A-SUN Tennis Conference Tournament: Day One

With the seeds set and secured, six teams will be playing in the A-SUN Conference Women's Tennis Tournament:

No. 1 seed FGCU

No. 2 seed UNF

No. 3 seed NJIT

No. 4 seed Stetson

No. 5 seed Lipscomb

No. 6 Kennesaw

Since FGCU and UNF are the top two seeds, they have been secured with a bye round, so they did not have to compete in the quarterfinals. They will await the winners of the QF matchups

Seeds No. 3-6 will play in the QF to advance to the semifinals.

I was able to take a brief look at the four teams that were playing this morning before class.

No.3 NJIT was playing No. 6 Kennesaw while No.4 Stetson played No.5 Lipscomb.

There was actually a decent crowd at the FGCU Tennis Complex. Even members of the Lipscomb men's tennis team were there to support the Lady Bison.

The Highlanders beat the Owls 4-3 while the Hatters beat the Bison 4-2.

What was interesting before I left for class was during the doubles matches between Lipscomb and Stetson, Lipscomb forfeited one of their matches, leaving the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles to secure the point before losing. So the semifinals have been set. No, 1 FGCU will face No. 4 Stetson and No. 2 UNF will face No. 3 NJIT tomorrow at noon. The winners of both semis will play in the championship at 10 a.m. on ESPN 3 and will secure an automatic bid in the NCAA National Tournament in Athens, Georgia.

On the men's side, the journey has already begun as well.

Just like the women, the men's seeds were set and secure in the tournament:
No. 1 seed UNF
No. 2 seed Stetson
No. 3 seed Kennesaw
No. 4 seed FGCU
No. 5 seed Upstate
No. 6 seed Lipscomb

UNF and Stetson also had a first round bye for being the top two seeds, and seeds 3-6 started. FGCU played Upstate while Kennesaw played Lipscomb.

In doubles, FGCU and Upstate were neck and neck. On court one, the team of junior Oliver Landert and A-SUN Freshman of the Year and A-SUN All-Freshman team member Felipe Ramirez took on freshman Fernando Bernardes and junior Ignacio Garrido. Landert and Ramirez won 6-1.

On court two, senior Andy Alfonzo and A-SUN All-Conference Second Team member Ezequiel Cerrini took on junior Felix Ewers and sophomore Lenhard Haupt, but fell 4-6.

It all came down to court three with the team of Mateo Ruiz and A-SUN Second Team All-Conference member Javier Fernandez took on sophomore Ankush Arora and freshman Francisco Neto. Fernandez and Ruiz struggled early in the set, but soon came to life and finished with a 7-5 victory. On the final point, Fernandez and Ruiz fought with a 40-love lead before securing the match point

Going into singles, with FGCU leading 1-0, Ewers took down Ramirez 6-0, 6-1 to tie the matchup, but the Eagles fought back after Ramirez's loss. Cerrini took down Bernardes with a 6-1, 6-2 win. Fernandez was quick to follow with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Neto.

With the score 3-1 in favor of the Eagles, it came down to three matches: Ruiz vs Haupt, Landert vs Arora and Alfonzo vs Garrido. Ruiz dropped the first set to Haupt 4-6, but then won the second set 7-6 in a tiebreaker. Landert battled Arora and won the first set, but dropped the second set.

At the same time, Landert and Alfonzo went for match point and secured the win for FGCU to advance. Landert won 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 and Alfonzo won 7-5, 6-3 against Garrido. Ruiz did not finish his matchup since FGCU won.

"I'm really proud of Oliver," said head coach CJ Weber. "He's had a lot of close matches but he's been playing great tennis. I don't know if he needed this because his tennis has been fine but it has to feel good for him to get a win for the team and to clinch the match. The last several years we've gone back and forth with UNF and it's an awesome rivalry and we always look forward to it. I want us to pack the house tomorrow."

In the end, FGCU won 4-1 and will face UNF in the semifinals.

Attendance wise, it was a really big crowd. A lot of people were there. More than I could imagine. In fact, a lot of the FGCU men's soccer players including junior A-SUN Player of the Year Albert Ruiz, former cross country runner Stephanie Cajas and members of the FGCU women's tennis team.

