan tied her season-high with three digs and added an assist.
For the Wildcats, sophomore Jordan Jefferson also finished with a double-double. Jefferson end up with 11 kills and 16 digs.
Junior Sterling Williamson had eight kills.
Senior J'nai Higgins had 28 assists for the Wildcats.
Defensively, freshman Delaine Fulton lead the team with four blocks to go with six kills, while freshman Skyla Whitaker and junior Shayla Eugene finished with 13 digs each.
The Eagles had a .265 hitting percentage in contrast to Wildcats' .131. Despite the Wildcats hitting percentage, Fulton had the better hitting percentage (.405) while Rick (.500) had the highest for the Eagles.
In addition, Serrano surpassed Ashley Yance (45, 2005-09) for second all-time in solo blocks (46) and is now six away from passing Ericka Fonseca (51, 2005-06).
The Sanford native's four block assists put her at 254 and is 27 away frompassing Olivia Mesner (280, 342, 2011-14) for all-time leader in career block assists.
It did not stop there though. With her five total blocks, Serrano is now at an even 300 and is 43 away from passing Mesner (342) as the all-time leader in total blocks.
With her one dig, Rhoades now has 860 career and is 40 away from being the seventh FGCU player to reach 1,000 career digs.
Up Next:
The Eagles return to action in the Alico Arena with five straight matches at home starting with a Jacksonville series rematch against Jacksonville and UNF.
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