FORT MYERS, Fla. – Redshirt senior Jelena Simic (Lazarevac, Serbia/Kolubara Technical/Seward County CC) blasted a match-high 12 kills as the FGCU volleyball squad swept FAU 3-0 (25-22, 25-13, 25-19) Tuesday night.
The Green and Blue improve to 14-10 overall, while the Owls fall to 3-22 on the season.
Simic hit .346 and added nine digs and two blocks in the win. Sophomore Jessica Barnes (Winter Haven, Fla./Haines City HS) finished with 11 kills and a team-high .348 hitting percentage. Junior Brittany Muse (Arcadia, Fla.DeSoto County HS) hit .600 and recorded six kills. Freshman Jill Hopper (Muncie, Ind./Yorktown HS) and junior Brooke Kohler (Jupiter, Fla./Jupiter HS/Clemson) finished with five kills each. Freshman setter Gigi Meyer (Gainesville, Fla./Buchholz HS) finished with 28 assists. Senior libero Holly Youngquist (Estero, Fla./Evangelical Christian HS) chipped in with 15 digs and four assists.
Georgia Robinson recorded 11 kills to lead FAU, while Madison Lang added 22 assists for the Owls.
In the opening set, the two teams battled to a 14-14 tie, before a pair of attack errors by the Owls and a Simic kill gave the Green and Blue a 17-14 lead. FAU responded with a 6-2 run to grab a 20-19 advantage. A Hopper kill knotted the game at 20-20 and an FAU attack error gave FGCU a 21-20 lead and forced FAU to burn a timeout. Coming out of the break, the Eagles employed a 4-1 run to win the set 25-21.
In the second set, FGCU came out and took care of business. Leading the Owls, 9-7, the Eagles used a 16-6 run, highlighted by four kills from Simic and a pair of kills from Kohler, to pick up the 25-13 win and take a commanding 2-0 lead in the match. The Green and Blue hit .333 as a team, while limiting FAU to a .000 hitting percentage.
Trailing FAU 15-14 in the third set, the Eagles used an 11-4 run, highlighted by four kills and great play off the bench from Muse, to win the game 25-19 and pick up their eighth non-conference victory of the season.
The Eagles will be back in action this weekend (Nov. 4-5) when they host A-Sun foe Mercer and BIG EAST opponent Villanova. FGCU faces the Bears on Friday, Nov. 4 at 6 p.m., before hosting the Wildcats on Saturday, Nov. 5 at 4 p.m. for 'Senior Day'. Live stats for the match will be available on www.FGCUAthletics.com and the match can be seen live online on A-Sun.TV.