After FGCU's victory, Kennesaw played Lipscomb and it was close matchup. Lipscomb won 4-3 after junior Alejandro Manzanares of Lipscomb beat sophomore Fermin Calvo Barcelo of KSU 4-6, 6-4, 7-5. Lipscomb will play Stetson in semifinals and FGCU will once again face UNF at 5 p.m.

The FGCU women's team will play Stetson and UNF will play NJIT at noon.

Below are numerous photos from the matchups for men's and women's tournament:

FGCU Beach Volleyball: Final Matchup

There is always athletic events going around FGCU on campus, but what if there was something FGCU athletics did off-campus?

In fact, there is something that FGCU athletics does off-campus that is still in the Estero area and that is beach volleyball or sand volleyball as it use to be known as.

The FGCU beach volleyball team (13-6, 6-4 A-Sun) wrap up their season with one final matchup against Florida International University (FIU) (20-12, 8-5 CCSA).

Before the matchups, FGCU will recognize three seniors on the team: Leigh Pudwill, Caroline Jordan and Madi Wilcox.

Pudwill came to FGCU as a junior transfer from the University of Northern Iowa. She played for the indoor team her first year and then played beach volleyball in a limited amount of time claiming a 4-4  overall record mainly playing with Katherine Puisis. Pudwill, now 8-5 overall, plays with fellow senior Wilcox.

Jordan, who played all four years in beach and indoor volleyball played mainly with junior college transfer Halie Werkmeister and converted 11-4 with Werkmeister. Jordan played two games with sophomore Kaitlin Krivdo.

Wilcox played indoor volleyball her freshman year as well as beach, but decided to play mainly beach volleyball only. Wilcox was named to the Atlantic Sun’s All-Academic Team and All-Tournament Team last year when she teamed up with then volleyball player Elisa Anne Aldrich.

Other players to look at for FGCU are sophomores Amanda Carroll, Karissa Rhoades and Katherine Puisis and juniors Mackenzie Allen and Halie Werkmeister.

Carroll, last years A-Sun Freshman Player of the Year mainly played with Allen and both Allen and Caroll produced an 11-6 record.

Rhoades and Puisis hold the teams best 13-4 record.

Werkmeister, a junior college transfer from Pasco-Hernando State College, played with Jordan on an 11-4 record.

FIU has lost the last two matchups to FSU (2-3) and Pepperdine (2-3)

Players to look out for on FIU and are likely teams to face are the teams of senior Anabela Sataric and junior Estefanie Bethancourt, junior Natalia Giron and redshirt freshman Lina Bernier, freshman Federica Frasca and sophomore Margherita Bianchin and senior Katie Hogan and freshman Helene Thelle.

Sataric and Bethancourt are currently 20-10 with a 5-6 record in conference.

Girion and Bernier are 19-8 with a 6-4 record in conference.

Both from Italy, the team of Frasca and Biachin are 16-3 with a 7-1 record in conference.

Hogan and Thelle are 11-3 with a 4-2 record in conference.

The location for the five matchups will be at Estero Community Park at 4 pm.

After that, FGCU will prepare for the A-Sun Beach Volleyball Championship in Deland, Florida.

Five seeds will play in a double elimination style matchup. Currently, FGCU is the No. 3 seed in conference and will play Mercer University, who is the No. 2 seed on Saturday at 11am, and the seeds are in the following order with times:
1. Stetson (No. 9 in the nation) bye round and plays the winner of match one between UNF and JU
2. Mercer vs FGCU at 11 am
3. FGCU vs Mercer at 11 am
4. UNF vs JU at 9 am
5. JU vs UNF at 9 am

If FGCU beats Mercer, they will play either Stetson or the winner between UNF and JU, but if they lose, they will play in a losers bracket between UNF and JU and try to avoid elimination.

It is free admission for all people in the area.

FGCU Women's Tennis: A-SUN Conference Tournament Set in Stone

After so much hard work, the FGCU women's tennis has set its path in conference as they begin their route to the NCAA Women's Tennis National Tournament, which will take place at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Georgia.

