FORT MYERS, Fla. – In the first home game of the 2014 campaign, the FGCU volleyball team defeated Alabama State 3-0 as part of the Hilton Garden Inn/Homewood Suites Airport Classic on Friday, Sept. 19. The Eagles earned the victory in straight sets (25-18, 25-15, 25-18) to move to 5-5 on the season, while the Hornets fell to 4-10 with the loss.
The Green and Blue produced 12 service aces with just seven errors to maintain control of the match through all three sets. The team outhit Alabama State .214 to .074 with a 32 to 26 kill advantage and recorded just 14 attack errors on the night. The Eagles used a truculent defensive strategy and outblocked the Hornets six to three, while producing 32 total digs.
Individually, FGCU was paced offensively by ten kills from senior
Jessica Barnes (Winter Haven, Fla./Haines City High School). Senior
Olivia Mesner (Boca Raton, Fla./Spanish River High School) and junior
Eleonora Kazarian (Tibilisi, Georgia/College of Central Florida) each added six kills for the Eagle attack, with Kazarian leading the way with an attack percentage of .667 in two sets. Kazarian also led all players with four service aces.
Gigi Meyer (Gainesville, Fla./Buchholz High School) aided the offensive effort by assisting on 26 of the Eagles' 32 kills. Meyer also added two service aces on the night.
Senior libero
Whitney Masters (Muncie, Ind./Wapahani High School) led the defense with 12 digs on the night, with junior transfer
Vanessa Benke (Toledo, Brazil/College of Central Florida) adding eight digs. Benke also contributed seven kills and three service aces. Freshman
Lauren Tutwiler (Louisvile, Ky./Assumption High School) led the team's blocking effort with four, with Mesner and Kazarian each adding two.
"I thought we served great. That was our biggest advantage. Producing 12 aces with only seven errors is uncommonly good and I liked how aggressive we were back there," explained head coach
Matt Botsford of the win. "I thought that our blocking started to take form. We had some difficulties slowing down the middle in the first two sets and we knew they were going to try to utilize that, but we were much better in the third set. Those are the kinds of improvements that I like to see over the course of the match. I liked the way they adjusted between sets two and three and although there were times that we started to get a little error prone, the team did a better job recognizing it and getting things back under control. I was pleased; I think we can learn from that match and hopefully we can carry that confidence forward."
The Eagles opened the match with a quick 3-0 lead but allowed the Hornets to tie the set at three. After knotting the stanza at four, six and 10 points, the Eagles used a Mesner kill, three kills from Barnes and a pair of ASU errors to take a 16-11 lead.
The home team maintained the advantage and extended the lead to 19-13 after an Alabama State timeout. With help from ASU miscues and a Benke service ace, the Green and Blue earned a set one win at 25-18 and took a 1-0 lead.
FGCU produced a match-high attack percentage of .444 in the second set to maintain control of the bout. After trading points to tie at 7-7, the Eagles produced a 6-2 run to take the lead on four Barnes kills and maintained the advantage through the remainder of the set. The team used 14 total kills in the second set with just two errors to take a 25-15 win and move ahead 2-0 in the match.
The Hornets amassed 10 attack errors and just 10 kills in the third set to pave the way to a three-set victory for the Eagles. FGCU totaled nine kills and four service aces in the deciding set to seal the match victory and move to 1-0 in front of the home crowd.
UP NEXTThe Eagles will the 2014 Hilton Garden Inn/Homewood Suites Classic on Saturday with two matches at Alico Arena. The Green and Blue will face Missouri-Kansas City at 12:30 before taking on cross-state rival FAU at 7:30 p.m.
