FORT MYERS, Fla. – Junior Erin Shomaker (Granville, Ohio/Granville HS) posted a match-high 12 kills as the FGCU (1-0) volleyball program opened the season with a 25-14, 25-16, 25-14 win over UMBC (0-1) in the first game of the Hilton Garden FGCU Classic at Alico Arena on Friday morning. The Eagles will return to action on Friday night at 7 PM to host Rutgers in the day one night cap of the two-day tournament.

"I thought it was some pretty clean volleyball considering it was the first match of the year," said head coach Matt Botsford. "Our first contact was stable which makes things easier for us and we controlled the service line which played a big role in our defense doing its job. All those things combined with a strong effort got us off in a good direction."
 
Shomaker's performance moved her into 14^th all-time in the program's Division I era with 487 career kills. She passed Brittany Muse who tallied 475 from 2009-12.
 
Along with Shomaker, who hit .333 for the day, sophomore Juliana Lentz (Miami, Fla./St. Brendan HS) and junior Aja Jones (Venice, Fla./Venice HS) paced the Eagles with eight and six kills, respectively. Lentz hit .533 for the match with three blocks, while Jones hit .308 with four blocks.
 
Senior Chelsey Lockey (Eaton, Colo./Eaton HS) posted 27 assists along with three kills, while senior Dana Axner (Dublin, Ohio/Dublin Coffman HS) had 18 digs rounding out the FGCU leaders.
 
UMBC was led by seven kills from Paige Krenik and five from Emily Ferketic.
 
Set one saw both teams trade points early until a pair of three-point runs by FGCU gave the Eagles an 11-6 lead. UMBC was able to trim the deficit to a few as four, but the Green and Blue scored the final six consecutive points for the 25-14 win.
 
A four-point swing opened things up for FGCU in the second set thanks to kills by Lockey, freshman Skylar English (Naples, Fla./Barron Collier HS), and Jones giving the Eagles a 15-10 lead. Another four-point burst extended the lead to eight highlighted by a pair of Axner service aces and a kill from Jones. Shomaker notched FGCU's final three kills to take the 25-16 win.
 
The third set was highlighted by an eight-point run for the Eagles with Shomaker posting a pair of kills and UMBC committing six errors. A pair of kills by graduate Cortney VanLiew (Seymour, Ind./Columbus East HS) and a block by the tandem of Jones and freshman Bree Borum (Sterling, Ill./Sterling HS) sealed the match win for the Eagles as they took the set 25-14.

As a team, the Eagles hit .297 for the day while UMBC hit just .041. FGCU also held the advantage at the service line with seven aces for the match, while the Retrievers had none.

The win for FGCU continued its strong start to seasons in Alico Arena. The Eagles are now 7-0 when opening up a season at home and improved to 15-3 all-time in home openers.



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COACH BOTSFORD
Matt Botsford is in his eighth season as head coach of the FGCU women's volleyball program in 2021 after being hired on Feb. 10, 2014. In his tenure, Botsford-led teams have compiled a 158-53 (.748) record overall, including an 81-19 (.810) record in ASUN play. Including this past year's unprecedented spring season, he has taken the program to heights it has not seen in the Division-I era (2007-present) – registering at least 20 wins overall in five of the past six seasons and at least 10 wins in conference play every season. In 2018, he led the program to its first regular season championship since 2012 (fourth overall) and its first-ever ASUN tournament title, NCAA tournament appearance, NCAA tournament win and victory over a ranked team. His first two campaigns resulted in ASUN regular season runner-up finishes, and the following two saw the Eagles advance to the tournament championship and now the team has won three straight regular season titles, including a division title and ASUN tournament runner-up finish in the spring 2021 season. On Sept. 10, 2016, Botsford led his team to a five-set win over Indiana in Alico Arena, which signified the program's first-ever win over a team from a Power-5 conference. In 2018, he led the team to a win over Miami (Fla.) - the program's first-ever road Power-5 win, and the Eagles followed that up with a straight-set win over the Hurricanes at a neutral site in 2019.
 
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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 85 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 42 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. Eight FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport - including women's basketball (No. 21, 2020-21), beach volleyball (No. 20, 2021) 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 in their sport. FGCU also collectively earned a record 3.50 GPA in the classroom in the fall 2020 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for 24 consecutive semesters. The 2019 Fall, 2020 Spring, 2020 Fall, and 2021 Spring semesters each saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher team GPA in each. 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. 
  
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