FGCU (14-4, 6-0 A-SUN) is set as the number one seed in the A-SUN conference and earned a bye-week in the first round of the tournament.

Prior to that, FGCU played their last season matchup to become the number one seed against conference rival UNF (13-8, 5-1 A-SUN) as both teams were battling for first place and the number one seed in the conference tournament.

It was FGCU who came out on top with a 4-3 win over UNF on senior day. This marked as the first time in program history that FGCU has beaten UNF in women's tennis. UNF won 12 straight times against FGCU including the last year's A-SUN conference finals.

Thanks to wins from lone senior Breana Stampfli, sophomores Julia Ascua and Laura Falceto Font, the Eagles claim a first round bye and will play the winner between no. 4 Stetson and no. 5 Lipscomb. Previously, FGCU beat both teams in the season. They beat the Hatters 6-1 at Stetson and Lipscomb 6-1 at home.

The seeds are setup as followed including overall and conference records:
1. FGCU (14-4, 6-0)
2. UNF (13-8, 5-1)
3. NJIT (6-12, 3-3)
4. Stetson (6-13, 3-3)
5. Lipscomb (6-16, 2-4)
6. Kennesaw State (5-14, 1-5)

USC Upstate (3-18, 1-5 A-SUN) was eliminated from playoff content, which honestly to me is no surprise really because Upstate has its fair share of bad seasons including going 0-21 last season.

Here are 10 facts to recap about the FGCU women's tennis team this season:
1. FGCU has never beaten UNF until this past Saturday, so now the record between the two teams is UNF is still 12-1 overall.

2. Brena Stampfli is the only senior on the FGCU women's tennis team.

3. FGCU beat USF 5-2, marking as the first time in program history that FGCU beat USF in women's tennis.

4. FGCU had four shutouts with three of them being in non-conference.

5. Freshman Maja Ornberg is the only FGCU women's tennis to earn A-SUN Player of the Week three times.

6. Four of FGCU's players earned A-SUN Player of the Week (Stampfli, Falceto Font, Ascua and Ornberg (3x)).

7. Last season, the doubles team of Ascua and junior Julianna Curtis were 19-2 overall and 6-0 in conference. They are currently 18-8 overall and 3-1 in conference and are now 37-10 overall as a team.

8. Stampfli, Font and Ascua are the only players that were unbeaten in singles play in conference this season (Stampfli (6-0), Font (6-0) and Ascua (4-0)).

9. FGCU captured its first-ever A-SUN Regular Season title.

10. Stampfli is 96-39 overall in singles and doubles combined overall including postseason wins.

A-SUN Award Winners:
As a result of their progress, the Eagles earned 15 accolades as listed:

Coach of the Year: head coach Courtney Vernon
Freshman of the Year: Ornberg
A-SUN All-Conference First Team: Ornberg, Stampfli and Ascua
A-SUN All-Conference Second Team (singles): Falceto Font
A-SUN All-Conference Second Team (doubles): Ornberg and Stampfli (#2 doubles)
A-SUN All-Freshman Team: Ornberg, Sara Kelly and Bridget Forster
A-SUN Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Curtis
A-SUN All-Academic Team: Curtis, Falceto Font and Ascua

The A-SUN Conference quarterfinals starts at noon April 21st. No. 3 NJIT will play No. 6 Kennesaw State while No. 4 Stetson plays No. 5 Lipscomb. UNF will play the winner between NJIT and KSU while FGCU will play the winner between Stetson and Lipscomb on Saturday at noon.

The final championship match will be on Sunday at 10 am and will air on ESPN3 and the winner will secure their automatic conference ticket to the NCAA National Tournament in Athens, Georgia.

FGCU Women's Tennis vs. UNF Preview: Senior Day

With the regular tennis season coming to a close, the FGCU women's tennis team (13-4, 5-0 A-SUN) stop at no roadblock to finish as they face off against UNF (13-7, 5-0 A-SUN) at home.

Last Time Out:
The Eagles had a successful run in conference this season and continue with their six-match winning streak. In their last two home games, they played Kennesaw State and won 7-0 and Lipscomb 6-1.

