JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - The Florida Gulf Coast University volleyball team had its 15-match winning streak snapped on Friday night, falling to ETSU 3-2 (25-23, 20-25, 25-21, 22-25, 7-15) at Brooks Gym. The Eagles' win streak was the second longest in the nation and was the program's longest winning streak since moving to Division I in 2007.
“Tonight was a rough night for us,” said head coach Dave Nichols. “We have to give ETSU a lot of credit, because they played fantastic. We had leads in the second and fourth sets, but we had lapses in concentration. We have to get back to work and get back to doing the good things that got us to this point.”
The Green and Blue, who still sit atop the A-Sun standings, fell to 19-8 overall (14-1 A-Sun), while the Lady Bucs improved to 18-10 overall (9-5 A-Sun).
Junior Kaitlin Holm (Fort Myers, Fla./Fort Myers HS/Marshall) led the team with 12 kills and a .370 hitting percentage. Sophomore Jill Hopper (Muncie, Ind./Yorktown HS) and junior Christine Pinder (Gainesville, Fla./Buchholz HS/Houston/Central Florida CC) finished with 11 kills and 12 digs and 11 kills and eight digs, respectively. Sophomore Olivia Mesner (Boca Raton, Fla./Spanish River HS) finished with nine kills and a team-high six blocks. Sophomore Whitney Masters (Muncie, Ind./Wapahani HS) finished with 16 digs, while the setting duo of sophomore Gigi Meyer (Gainesville, Fla./Buchholz HS) and junior Courtney Greenberg (Fort Myers, Fla./Fort Myers HS/Juniata College) racked up 44 assists and nine digs combined.
After closing the fourth set on a 16-7 run to claim the win, ETSU seemed to carry all the momentum over to the decisive fifth set. The Lady Bucs shot out to a 6-2 run in the fifth and never looked back as they went on to take a 15-7 victory in the set.
The Green and Blue won the team dig battle 55-54, but were outhit by ETSU .240 to .130. The Bucs also won the battle in kills (69-50), assists (62-49), service aces (6-5) and blocks (14-12). The Eagles were solid in the first (.312) and third (.321) sets of the match, but hit -.100, .032 and .080 in sets two, four and five.
FGCU will be back in action Saturday afternoon when they take on the Spartans of USC Upstate in Spartanburg, S.C. First serve is set for 3 p.m.
