Last Time Out:
The Eagles are coming off of their final three-match road trip where they shutout Lipscomb 3-0 and defeated Kennesaw 3-1 before defeating Stetson 3-1. The win against Kennesaw helped push the Eagles to first place in the A-SUN.
With the win against Stetson, the Eagles earned a share of the A-SUN Regular Season Championship.
Updated Standings:
1. FGCU (23-6, 14-1)
2. Kennesaw (22-6, 13-2)
3. Lipscomb (16-11, 11-4)
4. Liberty (14-15, 10-5)
5. Stetson (16-11, 8-7)
6. UNF (9-21, 4-10)
7. Jacksonville (5-22, 3-11)
8. North Alabama (4-20, 2-13)
9. NIT (4-27, 2-13)
What's at Stake:
A win against the Lady Flames will officially give the Eagles the A-SUN Regular Season Championship and a first-round bye. The Eagles have already claimed the #1 seed in the conference tournament and a share of the regular season championship.
What it Do VanLiew:
Sophomore Cortney VanLiew has still remained as one of the Eagles primary factors of offense. VanLiew leads the team and the A-SUN with 409 kills (4.09 per set). In the match against Stetson, VanLiew had a double-double of 19 kills and 10 digs.
VanLiew has 717 career kills and became the ninth Eagles to reach 700 kills while she passed Heather Van Olst (700, 2004-06) for eighth all-time.
Maggie's Moment:
Senior Maggie Rick finally reached the moment that she waited for. In the match against Stetson, Rick finished with a double-double of 48 assists and 10 digs. It was Rick's 20th career double-double and her 10th of the season.
Only needing 26, she passed Gigi Meyer (4,408 2011-14) and became the all-time leader in career assists and now has 4,430 in her career.
With her 10 digs, Rick is now one dig away from being the 10th player to reach 800 digs.
Rick also tied Courtney Stephens (2014-17), Meyer (2011-14) and Whitney Masters (2011-14) for the program's matches played mark with 126. She is slated to break the record on Saturday.
In addition, the senior also surpassed Kennesaw State's Sara Metroka (4,427, 2010-13) for fifth-place on the A-SUN all-time list:
1. Colleen Nilson (Belmont, 2004-07) – 5,636
2. April DeCoste (Georgia State, 2001-04) – 5,391
3. Stefine "Jake" Pease (Lipscomb, 2007-10) – 5,159
4. Kendall Courtney (Jacksonville, 2010-13) – 4,851
5. Maggie Rick (FGCU, 2015-present) – 4,430
6. Sara Metroka (Kennesaw State, 2010-13) – 4,427
7. Gigi Meyer (FGCU, 2011-14) – 4,408
8. Jenny Frank (UCF, 2001-03) – 4,102
9. Kristi Piedimonte (Kennesaw State, 2014-17) – 4,005
10. Kayla Weller (Stetson, 2012-15) – 3,789
The Spicy Serrano Wall :
Junior Dani Serrano still remains hot both on offense and defense. Offensively, Serrano currently has 194 kills in her name (third on the team).
Against Stetson, Serrano had a combined 16 kills and four blocks.
In fact Serrano's 176 kills put her at 584 in her career (14th all-time).
In the match against Stetson, Serrano had three block assists, in which she now has 287 in her career and counting
In total blocks, Serrano now has 337 and is six shy of passing Mesner (342) as the all-time leader in total blocks.
In solo blocks, Serrano has 50 and is two away from passing Ericka Fonseca (51, 2005-06) for second all-time.
Blizzard Alert:
Sophomore Snowy Burnam continues to put her opponents in a cold spell as she is third on the team in kills (190).
In match against Stetson, Burnam had a double-double of a career-high 19 kills and 13 digs in which recorded a new in kills while hitting .429.
She had three consecutive double-doubles, along with five straight matches with double-digit digs. All five of her double-doubles this year have come over the past nine matches.
Winning Assistance:
Long time assistant volleyball coach Daniel Mahy has also garnered career wins of his own. Mahy has been with the Eagles since the inaugural season (2004) with Jaye Flood and enters his 13th season as assistant coach for the Eagles.
Mahy left the Eagles from 2006-07 and joined NCAA DII Barry University before returning to FGCU in 2008 after head coach Dave Nichols (FGCU's 2nd head coach) took over the team before Botsford took over in 2014.
Mahy has been an assistant coach for all three head coaches and has built up 262 total wins with FGCU and 290 in his overall coaching career in the NCAA, including the 28 wins at Barry.
Along with coach Mahy, fellow assistant coach Stephanie Zielinski earned wins in her coaching career. The former Rutgers All-American secured her 52nd career win as an NCAA assistant coach.
Block Party in Alico:
The Block Party (Serrano, VanLiew, Burnam, seniors Sharonda Pickering and Kaiti Krivdo, junior Giogio Borgiotti and freshman Tori Morris) have a combined 486 total blocks with Serrano leading the team and the A-SUN in total blocks (132). The squad were held to only eight total blocks against Stetson.
With blocks from the Block Party, along with total blocks from seniors Karissa Rhoades (1), an injured senior Amanda Carroll (7), Rick (16) and Lockey (1), the Eagles have 504 total blocks (2.89 per set). The blocks per set bumped them from #8 to #6 in the nation.