With the game against Lipscomb, FGCU had a small advantage to help the win and the advantage was Lipscomb had only five players on their team, so with the 1-0 advantage from a forfeited singles match and a forfeited doubles match, the freshman team of Sara Kelly and Bridget Forster secured the point with a 6-2 win before all, but freshman Maja Ornberg won their matches.

Scouting UNF:
For the UNF Ospreys, there are three players to keep a look out for: sophomore Rafaela Gomez, senior Quetzali Vazquez and junior Irina Karangozishvili.

Gomez is currently 22-7 overall in singles with a 5-0 record in conference and 14-12 with a 2-1 record in conference.

Vazquez, one of two seniors on the team, is 18-13 overall in singles with a 3-2 record in conference and 16-12 in doubles with a 4-1 record in conference.

Karangozishvili is 18-5 overall with a 5-0 record in conference in singles and 9-12 overall record in doubles.

Overall, UNF is 12-0 against FGCU, and the last time both teams met in the season, UNF won against FGCU 4-3 and then 4-2 in the A-SUN Championship finals. FGCU has yet to win against UNF.

Although both teams will have a bye week from the first round of the A-SUN conference tournament, both are fighting for first place and the number one seed in conference.

The matchup will mark as senior day. Breana Stampfli will be the only senior on the team. The matchup starts at 3 pm with doubles first and then singles afterwards.

To go into the conference playoff scenario, USC Upstate is not eliminated quite yet after going 0-5 in conference with their most recent loss to Stetson before facing NJIT for their final matchup.

NJIT is sealed as the number three seed and Stetson is sealed at the moment as the number four seed in conference. NJIT has one more matchup with Upstate.

Kennesaw State and Lipscomb despite losing to us, are still in the conference tournament contention, but will face each other in their final matchup to determine the fifth and sixth seeds.

Me with Breana Stampfli from last season.

FGCU Men's Tennis vs. Memphis Preview

The season for FGCU men's tennis is coming to a close before the A-Sun Conference Tournament, so their next game is a little bit of a breather, but it is still a season game. Their opponents to end the season is the University of Memphis Tigers of the American Athletic Conference (AAC).

FGCU (7-11, 3-3 A-Sun) had just wrapped up conference play with a 5-2 win over Lipscomb University (5-12, 1-4 A-Sun) despite have a tough season this year. With so much tensity and high energy, the Eagles beat the Bison with the help of senior Andy Alfonzo, freshman Felipe "Pipe" Ramirez and redshirt sophomore Austin Bates help take the lead, win the match and extended the win of the match.

With the win over Lipscomb, FGCU is finalized as the No. 4 seed in the conference tournament with a little extra help from No.1 UNF beating NJIT 7-0 and No. 2 Stetson beating USC Upstate 4-3.

In addition with the final season matchup, it will also be senior day for Alfonzo and redshirt sophomore Sam Chaffin, so I'm guessing that both players will play in their final season matches before the conference tournament.

To give a scouting report, Memphis (13-6, 2-1 AAC), who is ranked No. 34 in the nation, had recently played two straight conference matches that are ranked. They beat No. 38 SMU 4-2 before falling to No. 29 Tulane University 4-3.

Three tennis players from Memphis to keep an eye out for are junior Andrew Watson, freshman Jan Pallares, and junior Ryan Peniston.

Watson, aside from being 1-2 in conference, is 33-18 overall (18-9 in singles and 15-9 in doubles).

Pallares is also 37-16 overall (19-7 in doubles, 18-9 in singles).

Peniston is 33-14 overall (16-5 in doubles, 17-9 in singles).

As far as I know, this is the first meet between the two teams since FGCU made it's jump to D1 in the 2007-08 school year.

After the doubles matches between the two teams, head coach CJ Weber will address the people in attendance about Chaffin and Alfonzo and give both players recognition. Matches will start at 6pm with doubles first and then singles. It is a non-conference game as noted and it is the last game of the season for FGCU before the A-Sun Conference men's tennis tournament.

FGCU Softball vs USC Upstate preview

With Conference starting, the FGCU softball faces another task during conference: USC Upstate.

