FORT MYERS, Fla. - FGCU Volleyball suffered a 3-1 setback loss to Liberty (24-26, 25-12, 22-25, 24-26) on Saturday in a top-five ASUN showdown.

Saturday's loss snaps FGCU's 22 consecutive home match win streak. Entering the day, the Eagles held the longest active home match win streak in the nation. The last home loss occurred two seasons ago back on March 6, 2021, a 595 day span. In the fall of 2021, the Eagles posted a perfect 14-0 home record.

With the loss, FGCU fell to 16-6 and 6-3 in the ASUN with work to do to keep pace in the regular-season conference race, sitting in sixth place. Liberty improved to 15-7 and a driver's seat 8-2 in the league, tied with Kennesaw State and Lipscomb in a three-way tie for first. Saturday marked just the Flames' second-ever win over the Eagles in nine tries.

"We finally got a glimpse into the kind of blocking we know we are capable of, but unfortunately our offense couldn't keep pace with our defensive effort," head coach Matt Botsford said. "Right now, we are allowing sets to be decided by one or two big point runs where we find ourselves stuck in a rotation. You could see in sets two and three where we were siding-out below or at a 50 percent clip, which makes it near impossible to be first to 25. That being said, there was a lot of effort to grind through those moments and we found ways to keep it close. I liked our effort and I thought the team played focused, but we are very aware that our execution level will have to improve moving forward."

The Green and Blue started fast, opening the night on a 5-0 run. Liberty boldly answered to win the opening set 26-24 and quieted the home crowd.

FGCU bounced back with a dominating set-two performance to tie the match and revive Alico Arena, hitting .571 percent to win 25-12. The Eagles recorded only one error in the second.

Liberty grinded out a set three (25-22) and set-four victory (26-24) to officially upend the Eagles.

FGCU's second-set momentum transitioned in the third as the Eagles soared out to a 13-7 lead but to no avail. Facing a match-point score of 24-21 in the fourth, the Green and Blue battled back to tie the set at 24-24 before surrendering the next two points and the match.

FGCU was half a block shy of tying a season high effort (14). The Eagles outdueled the Flames up the net in total blocks, 14-10, but Liberty outshined FGCU in total kills (58-47), digs (58-53) and assists (54-45).

Juliana Lentz (Miami, Fla.) led the Eagle block party with a season high of seven.

Lily Felts (Knoville, Tenn.) and Lauren Clark (Champlin, Minn.) reached double figures in kills, 14 and 12 respectively. Felts posted her second double-double effort of the season, adding 11 digs.

Erin Shomaker (Granville, Ohio) recorded her 300th kill of the season with her six-kill performance.

Chelsey Lockey (Eaton, Colo.) produced 40 assists, and Dana Axner scored a team-leading 15 digs. Lockey also contributed five blocks, and teammate Emma Szypszak (Mequon, Wis.) matched Lockey's five-block effort with five of her own.

Claire Ertel (Indianapolis, Ind.) rattled off three aces to lead all Eagles from the service line.

The Eagles return to the court to face Jacksonville State (19-4, 7-3 ASUN) on the road next Friday, Oct. 28th at 7 p.m. The first serve from Jacksonville, Alabama is slated for 7 p.m.

EAGLES ON THE RISE

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COACH BOTSFORD
Matt Botsford finished 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 200-65 (.758) record overall, including a 102-23 (.823) 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 in six of the past seven 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. Now, the team has won four-straight regular season titles, including two ASUN Tournament Championship Titles. 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 also 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. In 2021, Botsford led the Eagles to 27 victories, tying the program record previously set in 2016, 2018 and 2019 seasons, and a NCAA First Round win over Texas Tech. The win over the Red Raiders marked the second NCAA First Round win for the Green and Blue following its 3-2 win over No. 13 UCF in Orlando in 2018.

#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 92 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 15 seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just 11 seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 45 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. In 2022, the men's golf team became the first program to earn at at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament. Eight FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport - including women's basketball (No. 20, 2021-22), beach volleyball (No. 20, 2022) and both men's soccer (2018, 2019) and women's soccer (2018) as four 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 26 consecutive semesters. The past five semesters (Fall 2019 – Spring 2022) saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher cumulative 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.