JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — For the third time in as many conference matches, the FGCU volleyball team earned a three-set win Friday night at the University of North Florida. The Eagles defeated UNF in straight sets (25-13, 25-14, 25-18) to move to 19-9 on the year and 11-2 in Atlantic Sun Conference play, while the Ospreys move to 12-17 with a 5-8 conference mark.
 
"I'm very pleased with our overall performance tonight," said head coach Matt Botsford. "We talked a lot about service pressure and I think that is what kicked things off the right way for us in this match. The group is playing a good brand of volleyball and we are sustaining a high level of play for longer periods within our most recent matches. Jessica Barnes played extremely well this evening and that was a big key in managing points from UNF. Our blocking has really started to come around as well, which has been a point of emphasis."
 
As a unit, the Eagles maintained an attack percentage of .308 with 40 kills in the three-set affair. The team amassed 44 sigs and 10 total blocks, while holding UNF to 31 digs and three blocks. FGCU also produced a season-high seven service aces.
 
Individually, senior Jessica Barnes (Winter Haven, Fla./Haines City High School) paced the team with 11 kills and a hitting percentage of .364. Junior Eleonora Kazarian (Tibilisi, Georgia/College of Central Florida) added 10 for the Green and Blue, while setter Gigi Meyer (Gainesville, Fla./Buchholz High School) facilitated the offense with 32 assists. 
 
Whitney Masters (Muncie, Ind./Wapahani High School) led the defense with 15 digs, with Kazarian contributing with four total blocks. Freshman Lauren Tutwiler (Louisville, Ky./Assumption High School) also added four blocks.
 
Behind three early kills from Kazarian, the Eagles took control of the match early in set one with a 7-4 lead. The Green and Blue added a 6-1 run with kills from Olivia Mesner (Boca Raton, Spanish River High School), Kazarian and Barnes to go ahead 13-5 and never let go of the lead.
 
North Florida's Morgan Van Alstine did her best to bring the Ospreys back to life single handedly with three consecutive kills to close the gap, 15-9 but the Eagles retaliated to win four of the next five points once again to double up, UNF at 20-10.
 
Barnes handled two more kills from Meyer's passing while Tutwiler and Kazarian teamed up for a pair of kills to seal the 25-13 victory in the first set.
 
The second set mirrored the first as the Eagles carried control into the second stanza. Meyer started the set with two aces before UNF errors and kills from Kazarian and Tutwiler put the Green and Blue ahead 7-4. FGCU went on a 5-0 run with kills from Barnes, Mesner and Meyer to push the score to 13-5 and never allowed the Ospreys to cut the deficit.  FGCU took a set-high lead at 22-11 and forged ahead for a 25-14 set victory.
 
Trailing 2-0, the Ospreys entered the third set with a sense of urgency. UNF took its first lead of the night on an FGCU attack error to begin the set and held a slight lead through the opening points.
 
The teams traded points to tie at 6, 9, 10, 11 and 12 points before UNF took a 15-12 lead with three kills in four rallies. The Eagles responded with three-straight points of their own to tie the stanza at 15. The final points of the set saw even scores at 16, 17 and 18 points before FGCU used a UNF attack error and a Kazarian kill to take a 20-18 lead and force the home team into a timeout.
 
The Eagles scored five-straight out of the timeout to push ahead to a 25-18 third-set victory and earned the win 3-0 to remain in second place in the Atlantic Sun standings.
 
FGCU concludes the 2014 regular season Saturday afternoon at Jacksonville University. The result of the match, which is slated for 5 p.m., will determine the final standings in the league which will set the seeding for the 2014 Atlantic Sun Conference tournament.
 
For up-to-the minute information and a behind-the-scenes look at the FGCU volleyball program, follow on Twitter at @FGCU_VB, on Facebook at /FGCUVolleyball and on Instagram at @FGCU_VB.
 
Head coach Matt Botsford is in his first year at the helm of the FGCU volleyball program. Prior to his time in Southwest Florida, Botsford held successful stints as an assistant at Notre Dame, Miami, IUIPI, Indianapolis and most recently Colorado State. Botsford is a former professional volleyball player and is a 1998 graduate of Tri-State University, where he earned a degree in Social Studies Education.  He earned a master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Indianapolis.