FGCU (21-16, 3-3 A-SUN) had just recently finished a tough three game road trip against UNF. Despite losing the first two games (0-2, 4-6) on Saturday, they managed to finish with a 5-2 win.

Some of the players that were key in the series against UNF were junior outfielder Kelsey Huff, sophomore left-handed pitcher Riley Randolph and first baseman sophomore Racquel Fournet.

Huff was 3-11 in the series with a triple and two RBIs.

Randolph, in 13 innings, went 1-1 and gave four runs (three unearned) with four strikeouts in the series.

Fournet was 4-12 in the series.

The player from FGCU who has a lot of experience with Upstate is sophomore Caley Chappel. Chappel played for her now conference rival and batted .200 with three RBIs. Chappel also went to last years national tournament.

To scout out the Spartans, players to look at are senior pitchers Holly McKinnon and Lexi Shubert and junior first baseman Karla Beasley.

McKinnon is 16-5 with a 1.06 ERA and in 139 innings, she gave 28 runs on 78 hits, walked 32 and struck out 158 batters.

Shubert is 13-4 with a 1.82 ERA and in 107.2 innings, she gave up 30 runs on 70 hits, walked 30 and struck out 120 batters.

Series overall, FGCU is 10-15 against Upstate including losing last years A-SUN Championship game at the FGCU Softball Complex. Although, if FGCU would have beaten Upstate, they would have to face them a second time to avoid being eliminated, but after losing in the tournament to Upstate earlier before the championship game, it was a win or go home game (no pun intended).

FGCU will face the Upstate three times on Saturday at 4 and 6 pm and on Sunday, they will play at 1 pm, which will also be senior day for five seniors: catchers Bree Tourtillott and Amber Plaza, right-handed pitcher Taylor Wade, utility player Evita Leter, and second baseman and team captain Jeanie Verderese.

Me with Bree Tourtillott

Me and Amber Plaza

Me with Jeanie Verderese (left) and Taylor Wade (right)

FGCU Tennis vs. Kennesaw State results

Both the FGCU men's and women's tennis team had conference matches against Kennesaw State.

The results did not end in the way people wanted it to be. The women beat KSU 7-0, but the men lost 4-3.

It was gonna be very hard to go back and forth between the two because both teams started at the same time, but I managed to handle it. Because of both genders playing, the men would take courts 1-3 in doubles and 1-6 in singles while the women would take 7-9 in doubles and 7-12 in singles.

For the women's team, FGCU (12-4, 4-0 A-SUN) started off strong in doubles against Kennesaw State (5-12, 1-4 A-SUN) after the duo of junior Julianna "Juje" Curtis and sophomore Julia Ascúa beat Cristina Perez-Martin and Laura Hopton 6-0 on No. 1 doubles.

Later, the duo of senior Breana Stampfli and freshman Maja Ornberg beat Elle Baker and Alexandra Mercado 6-2 on No. 2 doubles to secure the doubles point.

The match between the freshman duo of Bridget Forster and Sara Kelly and Jessica Cantrell and Jada Tijani did not finish at No. 3 doubles even though Forster and Kelly were ahead 5-4 and could have finished.

Before the singles matches started, head coach Courtney Vernon had the crowd turn towards her and asked for a moment of silence for the passing of the mother of former FGCU tennis player Gyanna Mandic. It was really nice for coach V and the team to give her a brick in her name too.

Moving on to singles, Kelly started of with a 6-1, 6-0 straight set win against Cantrell. Forster would quickly follow with a 6-0, 6-1 straight set win of her own against Aspen Jarrett.

With the score 3-0 in favor for FGCU, Ornberg would secure the win with a 6-0, 6-3 straight set win over Mercado.

Now just because the Eagles won four out of seven of the points for the win, it was still not over for them yet as Ascua would finish her match with a 6-4, 6-3 straight set win over Hopton.

Sophomore Laura Falceto Font would get a 7-6 (7-4 tiebreaker), 6-4 straight set win over Kennedy Craig before Stampfli would secure the final match with a 7-5, 6-7 (3-7 tiebreaker), 10-5 win over Perez-Martin. This marked the fourth shutout of their season.

