The FGCU volleyball team (24-3, 12-1 A-SUN) closed out their final home match of the season in success as they shutout North Florida (12-15, 5-7 A-SUN) 3-0 (25-16, 25-16, 27-25). With the win, the Eagles have claimed their fourth conference series sweep of the season and are now 24-6 against the Ospreys.
The Eagles, who tied Stephen F. Austin and Western Kentucky for the most wins in the nation with Sunday's outcome, pushed their winning streak to 14 straight overall and have also won 25 consecutive sets, which breaks a tie with the 2017 team for the second longest such stretch in the program's Division I era. They are now five shy of tying the 2007 team's all-time mark, while the overall match streak is just two shy of matching last year's team for the longest in FGCU's annals.
"I am really happy to walk away with a sweep," FGCU head coach Matt Botsford said. "I thought North Florida was doing some nice things, especially from the service line that was causing us some issues, but I'm most happy with our response in the third set after UNF took the lead. I thought our girls scrapped. We weren't executing at a particularly high level, but our hustle earned us a few extra points that ended up being really big."
Offensively, it was senior Daniele Serrano that led the Eagles offensively and defensively. Serrano finished with a match-high 12 kills and seven blocks (one solo). Junior Snowy Burnam followed Serrano with 11 kills, seven digs and three blocks.
Sophomore Chelsea Lockey was three digs shy of a double-double as she finished with 37 assists, seven digs, a kill and a block.
Junior Cortney finished with seven kills, an ace, five blocks (one solo) and five digs while sophomore Tori Morris finished with three kills and four blocks (one solo).
Sophomore Dana Axner finished with 22 digs, an ace and two assists.
Notes:
With her 12 kills, Serrano now has 796 career kills and needs four to become the eighth Eagle to reach 800 career kills and 42 shy of surpassing Ericka Fonseca (837, 2005-06) for seventh all-time. Meanwhile Serrano's seven blocks put her at 455 and needs 20 to surpass ETSU's Meredith Hardy (474, 2010-13) as the all-time leader in total blocks in the A-SUN.
Serrano's .733 hitting percentage over 15 attempts is her new career-high in a match with at least 10 attacks. It was her second straight outing with double-digits and her fifth such match this year, just one shy of her season-high in kills.
Burnam's 11 kills put her at 619 in her career and needs 31 to surpass Jelena Simic (649, 2009, 2011) for 14th all-time. In digs, Burnam now has 560 and needs 44 Christine Pinder (603, 2012-13) for 16th all-time. Burnam's three blocks were block assists and she now has 162 in her career. In total, she has 173 and has surpassed Lauren Tutwiler (170, 2014-15) for 11th all-time. Burnam needs six block assists to surpass Kaitlin Holm (167, 2011-13) and four total blocks to surpass Sharonda Pickering (176, 2017-18) for 10th all-time.
Lockey's 37 assists put her at 1,476 as she surpassed Roberta Santos (1,475, 2007-08) for fifth all-time. Lockey's next milestone is Laura Manovill (1,809, 2004-05) for fourth all-time.
VanLiew's seven kills put her at 1,145 and needs 29 to surpass Brooke Youngquist-Sweat (1,173, 2004-07) for second all-time, while in digs she has 718 in her career and is 48 shy of passing Chandra Lefever (765, 2006-07, 09) for 12th all-time. VanLiew's lone solo block pushed her to 24 as she surpassed Jacqueline Cowden (23, 2009-10) and Melissa Duffield (23, 2005) for 10th all-time and is tied with Pickering (24, 2017-18) for ninth all-time.
Three of Morris' total blocks were blocks assists now has 132 in her career as she surpassed Kaitlan Krivdo (129, 2015-18) for 15th all-time and tied with Santos (132, 2007-08) for 14th all-time. Her one solo block put her at 19 as she surpassed Jill Hopper (18, 2011-13) for 17th all-time. In total blocks, Morris has 151 in her career.
Axner's 22 digs put her at 1,080 in her career and needs five to surpass Courtney Stephens (1,084, 2014-17) for sixth all-time.
Redshirt senior Amanda Carroll finished with a kill, an ace and four digs. Carroll's lone kill put her at 1,452, while her lone ace put her at 135 and her four digs put her at 1,193. Carroll needs five aces to surpass Ana Kokanovic (139, 2007-08) as the all-time leader.
Botsford earned his 139th career win with the Eagles (380th overall) while longtime assistant coach Daniel Mahy earned his 290th career win (317th overall) and second-year assistant coach Stephanie Zelinski earned her 78th.
A-SUN Scores:
Jacksonville (9-18, 5-8 A-SUN) shutout NJIT (1-27, 0-12 A-SUN) in Newark.
Liberty (16-9, 9-4 A-SUN) defeated North Alabama (3-23, 1-12 A-SUN) 3-2.
Next A-SUN Scheduled Matches:
November 5: UNF vs Bethune-Cookman (7-19, 4-6 MEAC) at 7 pm
November 8:
UNF vs Jacksonville at 7 pm,
NJIT vs Lipscomb at 7 pm.
November 9: NJIT vs North Alabama at 1 pm
November 10:
Jacksonville vs Bethune-Cookman at 1 pm
Liberty vs UNF at 1 pm
Kennesaw State vs Stetson at 1 pm
Up Next:
FGCU will be back in action on Friday at Kennesaw State (16-8, 9-3 A-SUN). With a win, the Green and Blue would clinch the program's second consecutive outright A-SUN regular season title and the top seed in the A-SUN tournament, which will be held in Alico Arena Nov. 21-23.
A-SUN Conference Standings:
*1. FGCU - 24-3, 12-1
*2. Kennesaw State - 16-8, 9-3
*3. Liberty - 16-9, 9-4
4. Lipscomb - 12-11, 8-4
5. Stetson - 10-12, 7-5
6. North Florida - 12-15, 5-7
7. Jacksonville - 9-18, 5-8
8. North Alabama - 3-23, 1-12
9. NJIT - 1-27, 0-12
*clinched A-SUN tournament berth
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