FORT MYERS, Fla. - FGCU Volleyball notched its 20th win of the season in a 3-0 (27-25, 25-11, 25-15) sweep of Eastern Kentucky Friday.

The victory over the Colonels marked the seventh straight season of 20-or-more Eagle victories, excluding the 2020 COVID year. Friday's win also marked the ninth-straight season under head coach Matt Botsford in which the Green and Blue has recorded 10-or more conference wins.

With its 12th sweep of the season, FGCU improved to 20-6 overall and 10-3 in the ASUN in its fourth straight win. Eastern Kentucky fell to 14-13 overall and 5-8 in league action.

FGCU is now tied for second in the regular season conference race along with Central Arkansas. Both the Eagles and the Sugar Bears are one game back of ASUN leader Liberty at 11-2.

"Outside of what was obviously a shaky start, I thought we played a very clean match tonight," coach Botsford said. "The blocking was phenomenal and I think that moving forward, we will need to be able to generate points through that phase. There were a lot of great individual performances tonight, and I think everyone played their role extremely well tonight. Julianna is starting to find a nice groove and I thought that she and Lauren opened up a lot for us offensively after some big swings. That allowed Chelsey to move the ball around to our lefts who were really creative with their shot selection."

Eastern Kentucky came out firing and put the Eagles on their heels early. The Colonels charged out to a 14-5 lead in the opening set. Despite facing set point 24-21, FGCU completed its opening comeback to grind out a 27-25 set-one victory.

The Green and Blue put the burners on in the second and the third sets, never relinquishing the lead. FGCU won convincingly, 25-11 and 25-15.

The Eagles hit a combined .362 percent for the match with a high of .444 in the third. FGCU also dominated up at the net, holding a 14-4 advantage.

Chelsey Lockey tallied 31 assists setting up the Eagle offense. The Eaton, Colorado native is now just 51 assists away from becoming FGCU's all-time leader in career assists. Lockey also produced a team-leading four aces and 12 digs Friday, her 12th double-double on the season.

Emma Szypszak (Mequon, Wis.) posted a team-leading seven blocks on the night. Lauren Clark (Champlin, Minn.) added six while Juliana Lentz (Miami, Fla.) produced five.

Lily Felts (Knoxville, Tenn.) connected on team-high 13 kills to pace the Eagles offensively, her 10th consecutive match of double-digit kills. Clark cracked the 200 kill threshold on the season with a nine-kill outing, matching teammate and ASUN leader Erin Shomaker's nine.

FGCU returns to action Saturday against Bellarmine (10-15, 4-9 ASUN) for Senior Night. The first serve between the Eagles and the Knights is set for 6 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 204-65 (.757) record overall, including a 106-23 (.820) 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.