"I was really happy with the way we served the ball and with our serve receive," FGCU head coach Matt Botsford said. "It's something we emphasized going into this. It really helped jump start the defensive side of the ball, where I thought we were really good."
The Eagles held the Lions in single digits in at least one set for the third time this season.
Offensively, it was once against sophomore Snowy Burnam that brought Dairy Queen on the offensive front. Burnam finished with a double-double of 10 kills and 11 digs along with two assists.
Not too far behind offensively were senior Sharonda Pickering and sophomore Cortney VanLiew. Pickering finished with nine kills and three digs while VanLiew finished with eight kills, 12 digs and an ace. With her eight kills, VanLiew now has 647 career kills.
Junior Dani Serrano and freshman Tori Morris were also not too far on the offensive side. Serrano finished with seven kills and a dig while Morris finished with six kills. Serrano's seven kills put her at 548 in her career.
Senior Maggie Rick would add a kill and five digs to go with her 26 assists. Rick's 26 assists put her at 4,301 career assists and she is now 108 away from passing Gigi Meyer (4,408 2011-14) as the all-time leader in career assists.
"I thought we played really well as a team together," said Rick. "I think consistency is something we been lacking in past matches. We've been really up and down on how we were playing, but I think today, at least in the first two and a half sets, we played really consistently and everyone played really well through the whole match."
Freshman Chelsea Lockey also finished in double-digit assists (16) along with four digs.
"I think our service passing was really good throughout the whole match, and so it made it really easy for me and Chelsea on the offense, and so everything looked really clean and put together," said Rick.
Although she only played one set, senior Kaiti Krivdo had four kills while junior Giogio Borgiotti added three kills and a dig in all three sets.
Defensively, freshman Dana Axner and the Block Party (Pickering, Krivdo, Borgiotti, Serrano, Burnam and Morris) played in phenomenal fashion.
Axner finished with 14 digs and an ace. This was her 13th straight match with at least 10 digs. In addition, Axner now has 423 total digs. In addition, the Dublin, Ohio native passed Whitney Masters' (421, 2012 season) for 12th all-time for most digs in a single season, and is seven away from passing Brooke Youngquist-Sweat's 2005 season record (429) for 11th all-time.
The Block Party finished with a combined 13 total blocks (three solo) with Pickering, Serrano and Burnam finished with three each. Two of Burnam's blocks were solo blocks.
With Serrano's three total blocks, she has moved up a few notches. For solo blocks, she now has 48 and is four away from passing Ericka Fonseca (51, 2005-06) for second all-time. For block assists, Serrano has 267 in her career and is 14 shy of passing Olivia Mesner (280, 2011-14) as the all-time leader. Lastly, in total blocks, the Sanford native now has 315 and is 28 shy of passing Mesner (342) as the all-time leader in that category.
Sophomore Alayna Ryan and senior Karissa Rhoades also contributed profoundly. Ryan had two digs while Rhoades had three aces and two digs. Rhoades now has 81 career aces and is now in the top 10 as she also battles with Rick (86). In addition, Rhoades' two digs put her at 863 in her career. She is 138 away from becoming the seventh player to reach 1,000 career digs. In fact, Rhoades is 22 digs shy of passing Heather Van Olst (884, 200-06) for eighth all-time.
The Lions were held to single digits in kills. The closest to double-digit kills were sophomore Christina Ellwanger and senior Malaisia Stallworth. Ellwanger had seven kills and six digs while Stallworth had five kills and two blocks.
Senior Jayden Davila-McClary had 15 assists, one kill and eight digs, while junior Genesis Benítez had 16 digs and two assists. Davila-McClary and Benítez had the only stats in double digits.
The Lions had 20 attack errors compared to the Eagles' seven.
In other A-SUN matches, Kennesaw defeated UNF 3-0, Liberty defeated NJIT 3-0, and Lipscomb defeated Stetson 3-0. With their wins, Liberty and Lipscomb joined Kennesaw and FGCU and clinched a spot in the A-SUN Championship.
The Eagles remain in second place in conference behind Kennesaw
1. Kennesaw State (20-4, 11-0)
2. FGCU (19-6, 10-1)
3. Lipscomb (14-9, 9-2)
4. Liberty (12-13, 8-3)
5. Stetson (12-10, 4-6)
6. North Florida (9-19, 4-8)
7. NJIT (4-22, 2-9)
8. Jacksonville (3-21, 2-10)
9. North Alabama (2-18, 0-11)
Up Next:
The Eagles wrap up their five-match homestead at the Alico Arena as they battle NJIT on Sunday, October 28 at 2 P.M. The Eagles have faced NJIT earlier in the season in a 3-0 shutout for Botsford's 99th career win.
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