The FGCU volleyball team (17-6, 8-1 A-SUN) swept their second series in conference play as they defeated Jacksonville (3-20, 2-9 A-SUN) again by a score of 3-0 (25-17, 25-13, 25-13). With the win, the Eagles not only 17-11 overall, but they swept JU for the fifth time in program history and completed their second conference sweep of the season.
"The thing that stood out to me most was first contact," FGCU head coach Matt Botsford said. "We had that discussion Friday night when we didn't do a good job against UNF. Jacksonville is a really good serving team, and I thought we managed their service pressure really well. That was something we were looking for and opened things up for us offensively."
Offensively, sophomore Cortney VanLiew led the Eagles with 10 kills and six digs. This was VanLiew's 10th straight match with at least 10 kills.
Senior Maggie Rick would finish with 15 assists, two kills and an ace. Rick's 15 kills put her at 4,254 career assists and is now 155 assists shy of breaking Gigi Meyer's (4,408, 2011-14) all-time record.
In addition, Rick played her 120th career match as she passed Caroline Jordan (2013-16) for fourth-most in program history.
Freshman Chelsea Lockey finished with 17 assists and an ace. With her fourth assist, Lockey became the eighth player in the program's Division-I era to reach 300 career assists and now has 313 career assists.
Freshman Dana Axner and the Block Party (seniors Sharonda Pickering and Kaiti Krivdo, juniors Dani Serrano and Giovanna "Giogio" Borgiotti, sophomore Snowy Burnam, and freshman Tori Morris) paved the way for the Eagles on the defensive front.
Axner finished with 15 digs and an assist. This was Axner's 11th straight match with at least 10 digs. She is now has 383 total digs this season (17th overall). Axner already passed Leigh Pudwill (372, 2015-16) single season record, and is 11 away from passing Roberta Santos (393, 2007-08) for 16th all-time.
The Block Party had a combined 26 total blocks with Morris leading the way with nine blocks. Morris added four kills with her blocks.
"Tori was really good, especially on the blocking side of things," Botsford said. "I still think the setters need more time to develop time with her offensively. When it's good, it's really impressive. But she's got to build up her repertoire of shots when things aren't perfect, and that's what you would expect from a young player. (With that said), she's done a nice job these last couple of matches."
Burnam (three blocks) collected double-digits in digs (11) along with three kills.
Pickering (five blocks) added eight kills.
Borgiotti (four blocks) and Krivdo (one block) had two kills each.
Serrano (four blocks) added five kills and two digs. With her four total blocks, Serrano now has 306 and is 37 away from passing Olivia Mesner (342, 2011-14) and becoming the all-time leader in total blocks. With three of her blocks being block assists, Serrano now has 259 in her career and is 22 away from passing Mesner (280) for most all-time, and with her one solo block, the Sanford native now has 47 career solo blocks and is now five away from passing Ericka Fonseca (51, 2005-06) for second all-time.
Serrano's five kills also put her at 535 career kills.
Senior Karissa Rhoades and sophomore Alayna Ryan also chipped in for the Eagles. Rhoades had one dig while Ryan added an assist and an ace. Rhoades' dig was her 861st and is now 139 away from being the seventh player to reach 1,000 career digs.
For the Dolphins, junior Mallory Mattingly had 15 kills, but had 16 attack errors. Mattingly's hitting percentage was very low as she hit -.019.
Freshman Natalie Martin had 28 assists and six digs.
Junior Natalie Wehner had 18 digs.
In addition to the win, the Eagles clinched a playoff berth in the conference tournament with Kennesaw (19-4, 10-0 A-SUN) after sweeping NJIT (4-21, 2-8 A-SUN). The Eagles remain in second place behind the Owls and enter a six-match winning streak, while Kennesaw enters a 13-match winning streak.
Up Next:
The Eagles will return to action Tuesday night at the Alico Arena as they welcome FIU (14-7, 6-2 C-USA) for their final non-conference match of the season.
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