Going to the men's side, things were not so smooth. In the doubles, FGCU (6-11, 2-3 A-SUN) struggled against KSU (11-7, 3-2 A-SUN). The team of senior Andy Alfonzo and sophomore Ezequiel Cerrini lost 6-2 to David Durham and Drew Wendel on court two.

On court one was no better. Despite a comeback that led to a tiebreaker, the team of freshman Fillipe Ramirez and junior Oliver Landert lost to Lucas De Torres and Simon Pritchard 7-6, meaning KSU claimed the doubles point.

On court three, the sophomore duo of Javier Fernandez and Mateo Ruiz had no result to Fermin Calvo Barcelo and Sam Slade.

It was up to FGCU to get at least four singles win to win against KSU. First matchups were rocky. Alfonzo lost a 2-6 pair decision to Wendel before Ruiz lost a 4-6 pair decision to Slade.

With the score 3-0, it looked like FGCU was gonna be shutout again, but then Fernandez claimed the first point on a 6-3, 6-4 win over Jake Bouchillon. One match later, Cerrini beat De Torres 7-6, 6-4 for FGCU's second point. It came down to two matches for the both teams.

After winning the first set and dropping the second, Ramirez, who was down 4-1 in the third set forced a tiebreaker and won 6-2, 6-7, 7-6 against Barcelo. T

he last match was all on Landert's shoulders. Landert dropped the first set, but won the second set forcing a third set, but it was not enough in the end. Landert lost 4-6, 7-6, 4-6 to Calvo.

It was really heartbreaking, but it was a great matchup overall.

A lot of the other athletes did show up at the matches to support the tennis teams from the men's and women's soccer, men's and women's cross country, and men's and women's basketball.

The last conference game for the men is Saturday at home against Lipscomb University at 6 P.M. After conference, they will finish the season with a non-conference home matchup against Memphis next Saturday at 5 pm in what is supposedly senior for Alfonzo and junior Sam Chaffin, who is graduating early.

The women will also play Lipscomb at 5 P.M. on Saturday and finish the season with a final conference matchup next Saturday at 3 P.M. at home against UNF and is also senior day for Stampfli who is the only senior on the team.

Below are several pics and videos during the matches.

Freshman Sopia Perez looks on at her teammates playing

Robert Ferrer, Nicolas Samoya and Alber Ruiz from the FGCU men's soccer team were in attendance

Freshman Hope Van Wagner and sophomore Jocelyn Nelson from the FGCU women's soccer team watch the matches in amazement

Sophomore Sofa Blanno watches her teammates with a few of the FGCU men's cross country runners

Filipe Ramirez reacts positively after the point

Blanno watches her teammates play

Andy Alfonzo sets up to serve

Ezeqiuel Cerrini set ups to serve

FGCU men's team doing their prematch ritual

Coach CJ Weber talks with the team

Women's team doing their prematch ritual

Head coach Courtney Vernon talks with the women's team

The lineup for the matches. The men are on the top and the women are on the bottom for both singles and doubles matches

History of FGCU Men's Basketball

When people think of FGCU men’s basketball, there are two words that normally come into mind: Dunk City. But it did not start that way just yet. Some could say it was Dunk City before it was Dunk City. FGCU men’s basketball started as an independent member in NCAA Division II. They were coached by David Balza, who now coaches at DII Palm Beach Atlantic. In their inaugural season with Balza as head coach, FGCU went 23-9, although they did not play any playoff games since they were an independent team.

In 2007, with Balza still as head coach, FGCU joined the NCAA Division I Atlantic Sun Conference, however, the first four seasons fell badly. They ended up 39-82 overall.

Although FGCU joined as a NCAA Division I team, they could not compete in the national tournament, and the reason is this: when a new university with multiple athletics in DII or lower moves up and joins to be a DI team in the NCAA, the rule is they have to wait four years before they can be eligible to compete for a chance to be in any national tournament. They could still compete in the conference tournaments, however the rule is if a new university wins the conference in season or in the tournament, they are not eligible to go to the national tournament and the team with the best or second best record overall, depending on the team, would go.