Unfortunately, the Eagles dropped to holding their opponents to a .135 hitting percentage, which is now #2 in the nation behind Nebraska (.131) by four points, but are still in good spirits nonetheless.
Paul Bunyan's Apprentice:
Freshman Dana Axner continues to "chop down" the opponents' opportunities of getting kills. In 17 straight matches, Axner has had at least 10 digs in a match while leading the team and the A-SUN with 514 digs (5.14 per set) and 10 20+ dig matches.
In the match against Stetson, Axner had a combined 27 digs, one ace and three assists.
As a result, Axner became the 17th Eagle to reach 500 career digs and sits fourth all-time as she passed Whitney Hendry's 2004 and 2006 season records (488 in 2006: sixth all-time, 502 in 2004: fifth all-time) and Whitney Masters' 2013 record (512: fourth all-time) for most digs in a single season. She is now six shy of passing Masters' 2014 record for third all-time (519).
In addition, the native of Dublin, Ohio is now one of three players with 100 or more assists for only the second time in program history. Along with Rick (745) and Lockey (394), the trio joins the 2012 group of Meyer (683), Courtney Greenberg (510) and Masters (121).
Along with her current amount of digs, Axner is 11 away from passing Ingrid Felicio (524, 2004-05) for 16th all-time in her career.
Nation's Best:
Pickering leads the nation in hitting percentage at .438 this season. Pickering had nine kills against Stetson with a .304 hitting percentage. The native of Sea Cow's Bay, Tortola, BVI is one point ahead of San Diego's Addison Picha (.437) and four points ahead of Wisconsin's 6-8 Dana Retteke (.434), the tallest player in the nation.
In the Polls:
The Eagles have also ascended to No. 25 in the latest VolleyballMag.com Mid-Major poll presented by the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC).
"It's always nice to see the program getting some national recognition," Botsford said. "Over the course of the season, we have now had three separate A-SUN teams represented, which really speaks to the level of play in our conference."
It is believed to be just the second time the program has been ranked following a No. 24 spot in the Aug. 29, 2017 poll. The team's current winning streak is tied as the fourth-longest in the program's Division-I era (tied with 2008 team).
Rhoade Dog:
For senior Karissa Rhoades, she leads the team in aces (28) and has 867 career digs. Rhoades had two digs in the matchup against Stetson.
Scouting Liberty:
The Flames are coming off of this past weekend as they fell to Kennesaw (3-0) and Lipscomb (3-1) on the road before defeating Stetson 3-0 Thursday night. The Flames remain in fourth place behind Lipscomb, but have clinched a spot in the conference tournament
Offensively, juniors Casey Goodwin and Anna Gragg lead the Lady Flames on the offensive front. Goodwin leads the team with 274 kills and 39 aces, while Gragg is behind Goodwin with 214 kills.
In the past weekend, Goodwin had 22 kills while Gragg had 15 kills. Against Stetson, Goodwin was held to six kills while Gragg had 11.
Defensively, senior Margaret Latchford leads the team in digs (362). In both matches against Lipscomb and Kennesaw, Latchford had 39 total digs (24 vs Lipscomb, 15 vs Kennesaw) while against Stetson she had 15 digs, four assists and two aces.
The Eagles and Lady Flames faced each other on Friday, October 12 where the Eagles won in five sets with VanLiew getting 22 kills while Rick had 45 assists and Axner had 18 digs in that match. Rick also had 10 digs for one of her 10 double-doubles this year.
The Eagles and Lady Flames faced each other on Friday, October 12 where the Eagles won in five sets with VanLiew getting 22 kills while Rick had 45 assists and Axner had 18 digs in that match. Rick also had 10 digs for one of her 10 double-doubles this year.
How to Keep Up:
Livestats will be available for the match and will air livestream on Facebook Live on the FGCU volleyball team's Facebook page
Fans can also keep up on Twitter:
FGCU: @FGCU_VB
Liberty: @LibertyWVB
Promotions:
The theme for the final match is Senior Night for four seniors: Pickering, Rick, Karissa Rhoades, Kaiti Krivdo and Amanda Carroll. The ceremony for the four seniors will happen prior to the start of the match.
In addition, it will also be a green out as marketing is encouraging fans to wear green to the match.
My guess will be that all four seniors will be in the starting lineup. For the lineup, it will be Rhoades, Serrano, Rick, Krivdo, Axner at Libero, Burnam and Pickering.
As for Carroll, I would think realistically that she redshirted for the rest of the season from the knee injury that happened in the Lobo Classic, but maybe she's deciding to play in this match. It's a theory I can't really solve at the moment.
Livestats link: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=223103
Livestream link: https://www.facebook.com/fgcuvolleyball
Promotions:
The theme for the final match is Senior Night for four seniors: Pickering, Rick, Karissa Rhoades, Kaiti Krivdo and Amanda Carroll. The ceremony for the four seniors will happen prior to the start of the match.
In addition, it will also be a green out as marketing is encouraging fans to wear green to the match.
My guess will be that all four seniors will be in the starting lineup. For the lineup, it will be Rhoades, Serrano, Rick, Krivdo, Axner at Libero, Burnam and Pickering.
As for Carroll, I would think realistically that she redshirted for the rest of the season from the knee injury that happened in the Lobo Classic, but maybe she's deciding to play in this match. It's a theory I can't really solve at the moment.
Livestats link: http://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=223103
Livestream link: https://www.facebook.com/fgcuvolleyball
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