FORT MYERS, Fla. – After earning a shutout win at Jacksonville last weekend, the FGCU women's soccer team (3-1-2, 1-1-0 ASUN) will continue its road swing with a match at UNF (5-0-0, 2-0-0 ASUN) on Saturday, March 13. The competition, which will be played at 4 p.m. at Hodges Stadium, will be open to fans and additionally streamed online.
Saturday's game will be the second that the Eagles and the Ospreys have played this season, as the sides opened up the 2020-21 ASUN slate against each other. UNF earned its first victory over FGCU since 2012 with its 4-1 result. The Eagles will look to avenge the loss and build upon their 12-2 all-time advantage against the Ospreys.
FGCU is coming off a 4-0 victory over Jacksonville last weekend that saw junior
Alyssa Abbondandolo (Cape Coral, Fla./Oasis HS) net a pair of goals. For her efforts, the forward collected the first
ASUN Player of the Week honor of her career. Abbondandolo was not the only Eagle to be highlighted this week as sophomore
Leah Scarpelli (Brick, N.J./Brick Memorial/Penn State), who scored a goal and tallied an assist at Jacksonville, received honorable mention distinction on TopDrawerSoccer.com's
National Team of the Week. The transfer was one of just 23 players in the nation to be recognized.
In addition to Scarpelli and Abbondandolo, the Eagles' offense is led by sophomore
Louise Lillback (Stockholm, Sweden/Tibble Gymnasium), who paces the team with five goals and 10 points, both of which rank second in the ASUN. Junior
Kara Kyramarios' (Titusville, Fla./Titusville HS) name also shows up on the conference's statistical rankings, as her three assists are the most of any other league player.
Freshman
Mia Krusinski (Lewisville, Texas/Ursuline Academy of Dallas) has started between the pipes in each of FGCU's six matches this season and has collected four shutouts. The rookie, who already has a pair of ASUN Defensive Player of the Week selections under her belt, ranks third among the ASUN's keepers in save percentage (.792), fourth in goals-against average (0.77) and fifth in saves (19).
UNF is off to the best start in the program's Division I history with its 5-0 mark and sits at the top of the ASUN South standings. Most recently, the Ospreys added to their winning streak with a 1-0, overtime result at Stetson. After 93 minutes of scoreless action, junior Carmel Oliveira netted the game-winner to put the game away. Freshman Haynes Grant was credited with the assist, the first of her career.
Graduate student Mercedes Sapp, who earned her first complete shutout of the season following the clean sheet, recorded four saves in the victory and was tabbed as the ASUN Defensive Player of the Week.
The Ospreys have not trailed a team yet this season and have been in the lead or tied for all 453:27 minutes of action. A large part of that effort has been spearheaded by senior Thais Reiss, whose six goals and 14 points pace all ASUN players. The Preseason Player of the Year has scored in all but one match this season and has a pair of multi-goal games under her belt.
ASUN Standings
South Division
| School |
ASUN Record |
Overall Record |
| UNF |
2-0-0 |
5-0-0 |
| FGCU |
1-1-0 |
3-2-1 |
| Jacksonville |
0-1-1 |
0-6-1 |
| Stetson |
0-1-1 |
1-2-1 |
North Division
| School |
ASUN Record |
Overall Record |
| Lipscomb |
2-0-1 |
3-2-1 |
| Liberty |
2-1-1 |
3-2-3 |
| Bellarmine |
2-1-0 |
2-3-0 |
| Kennesaw State |
1-2-0 |
2-6-0 |
| North Alabama |
0-3-0 |
1-5-0 |
For complete coverage of FGCU women's soccer, follow the Eagles on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @FGCU_WSoccer and online at
www.FGCUAthletics.com. You can also sign up to have news on FGCU women's soccer or other programs delivered directly to your inbox by visiting
www.fgcuathletics.com/email.
COACH JIM BLANKENSHIP
A veteran of over two decades in collegiate coaching, head coach Jim Blankenship, who was named the ASUN Coach of the Year in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2019, has built FGCU women's soccer into a yearly contender in the ASUN Conference and a rising program in the South Region in just 13 seasons. Blankenship started the program in 2007 and has since guided the Eagles to 13 double-digit win seasons, culminating with ASUN Regular Season Championships in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019. In 2011 and 2012 he also led the Eagles to back-to-back ASUN Tournament titles as they became the first team in the history of the university to make it to the NCAA Tournament. The Eagles went on to win the 2014 ASUN Tournament and hosted the first NCAA Championship event on campus. The Eagles earned their fourth NCAA Tournament appearance with the 2015 ASUN Tournament Championship and won their first NCAA game at USF in 2015 while finishing 24th in the nation. In 2016, the Eagles made it three-consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament with a third-straight ASUN Tournament title. A year later, the Eagles became the first ASUN women's soccer program to make four-straight NCAA Tournaments with another tournament title in 2017. Blankenship has guided FGCU to a 169-60-27 (.716) overall record through the first 13 seasons of the program's existence, including an 83-16-15 (.801) mark in the ASUN. Blankenship's impressive career record of 410-131-38 (.743) over 26 seasons has come while leading FGCU, the University of Miami, Lynn University and St. Thomas University.
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#FEEDFGCU
FGCU Athletics sponsors events in November and April to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics' charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.
ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 84 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 13 seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just nine seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 38 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. Seven FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport – including women's basketball (No. 24, 2019-20) and both men's soccer (2018, 2019) and women's soccer (2018) as three of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Green and Blue posted a department-best sixth-place finish in the DI-AAA Learfield Directors' Cup and top-100 showing nationally, ahead of several Power-5 and FBS institutions. In 2018-19, the Eagles had an ASUN and state of Florida best seven teams earn the NCAA's Public Recognition Award for their Academic Progress Rate (APR) in their sport and have had the highest percentage of teams so honored from these two groups over each of the past three years. FGCU also collectively earned a record 3.46 GPA in the classroom in the spring 2020 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for 22 consecutive semesters. The 2019 Fall and 2020 Spring semesters each saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher team GPA. The Eagles also served an all-time high 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 – being recognized as one of two runners-up for the inaugural NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl.
--FGCUATHLETICS.COM--