During the 2010-11 season, it was marked as Balza’s last season with FGCU and the team went 10-20.

In the beginning of the 2011-12 season, FGCU was eligible to compete for a national tournament opportunity, but they were a ship without a captain and they needed to hire a new coach to replace Balza and the top candidate was Andy Enfield. Enfield had plenty of experience coaching basketball. He was an assistant coach in the NBA for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Boston Celtics six years (1994-2000). After a five-year tenure as an assistant coach for Florida State, Enfield was hired as head coach for FGCU.

In his first year, despite having a 15-17 record and being the sixth seed in the A-SUN, he led the team to the finals of the A-SUN Conference Tournament, however, they fell to then champion and former conference member, Belmont University, by a score of 83-69.

It was 2012-13 season that sparked the minds of many teams to look at. FGCU finished 13-5 in conference behind former conference member, Mercer University. FGCU beat Mercer in the finals and qualified for the national tournament, and then the Cinderella story and birth of Dunk City began. Playing as the No. 15 seed in the South Regional of the 2013 national tournament against No. 2 seed Georgetown. It would look like the Hoyas would win because they were a stronger and much higher seed, but shockingly led by then senior Sherwood Brown and then sophomore Bernard Thompson, FGCU won 78-68 and advance to the second round where they faced number seven San Diego State and won 81-71 before falling to Florida in the Sweet Sixteen. Because of that, FGCU won an ESPY Award for their Cinderella story.

I took the liberty of talking to former Dunk City Member Filip Cvjeticanin, who was the last active member of the original Dunk City.

“During the time, I was playing for FGCU as the original Dunk City,” Cvjeticanin said.

After the 2012-13 season, Enfield parted ways with FGCU and received an offer to be the head coach for the USC Trojans, leaving FGCU once again be a ship without a captain. FGCU hired their next top candidate with coaching experience: Joe Dooley. After a 10-year tenure with the University of Kansas as an assistant coach, under head coach Bill Self, Dooley took the job as head coach for FGCU.

In Dooley's first season, FGCU went 22-13 with a 14-4 record in conference. They would fall to Mercer in the conference tournament finals.

Although their chance to go to the national tournament that season was out, FGCU went to participate in the National Invitational Tournament (NIT), but fell in the first round to FSU.

In Dooley's second season as head coach, after going 22-11 with a 11-3 conference record, Dooley took FGCU to the A-SUN semifinals, but would fall to USC Upstate. FGCU did get an invite to play in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT), but lost in the first round to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

It did not look like things were going to shape up, but then in the 2015-16 season, it changed. FGCU went 22-11 and 8-6 in conference and were able to finish fourth in the conference season. They beat No. 5 Kennesaw State in the quarterfinals and No.1 seed UNF in the semifinal before beating Stetson in the A-SUN Championship Finals. At that moment, Dunk City was coming back to the national tournament.

“I was excited," Cvjeticanin said. "After my last year in 2016, when we went to the national tournament again, I felt more alive than I was in 2013.”

Cvjeticanin, during the 2015-16 season, was fighting through a concussion, but was able to play in tournament. FGCU would go back to the national tournament for the first time since 2013, but were not in the big tournament yet, for they had to play in the First Four to qualify as the No. 16 seed and their opponent was Fairleigh Dickinson. After a blowout win against FDU in the First Four, FGCU would enter in as the number 16 seed against number one seed UNC. Historically, no No. 16 seed has ever beaten a number one seed and gone to at least the second round of the tournament. FGCU, despite an impressive first half being down 41-40, would fall to UNC.

Former FGCU basketball player Julian Debose said “Playing in the second run for Dunk City was something I would never forget. I’m glad to try to play once more for FGCU, even if it was my last."

FGCU Tennis vs Kennesaw Preview

After a successful road trip, the FGCU women's tennis team sets their site on their next conference match against Kennesaw State.

FGCU (11-4,3-0 A-SUN) just completed a three match road trip against Stetson University, the University of South Carolina Upstate and New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). They faced the Hatters in a 6-1 victory before finishing the road trip with  a 6-1 victory over the Upstate and a 5-2 win against NJIT.

