Claiming their overall series of the season, the FGCU volleyball team (16-6, 8-1 A-SUN) clipped the wings of UNF (8-17, 2-6 A-SUN) with a 3-0 win (25-23, 25-23, 25-15) at home. With the win, the Eagles swept the Osprey in the series for the seventh time in program history and are now 22-6 overall.
"Our ball handling was nowhere near what it needs to be to play at the high level we're capable of," FGCU head coach Matt Botsford said. "Credit UNF for that. I thought they served great and put pressure on us from the start. I don't think we handled it very well. Luckily, we found other ways to eke out a win, but those first two sets, we got outplayed quite a bit and were lucky to get a 2-0 lead into the break."
"We played a stellar first two sets; we had a clear game plan and it worked, winning the serve-receive battle in the first two. We made a few unforced errors in the clutch that compounded, and in the third I think we lacked drive and focus," said UNF head coach Kristen Wright. "The girls are naturally bummed, but they know that it's in their control. We're very well prepared going into our Liberty match. It will be a good match and pivotal for both teams in the A-SUN."
Freshman Chelsea Lockey eclipsed 25 assists for the first time in her collegiate career and finished with eight digs to fall just shy of her third double-double of the season. It was Lockey's 17th match with double-figure assists this season, and she has at least 16 in four of the past five matches.
Furthermore, she is four assists shy of becoming the eighth player in the program's Division-I era with 300 in a career.
"That was the best I thought Chelsey has set (this year)," Botsford said. "Decision making, location and consistency. She was super confident out there. She knew what she wanted to do and was executing it really well."
The Eagles hit .325 en route to its fifth-straight victory while the Ospreys hit .197 in the loss.
Offensively, sophomore Cortney VanLiew lead the Eagles as she chipped in with 13 kills, seven digs, one solo block and one ace,
Junior Giovanna "Giogio" Borgiotti had 12 kills and recorded a new career-high in hitting percentage at .733 over 15 attempts.
Sophomore Snowy Burnam produced her third consecutive match in double-figures with 10 kills while adding six digs and one block assist.
Another efficient offensive performance came from freshman Tori Morris, who had a season-high six kills while hitting .500 along with tying senior Sharonda Pickering for the team-high in block assists with five. Morris recorded her sixth match with two or more block assists this year while producing her first match with double-digit attack attempts (12).
In addition to Lockey, senior Maggie Rick finished with 19 assists and 12 digs for her eighth double-double of the season. She has nearly doubled her career total in her senior campaign alone and currently sits at 18.
In addition, Rick increased her career total to 4,239 and is 170 shy of breaking Gigi Meyer's (4,408, 2011-14) all-time record. Her 119 career matches ties Caroline Jordan (2013-16) for fourth-most in program history.
Defensively, freshman Dana Axner had 12 digs in addition to two assists. It was her 19th double-digit output this season and the output pushed her into the program's Division-I era top 20 in career digs. Furthermore, Axner's 368 digs this year is two shy of becoming one of the top 10 single seasons since 2007.
Pickering also had four kills and three digs in addition to tying Morris for the team-high in block assists.
Junior Daniele Serrano also contributed with five kills, two block assists, one dig and one assist. She is just six total blocks shy of matching her total from all of last year (107), and she has two of the top four and three of the top seven seasons in the Division-I era.
For UNF, no one reached double-digits in kills. The closest ones to reaching double-digit kills were junior Taryn Griffey (nine kills) and senior Madilyn McCarty (eight kills). McCarty did reach a milestone as she became the seventh Osprey to reach 2,000 career assists as she finished with 28 assists.
Defensively for the Osprey, sophomore Madison Donnelly finished with a team-high 16 digs and two aces.
FGCU remains in second place behind Kennesaw State (17-4, 8-0 A-SUN), who defeated Lipscomb (11-9, 6-2 A-SUN) 3-2 on Wednesday night while the UNF loss keeps them in sixth place.
Up next, the Eagles face Jacksonville (3-19, 2-8 A-SUN) on Sunday, October 22 at 2 P.M. at home. The Dolphins are coming off of a 3-0 loss to A-SUN newcomer Liberty.
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