FGCU VB vs Stetson; UNF Preview

 The top-ranked FGCU volleyball team (22-3, 10-1 A-SUN) will look to keep streaking as they host Stetson (10-11, 7-4 A-SUN) Friday night at 7 p.m. and North Florida (11-14, 4-6 A-SUN) Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. inside Alico Arena this weekend to close out their home portion of the regular season schedule.

Senior Day:
Prior to Friday's match, the volleyball program will honor its three seniors - Giovanna Borgiotti, Amanda Carroll and Daniele Serrano.

In nearly four seasons, they are on pace to become the first senior class in the program's Division I era to record at least 100 wins. The trio has helped lead the Eagles to a 98-26 record entering this weekend, including a 46-9 record in A-SUN play while advancing to three straight A-SUN tournament championship matches. Last year, they led the program to an A-SUN regular season championship and its first ever NCAA Tournament appearance, where the Eagles knocked off No. 13 UCF in the opening round.

Still Streaking:
The Eagles will enter Friday's tilt having won 12 straight matches and 19 consecutive sets. They are one of just 10 teams across the nation with at least 20 victories, and their 22 victories is tied with Milwaukee and Stephen F. Austin for the second-most in the nation behind Western Kentucky's 23.

Most Division I victories
1. Western Kentucky - 23
2. FGCU - 22
     Milwaukee - 22
     Stephen F. Austin - 22
5. Pittsburgh - 21
    South Dakota - 21
    Colorado State - 21
8. Towson - 20
    New Mexico State - 20
    Robert Morris - 20

In addition to that, FGCU's 12-match winning streak is tied for the seventh-longest in the nation. With Tuesday's win over Liberty, the Eagles are now four shy of matching the program's Division I era winning streak record of 16 that was set last year.

Longest Division I winning streaks
1. Western Kentucky - 20
    Colorado State - 20
3. South Dakota - 18
4. Stephen F. Austin - 15
5. Towson - 14
     Fairfield - 14
7. FGCU - 12
    Creighton - 12
    New Mexico State - 12
10. VCU - 11
       Wisconsin

Meanwhile, FGCU's 19-set winning streak is three shy of matching the 2017 team for the second-longest in the program's Division I era behind the 2007 team, who won 30 straight.

 A-SUN Roundup:
FGCU currently sits atop the A-SUN standings with a 10-1 record, just ahead of Kennesaw State (9-2). While they'll have to wait for Nov. 8 to meet the Owls again, the Eagles can't overlook any match, especially as Stetson rides into town with an eight-match winning streak. The Hatters are one of two teams outside of Liberty to win a set against FGCU in conference season. In fact, the Eagles are 36-2 in sets vs conference teams since their loss to Liberty to open conference play.

Conference Standings
*1. FGCU - 22-3, 10-1
2. Kennesaw State - 16-7, 9-2
3. Lipscomb - 11-10, 7-3
4. Liberty - 14-9, 7-4
5. Stetson - 10-11, 7-4
6. North Florida - 11-14, 4-6
7. Jacksonville - 7-18, 3-8
8. North Alabama - 3-21, 1-10
9. NJIT - 1-25, 0-10
*clinched A-SUN tournament berth

Highest RPI:
FGCU was ranked 44th in the season's first official RPI rankings, which was the highest in program history. They were ranked 48th the following week, 52nd last week and 63rd this week, which remains the highest among all conference teams.

#63 FGCU
#90 Kennesaw State
#132 Liberty
#176 Lipscomb
#220 Stetson
#256 North Florida
#280 Jacksonville
#300 North Alabama
#318 NJIT

Series History:
FGCU is 22-2 all-time against Stetson having won 12 consecutive matches in a streak that started Nov. 21, 2013. During that unblemished stretch, the Eagles only went to five sets twice and have produced sweeps in six of the 12.

Snowy Burnam (17) and Cortney VanLiew (14) combined for 31 kills in the first matchup against the Hatters this year. Dana Axner added 19 digs, while Chelsey Lockey had 52 assists. The Eagles produced 15 blocks as a team, led by four apiece from Burnam (Palm City, Fla./Jensen Beach HS) and Tori Morris.

Meanwhile, FGCU is 23-6 all-time against North Florida. The Ospreys have lost three straight - all in straight sets - in the series, but they claimed a pair of five set wins over the Eagles on their home court in 2016 and 2017. The Green and Blue have never lost to North Florida in Alico Arena, sporting an 11-0 record and winning 30 of 33 sets in Fort Myers.

VanLiew had a match-high 18 kills against UNF on Oct. 4, while Axner had 13 digs. Lockey chipped in 37 assists, while Morris had five blocks.

Green and Blue Notes:
Last Tuesday, Axner became the seventh player in program history to reach 1,000 career digs in the team's straight-set win over Bethune-Cookman. She tallied 20 in the match and now sits at 1,035. The sophomore reached the milestone in just 56 career matches, becoming the fastest to do so in program history, and she already ranks fifth in the program's Division I era in career digs. The last player to reach the milestone was Amanda Carroll on Aug. 31, 2018.

Furthermore, Axner has extended her season-high streak of matches with 10 or more digs to 17. She had her career-high 28-match streak snapped on Sept. 13 against Indiana, which was the only time this year she failed to record at least 10 and was a streak that dated back to Sept. 21 of last year. Nationally, her 411 digs overall and 5.14 per set rank 37th and 17th, respectively.

VanLiew, who is one of just three players in program history to achieve at least 1,000 kills and 500 digs in a career along with Carroll and Brooke Youngquist Sweat, has double-digit kills in 19 of 25 matches overall this year. On Oct. 5, she concluded a program record-tying streak of 15 consecutive matches with at least 10 or more kills, tying Eleonora Kazarian (Sept. 20 - Nov. 7, 2014) and Ana Kokanovic (Oct. 4 - Nov. 15, 2008). On top of that, she has seven of her 26 career double-doubles this year and ranks among the top 50 nationally in attacks/set, kills/set, points, points/set and kills.

Serrano, a senior middle blocker who already holds all of FGCU's career blocking records, continues her chase to become the A-SUN's all-time blocks leader. She currently sits in second with 443.0, just 32 shy of surpassing Meredith Hardy's (ETSU, 2010-13, 474.0) all-time mark.

Lockey has tallied at least 20 assists in every match this year, as well as 30 or more in 22 of 25 matches. Furthermore, she has eight matches with at least 40, including a career-high 54 against San Diego State on Aug. 31 and UCF on Sept. 20. She has five double-doubles this year in assists and digs, as well as two matches with at least 30 assists, five kills, five digs and two blocks. She is 77 assists shy of producing the 10th season with at least 1,000 in program history.

Burnam inched her way up the record book in several categories against Liberty on Tuesday. Not only is she now three kills shy of becoming the 11th player in the program's Division I era with at least 600 in a career, but she is in sole possession of ninth place on the career block assist list with 156, moved into the top 10 in career blocks with 167 and needs one more point to move into the top 10 in that career category.