JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - FGCU Volleyball recorded a 3-0 sweep of Jacksonville (25-19, 25-12, 25-16) on Friday as setter Chelsey Lockey (Eaton, Colo.) became the program's all-time leader in career assists.

With the 14th sweep of the year and the season sweep of in-state opponent Jacksonville, the Eagles improved to 22-6 overall and 12-3 in the ASUN. Jacksonville dropped to 10-17 and 4-11 in conference play. Not only did Friday's victory extend the Eagles' current win streak out to a season-high of six, FGCU also extended its win streak over the Dolphins out to 15 consecutive match wins.

Liberty (20-7, 13-2 ASUN) posted a 3-0 sweep of its own Friday over Eastern Kentucky to clinch at least a share of regular season title and locked up the No. 1 overall seed for the upcoming ASUN Tournament. FGCU can capture its share of the regular-season crown with a Liberty loss against Bellarmine and Eagle win over North Florida. If the Flames defeat the Knights on Sunday, Liberty wins the regular season outright.

"First off, a huge congratulations to Chelsey on breaking the school record for assists," head coach Matt Botsford said. "What a career she has had, and what an honor it is to be coaching a player that has that level of talent complimented with an even more impressive work ethic. She was great again tonight and continues to keep our hitters in a nice rhythm. Julianna and Emma were excellent out of the middle, and Lily keeps raising her level of play match by match. Our defenders were going gangbusters, covering a ton of ground and working very well in complimenting the block."

Lockey surpassed Maggie Rick's (2015-18) 4,450 career assist benchmark to obtain the career assist record. The Eaton, Colorado native only needed 15 assists to break the record heading into the night, producing 37 instead.

Lockey guided the Eagles to a .340 attacking percentage on the night as FGCU outpaced Jacksonville in total kills (43-25) while facing an ASUN top-5 libero. Lockey fed Lily Felts (Knoxville, Tenn.) to a team-leading 12 kills, her 12th straight outing in double-figures.

FGCU never trailed in the opening set and held a 20-11 advantage well beyond the halfway point. Jacksonville would outscore FGCU 8-5 in the closing points, but the Eagles secured a 25-19 set-one victory.

The Dolphins discovered some momentum to hang with the Green and Blue early in the second. However, FGCU steamrolled Jacksonville 25-12, accompanied by 13-4 run. FGCU would not surrender the lead the rest of the way, clinching the match with a 25-16 set-three win.

Defensively, the Eagles held the Dolphins to a combined .101 percent in large part by doubling the blocking effort. FGCU tallied eight blocks to Jacksonville's four.

Juliana Lentz (Miami, Fla.) posted a team-leading six blocks to lead all Eagles up at the net to quiet one of the statistical outside hitter leaders in the ASUN, Haley Heart.

Dana Axner (Dublin, Ohio) produced a team-leading 19 digs for attacks that made it past the Eagle wall. Axner is now only 35 digs away from becoming the ASUN's all-time leader for career digs.

FGCU returns to Alico Arena this Sunday (Nov. 13) for its regular-season finale versus North Florida (12-15, 9-6 ASUN) starting at 2 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 206-65 (.760) record overall, including a 108-23 (.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 seven of the past eight seasons (excluding COVID 2020) 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.