The FGCU volleyball team (15-3, 5-1 A-SUN) made more milestones in tact as they shutout Jacksonville (7-12, 3-2 A-SUN) 3-0 (25-14, 25-22, 25-17). With the win, the Eagles are now 19-11 against the Dolphins.
Offensively, it was freshman Erin Shoemaker that led the Eagles as she finished with 10 kills and three digs. Meanwhile juniors Cortney VanLiew and Snowy Burnam finished with seven kills each. VanLiew added four digs and a solo block, while Burnam added two aces, two assists, nine digs and a block.
VanLiew's seven kills did snap her streak of getting 10 or more kills in a match, but did put her up to 1,060 career kills and remains fourth all-time. Meanwhile, her four digs put her 660 in her career and remains 22 shy of passing Vanessa Benke (681, 2013-15) for 13th all-time while her one solo block was her 21st in her career as she passed Brooke Kohler (20, 2011-12) for 15th all-time and needs one to pass Cara Ziegler (21, 2006-07), Karina Mambuca (21, 2012-13) and Roberta Santos (21, 2007-08) for 12th all-time.
Burnam's seven kills put her at 558 in her career and remains 15 shy of surpassing Leigh Pudwill (572, 2015-16) for 15th all-time. Her nine digs put her at 492 in her career and needs eight to become the 19th Eagle to reach 500 digs and 38 to surpass Ingrid Felicio (524, 2004-05) for 18th all-time.
Senior Daniele Serrano finished behind Shoemaker with eight kills, an assist and three blocks. Serrano's eight kills pushed her to 734 in her career and needs 104 to pass Ericka Fonseca (837, 2005-06) for seventh all-time.
Meanwhile with her blocking she had one solo block, which put her at 63 as she officially passed Olivia Mesner's (62, 2011-14) program record for most solo blocks in a career. In addition to her blocking, Serrano now has 420 career blocks and is now three shy of passing Campbell's Rachel Templin (422, 2003-06) for third most in A-SUN history.
"I remember the first time I was recruiting her, the blocking jumped off the page," FGCU head coach Matt Botsford said. "I knew that we wanted to build a program where blocking was a priority and to have a player like her come in here and continue to develop that skill set, it's been very rewarding."
"Honestly my freshman and sophomore years, attacking was my strong suit," Serrano said. "Last year is when I broke out of my shell blocking wise. I don't really know why. I think something just clicked and coach was saying the right things. I think that it's also continuing to grow because it's something I take pride in. I want to protect my defenders. It's something that motivates me."
Sophomore Chelsea Lockey finished her night with 40 assists, two kills, an ace, three blocks and three digs. With her 40 assists, Lockey now has 1,175 in her career and needs 301 to surpass Santos (1,475, 2007-08) for fifth all-time.
"There's times I wish she was a little more offensive," Botsford said of Lockey. "I think she's going to grow into that. She's trying to get a little more comfortable. You can see what she can do along the net. She can make a bad pass a good pass just because she can save so much with her athleticism and her height. Her blocking gives us a little more stability against the outside hitters. She just continues to get better. To have a sophomore in a position she's in and doing what she's doing is great. We've been lucky in that sense going from Gigi Meyer to Maggie Rick and now Chelsey Lockey."
Sophomore Dana Axner finished her night defensively with 13 digs and an ace. Axner's 13 digs put her at 940 and remains eight away from surpassing Gigi Meyer (947, 2011-14) for seventh all-time.
"Defensively, I don't know how many times Dana has been second in digs ... not often," said Botsford on Axner. :She was controlling the back line extremely well."
Redshirt senior Amanda Carroll finished with five kills and a season-high 17 digs. Carroll's five digs put her at 1,431 in her career, while her 17 digs put her at 1,131.
"What she did in that last set is what you would expect to see from a senior with the experience that she has," Botsford said. "There was some openings defensively, and she was up there just surgically hitting the spot and was going to continue to do that until a change was made. The decision making that came from Amanda was what we were hoping to see from the collective. Again, it wasn't working out that way, so she did exactly what she needed to do to get our team in position to get a sweep."
Sophomore Tori Morris (six kills and three blocks), junior Alayna Ryan (one assist and two digs) and senior Giovanna Borgiotti (one kill and one dig) also contributed to the match. Borgiotti's one kill put her at 536 in her career (17th all-time).
As far as coaching, Botsford earned his 131st career win as head coach for the Eagles and his 372nd overall win as a coach in the NCAA, while longtime assistant coach Daniel Mahy earned his 309th career win as a coach in the NCAA (282nd with FGCU) while Zielinski earned her 70th.
Senior Mallory Mattingly leads the Dolphins offensively with eight kills, while junior Bailey Foy and freshman Sydney Bolding followed with six kills each. Foy added seven blocks.
Senior Natalie Wehner led with 11 digs.
Other A-SUN Scores:
Kennesaw State (12-5, 5-0 A-SUN) defeated North Alabama (3-16, 1-5 A-SUN). The Lions will return to action on October 18 as they travel to face UNF.
Liberty (12-6, 5-1 A-SUN) shutout NJIT (1-19, 0-5 A-SUN) 3-0. The Flames will host Stetson Sunday.
Stetson (4-11, 1-4) defeated UNF (7-12, 1-4 A-SUN). The Ospreys will travel across Jacksonville to take on their crosstown rival Jacksonville.
Up Next:
The Eagles remain at home as they welcome Kennesaw Sunday afternoon at 2 pm. The match will air on ESPN+. Should FGCU win, they would move into at least a three-way tie with Liberty and Kennesaw State for first place.
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