Wrapping up their three-match homestead, the FGCU volleyball (13-6, 6-1 A-SUN) stomped Stetson (12-7, 4-3 A-SUN) by a score 3-0 (25-15, 29-27,25-20). With the win, the Eagles are now 20-2 against the Lady Hatters.
Offensively, sophomore Cortney VanLiew finished with 11 kills each. VanLiew also added an ace, an assist, eight digs and two blocks.
Senior Maggie Rick finished with 24 assists and seven digs. With her 24 assists, Rick now has 4,128 career assists and is now 281 away from passing Gigi Meyer (4,408) for most all-time in career assists.
Freshman Chelsea Lockey also had a good match as she finished with her second collegiate double-double of 16 assists and 10 digs. Lockey also added a kill and an ace.
Defensively, Dana Axner compiled 28 digs and three assists. This was Axner's fifth match with 20 or more digs and her seventh straight match with at least 10 digs. In fact, Axner's 28 digs broke the program's Division-I era record for most digs in a three-set match, held by Holly Youngquist.
"Honestly, I didn't even expect that, said Axner on breaking the record. "I'm not expecting to break any records. I don't know what any of them are, and honestly I just go with it, but it happens because the team is playing so well together, and I just click so well with them, and I could do it without them, but going forward, I just want to try to improve and work hard every day in practice.
The Block Party (seniors Sharonda Pickering and Kaiti Krivdo, juniors Giovanna "Giogio" Borgiotti and Dani Serrano, and freshman Tori Morris) had a combined 15 blocks.
Pickering (three blocks) and Borgiotti (four blocks) added eight kills each.
Although she did not get any blocks, sophomore Snowy Burnam had seven kills and 15 digs.
Krivdo (one block) added two kills while Morris (one block) added a kill.
Serrano (six blocks) tied with VanLiew with 11 kills of her own. In the first set, Serrano got her 500th career kill and now has 509 in her career. In addition, the Sanford native made milestones for her blocking. With her one solo block, it was Serrano's 45th as she tied Ashley Yance (45, 2005-09) for second all-time.
It did not stop there for Serrano as she had five block assists put her at 243, which passed Yance (242) for second all-time and her six total blocks put her at 288 and passed Yance (287) for second all-time.
"We won tonight because of the defense and the blocking," FGCU head coach Matt Botsford said. "We talk a lot about having to find different ways to win. I just wish we could get some consistency on the offensive side of the ball because it's pretty special when those things come together. I thought our floor defense across the board was really good. Dana had an amazing evening."
"We had a rough start, but we knew going into this, it was going to be a tough match," said Axner on the team's performance. "We're not looking past anyone in conference this year, but I thought we really picked it up and started playing more as a team and looking past individual performances, we just wanna do anything we can to help the team, and I thought we did well with that aspect."
For the Hatters, senior Anna Bezhan led the team offensively with 11 kills. Bezhan also added three blocks and eight digs.
Not too far behind Bezhan on the offensive front was senior Julie Varga as she finished with seven kills and three blocks.
Junior Emily Destaffino had 23 assists along with three kills.
Junior Eva Deisa, the leading Lady Hatters in kills, had 11 digs, but was held to two kills and a -.200 hitting percentage.
Redshirt junior Brianna Schmid and senior Hao Jin finished with six kills each.
Defensively, sophomore Chelcie Spence had 27 digs and three assists.
Along with, Schmid, Bezhan and Varga's blocks and Spence's digs, sophomore Naina Ivanova had 12 digs of her own.
In addition, this was Botsford's 102nd career win with FGCU.
The Eagles remain in second place behind Kennesaw, but they have pushed the Lady Hatters to fifth place in conference
Up Next:
The Eagles head on a two-match road trip as they face A-SUN newcomer Liberty (7-12, 4-2 A-SUN) on Friday, Oct 12 at 6 P.M. before traveling to Daytona Beach, Florida to face Bethune-Cookman (8-11, 1-2 MEAC) for a brief non-conference play on Tuesday, Oct. 16 at 6 P.M.
"It's a huge game for us," said Axner on Liberty. "We're really looking forward to it. I think that going into it, we really need to be dialed in and focused and everyone play our role, but I'm really excited for it because it's a new team for us."
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