In doubles, the team of junior Juliana Curtis and sophomore Julia Ascúa suffered their first doubles loss in their two-year career against NJIT.

In singles competition, freshman Maja Ornberg, sophomore Laura Falceto Font and senior Breana Stampfli are 3-0 in conference.

Sophomore transfer Sofia Blanno (4-4, 0-1 conference) competed for the first time since the fall season, despite losing 6-1, 4-6, 10-8 in her first conference singles game.

Freshman Sofia Perez was unable to join the team.

FGCU have three shutout wins this season (FAMU, Georgia Southern and George Washington), and players to still look at are of course Ornberg, Falceto Font, Ascúa, and Stampfli.

Ornberg is 13-6 and the Kil, Sweden native has already been named A-SUN Player of the Week three times.

Falceto Font is 14-7 and the native from Zaragoza, Spain has been named A-SUN Player of the Week on the week of February 8th.

Ascúa is 12-8 in singles and the native of Santa Fe, Argentina was named Player of the Week in the third week of the season. Ascúa also holds a 17-8 doubles record with a majority of the wins with Curtis.

Stampfli is 16-9 in singles and the former A-SUN Women’s Tennis Freshman of the Year was the first A-Sun Player of the Week in the beginning of the season.

The Kenneesaw State Owls (5-11, 1-3 A-SUN) have lost four straight matches, three of which were conference (2-5 NJIT, 0-7 UNF, 2-5 Stetson).

Players to look at for KSU are junior Alexandra Mercado and freshman Jada Tijani.

A native of Caguas, Puerto Rico, Mercado is 12-13 in singles and 10-10 in doubles.

Tijani is 9-6 in singles and 6-10 in doubles.

Currently, the FGCU women's team is tied for first place with UNF in conference while KSU is tied for fifth with Lipscomb.

The FGCU men's tennis team (6-10, 2-2 A-SUN) had a few struggles this season. On the road, the men went 2-1 for conference. They beat Stetson 5-2 and Upstate 4-3 before falling 4-3 to NJIT.

Players to look at for FGCU are freshman Filippe "Pipe" Ramirez, senior Andres "Andy" Alfonzo and sophomores Javier Fernandez, Ezequiel Cerrini and Mateo Ruiz.

Since his debut with the team against Bethune-Cookman, Ramirez has taken FGCU men's tennis to a whole new level by going 7-3 in singles and 8-5 in doubles, and the native from Armenia, Colombia is supposedly called the "new face of FGCU men's tennis."

Alfonzo enters his last season as a member of the FGCU men's tennis team and despite going 3-12, the senior from Valencia, Venezuela made a statement during the matchup against Upstate by securing the game winner for match point.

Since joining the team last year, Cerrini and Fernandez took the courts by storm. Fernandez, the former A-SUN Freshman of the Year is 18-16 in singles, while Cerrini is 12-16.

Since his debut after transferring from Oklahoma State, Ruiz went 12-12 in singles and still moving strong.

Kennesaw (10-7, 2-2 A-SUN) has key players to look out for: senior Simon Pritchard and sophomore Fermin Calvo Barcelo.

Pritchard is currently 11-7 in singles and 8-4 in doubles.

Barcelo is 15-10 in singles and 10-7 in doubles.

Both the FGCU and KSU men's teams are tied for third place behind UNF.

Both men's and women's tennis start at 6 p.m. on Thursday, at the same time. Normally, I thought it would start with the women first and then the men later, so this is a mind blower for me.

All 12 courts will be used during the matches, and normally it starts with doubles and then singles, but the women did singles first and then doubles a couple of times in the season in case of inclement weather, so it is uncertain on whether both teams will do singles then doubles or the other way around and it is uncertain who will start on courts 1-12. I guess all four coaches will figure it out before the matches.

Both of FGCU's tennis team will wrap their seasons with another home conference doubleheader against Lipscomb (women at five, men at six) and on Saturday, the women will finish conference play in the season with a final match against UNF at three while the men finish with a final non-conference match against Memphis at 6.