FORT MYERS, Fla. - FGCU Volleyball swept North Florida (25-19, 25-22, 25-23) in the regular-season finale on Sunday.

With the win, the Eagles locked up the No. 2 overall seed for the upcoming ASUN Tournament on Nov. 17-19 from Nashville, Tennessee. FGCU capped the regular season on a seven-game win streak, finishing 23-6 overall and 13-3 in the ASUN. North Florida fell to 12-16 and 9-7 in league play as FGCU avenged its conference-opening loss against the Ospreys.

FGCU and North Florida will meet again in the opening round of the ASUN Tournament on Thursday at 11 a.m. as UNF captured the No. 7 seed. The match will air on ESPN+ at tournament host Lipscomb.

The winner of the FGCU/North Florida quarterfinal match will face the winner of the No. 3 Jacksonville State and No. 6 Kennesaw State contest in the semifinal round. The Eagles posted 3-1 wins over both both the Gamecocks and the Owls earlier this season.

"Nice way to finish off the regular season at home in front of our fans," head coach Matt Botsford said. "I liked the offensive distribution and thought that we played pretty steady all afternoon. There were some stretches where we got a little loose at the service line, but that same service pressure also helped put us in good spots, so you have to be willing to deal with some errors. I'm excited to see what this team can do in Nashville!"

Saturday's victory also marked the 15th overall and the fifth consecutive sweep for the Green and Blue. However, North Florida pushed the Eagles and kept each of the three sets close.

In fact, the second set witnessed seven tie scores and three lead changes. The second was knotted at 18 apiece before FGCU secured a 25-22 victory to take a commanding 2-0 advantage for the match. Only one lead change occurred in both the opening and deciding set.

UNF was able to draw within one late in the third (24-23) after trailing 24-19. A Lauren Clark (Champlin, Minn. / Penn State) kill crushed UNF's hopes of extending the match.

Offensively, the Ospreys held a better overall combined hitting percentage on the night, .202 percent to FGCU's .196. UNF even held FGCU's explosive outside hitters to under 10 kills and won the edge in both the block and dig categories.

Four Eagles accounted for five-or-more kills in a team effort with middle blocker Juliana Lentz (Miami, Fla.) recording a team-high nine kills for FGCU. The Eagles found other methods to produce points by setting the tone from the service line as Lily Felts (Knoxville, Tenn. / Tennessee) connected on three of the six Eagle aces Saturday.

Dana Axner (Dublin, Ohio) produced 11 digs in the back row and is now just 24 digs away from becoming the ASUN's all-time career digs leader.

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 207-65 (.790) record overall, including a 109-23 (.826) 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.