JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The FGCU volleyball team picked up a hard-fought 3-2 (23-25, 25-17, 20-25, 25-22, 15-12) win over UNF on Friday evening at UNF Arena.
 
With the win, the Green and Blue improve to 16-12 overall and 9-3 in A-Sun play, while the Ospreys fall to 13-16 overall and 4-8 in conference.

Freshman Jill Hopper (Muncie, Ind./Yorktown HS) hit .356 and finished with 23 kills and seven digs. Redshirt-senior Jelena Simic (Lazarevac, Serbia/Kolubara Technical/Seward County CC) finished with 13 kills and 10 digs. Sophomore Kaitlin Holm (Fort Myers, Fla./Fort Myers HS/Marshall) recorded eight kills and three blocks. Freshman setter Gigi Meyer (Gainesville, Fla./Buchholz HS) racked up 49 assists and added nine digs, while senior libero Holly Youngquist (Estero, Fla./Evangelical Christian HS) chipped in with 20 digs in the win.

Paige Pridgeon led a trio of UNF hitters in double digits finishing with 21 kills. Cameron McGuire added 13 kills, while Marija Pantovic chipped in 11 for UNF. Setter Casey Giovanazzi handed out 55 assists.
 
North Florida opened the match with a tight 25-23 win in set one.  FGCU jumped out to a quick 7-3 lead, but the Ospreys used a 4-0 run to tie the score at 7-7. The Eagles stretched their lead back to four points at 17-13, but UNF answered to tie the score at 17-17. The two teams traded points, until FGCU took a 23-20 lead. Trailing by three, North Florida rattled off five consecutive points to claim the first set. 
 
In set two, the Eagles jumped out to a 9-3 lead and did not look back. The Ospreys closed the gap to five points on three occasions but were unable to claw their way back into the match, dropping the second frame 25-17. 
 
After intermission, North Florida opened set three with a 4-0 spurt and extended its lead to as many as eight points (16-8).  FGCU rallied to trim the UNF lead to just three points (21-18), but the Ospreys held off the Green and Blue to take the set 25-20. 
 
The fourth set featured nine ties. The Green and Blue led by four at 9-5, but North Florida outscored the Eagles 7-3 to tie the score at 12-12. The teams traded points with neither team leading by more than two points. With the score tied at 22-22, the Eagles used a pair of kills and a UNF error to force a fifth set. 
 
In the decisive fifth set, neither team led by more than two points through the first 18 points of the match. Tied at 9-9, four straight errors by the Ospreys gave the Eagles a 13-9 lead. FGCU went on to win the set and the match after Hopper blasted a kill. 
 
The Green and Blue wraps up the regular season with a match at Jacksonville at 5 p.m. on Saturday night.