FGCU VB @ Kennesaw State Recap

The FGCU volleyball team (24-4, 13-2 A-SUN) were pushed to their limit in the first set as they fell to Kennesaw State (16-9, 9-4 A-SUN) 3-1 (30-28, 28-30, 21-25, 21-25). With the loss, the Eagles are now 16-11 against the Owls and snapped their 14-match winning streak. Despite the loss the Eagles remain in first place in the A-SUN and hold a one-and-a-half match advantage

"This was obviously a disappointing result as we would have liked to perform at a higher level, but much of that had to do with KSU doing a great job applying pressure throughout the match," FGCU head coach Matt Botsford said. "We didn't manage their service game very well and offensively, after that second set, we really struggled to find consistent point scoring."

Offensively, it was junior Cortney VanLiew that led the Eagles as she finished with 16 kills, seven digs, an assist and a block. Following behind VanLiew was senior Daniele Serrano as she finished with eight kills, two digs and five blocks.

Junior Snowy Burnam rounded up with seven kills, an ace, three blocks (one solo) and nine digs

Sophomore Chelsea Lockey put up a double-double of 41 assists and 10 digs while adding two kills, an ace and three blocks.

Aside from Serrano's blocks, sophomores Dana Axner and Tori Morris fought to keep the Eagles' defense in tact. Axner finished with 27 digs and three assists, while Morris finished with four kills, a dig and five blocks (two solo).

Notes:
With her 16 kills, VanLiew has 1,161 in her career and is now 13 shy of surpassing Brooke Youngquist-Sweat (1,173, 2004-07) for second all-time, while seven digs put her at 725 in her career and is 41 shy of passing Chandra Lefever (765, 2006-07, 09) for 12th all-time.

Serrano became the eighth Eagle to reach 800 career kills and now has 804 career kills. She is now 34 shy of surpassing Ericka Fonseca (837, 2005-06) for seventh all-time. Meanwhile, Serrano's five blocks put her at 460 and needs 15 to surpass ETSU's Meredith Hardy (474, 2010-13) as the all-time leader in total blocks in the A-SUN.

Burnam's seven kills put her at 626 in her career and needs 24 to surpass Jelena Simic (649, 2009, 2011) for 14th all-time. Meanwhile her nine digs put her at 570 and remains 30 shy of becoming the 17th Eagle to reach 600 digs and 34 to surpass Christine Pinder (603, 2012-13) for 16th all-time. Her three blocks put her at 173 and needs four to surpass Sharonda Pickering (176, 2017-18) for 10th all-time. Two of Burnam's blocks were block assists. She now has 161 career block assists and needs seven to surpass Kaitlin Holm (167, 2011-13) for 10th all-time.

Lockey's 41 assists put her at 1,517 in her career. Lockey's next milestone is Laura Manovill (1,809, 2004-05) for fourth all-time and needs 293 assists to do so.

Axner's 27 digs helped her surpass Courtney Stephens (1,084, 2014-17) for sixth all-time and now has 1,107 career digs. Her next milestone is a neck-and-neck battle with redshirt senior Amanda Carroll. Carroll finished with six kills and 14 digs in the match. Carroll now has 1,458 career kills and 1,507 career digs. She had no aces and remains five shy of surpassing Anna Kokanovic (139, 2007-08) and becoming the all-time leader in career aces.

Three of Morris' five blocks were block assists and now has 136, thus surpassing Roberta Santos (132, 2007-08) for 14th all-time. Morris' two solo blocks put her at 21 as she surpassed Brooke Kohler (20, 2011-12) for 16th all-time and is in a four way tie with Cara Ziegler (21, 2006-07), Karina Mambuca (21, 2012-13) and Santos (21, 2007-08) for 13th all-time.

In total blocks, Morris surpassed Santos (153, 2007-08) for 14th all-time as she now has 156 in her career. Her next milestone for block assists is Elenora Kazarian (165, 2014-15) for 13th all-time, while in total blocks she needs

The Green and Blue led 23-20 in the opening set before the Owls rallied for force extra points, but FGCU claimed a thrilling 30-28 win in a final stretch that included a 50-second rally. The Eagles continued to roll in the second set and led 24-19, but Kennesaw State scored six straight points, forced another long set and claimed a 30-28 win of their own.

That match-tying victory ended FGCU's consecutive sets won streak at 26, which will stand as the second longest in the program's Division I era behind the 30-set streak set by the 2007 team.

Following that second set, Kennesaw State continued to surge behind the defensive play of Karlee Groover (match-high 41 digs) and the offensive balance of Lauren Chastang (23 kills), Quin Sutphin (15 kills), Dani Ballou (13 kills) and Emma Schurfranz (10 kills). Jasmine Brown added nine as the Owls produced 73 kills along with 92 digs, both of which are the highest totals against FGCU this year.

The Owls scored six of nine and 12 of the first 17 points while controlling the third set to take a 2-1 lead. In the fourth, FGCU rallied and took an 18-16 lead, but fell victim to a service error on the ensuing point and Kennesaw State reeled off five straight, eventually claiming a 25-21 victory.

Updated A-SUN standings:
*1. FGCU - 24-4, 12-2
*2. Kennesaw State - 16-9, 9-3
3. Liberty - 16-9, 9-4
4. Lipscomb - 13-11, 9-4
5. Stetson - 10-12, 7-5
6. North Florida - 14-15, 6-7
7. Jacksonville - 9-19, 5-9
8. North Alabama - 3-23, 1-12
9. NJIT - 1-28, 0-13
*clinched A-SUN tournament berth

Other A-SUN Scores:
UNF (14-15, 6-7 A-SUN) defeated Jacksonville (9-19, 5-9 A-SUN) 3-1 at the UNF Arena. The Ospreys will play Liberty (16-9, 9-4) at home, while the Dolphins play their last non-conference match at home against Bethune-Cookman (8-20, 5-7 MEAC).

Lipscomb (13-11, 9-4 A-SUN) shutout NJIT (1-28, 0-13 A-SUN) 3-0 in Nashville on their senior night. The Highlanders will face North Alabama (3-23, 1-12 A-SUN) in Florence, Alabama.

Other Upcoming matches:
Kennesaw (17-8, 10-3 A-SUN) vs Stetson (10-12, 7-5)

Up Next:
The Eagles are off to Nashville to take on Lipscomb Sunday afternoon at 1 pm at the Allen Arena. The Eagles can claim at least a share of the A-SUN regular season championship if they defeat Lipscomb.