FORT MYERS, Fla. - FGCU Volleyball secured a 3-0 senior night sweep (25-8, 25-22, 25-21) of Bellarmine on Saturday.

The Eagles have now won five straight, tying its longest win streak of the season. Saturday's victory also marked the 13th sweep of the year for FGCU. The Green and Blue improved to 21-6 and 11-3 in the ASUN, while Bellarmine fell to 10-16 and 4-10 in conference play with the loss.

"Another outstanding defensive effort, which is really proving to be our biggest weapon right now," head coach Matt Botsford said." As our sideout broke down and we fell into some holes, our defense and serving pressure continues to allow us opportunities to claw back. A little more high error on the offensive end than we want, but overall we made the right plays at the right time. Lily and Lauren did a great job steadying things for us on the attack, and Dana was covering a ton of ground tonight."

FGCU is now alone in second in the ASUN Conference standings after tonight. Liberty still holds a half-game lead and the tiebreaker over the Eagles at 11-2 in the ASUN. The Flames, winners of seven straight, are set to battle third-place Central Arkansas on Sunday starting at 1 p.m. (ET). After the Sugar Bears, Liberty has both Eastern Kentucky and Bellarmine left on its remaining schedule.

The Eagles came out firing early, leaving right where they left off on Friday to hit .476 percent in the opening set. The closest the Knights came within the Eagles in the first was 2-1. FGCU held leads of 10-2 and 20-6 en route to its best set of the season, only surrendering eight points (25-8).

FGCU prevailed through some sloppiness in the second and third sets to prevail 25-22 and 25-21. The Knights marched out to a 9-6 advantage in the second and even forced a 21-21 tie late.

Bellarmine also led 9-3 and 17-12 in the third. However, FGCU sealed the deal behind a 13-4 run to earn the senior-night victory.

Both Erin Shomaker (Granville, Ohio) and Lily Felts (Knoxville, Tenn.) chalked up a double-double effort in front of the home crowd. Felts scored a team-leading 12 kills, collecting 10 digs and four aces. Shomaker produced 10 kills and 12 digs on the defensive side of the ball.

Dana Axner (Dublin, Ohio) led all Eagles in digs with 20, her eighth 20-plus dig outing of the season. Axner is 54 digs away from becoming the ASUN's all-time leader in career digs.

Three Eagles accounted for 10-or-more kills on the night, Felts (12) Shomaker (10) and Lauren Clark (10). Clark (Chaplin, Minn.) tallied her 10 kills on just 17 swings, hitting .417 percent.

Setter Chelsey Lockey (Eaton, Colorado) distributed the wealth Saturday and was credited with 35 assists. Lockey is now just 15 assists away from surpassing Maggie Rick (2015-18) from becoming FGCU's all-time leader in career assists.

Only two more regular season games remain for the Green and Blue as FGCU will be back in action next Friday (Nov. 11) on the road at Jacksonville (10-15, 4-9 ASUN). The first serve between the Eagles and the Dolphins is set for 7 p.m.

The Eagles' final regular season and home match of the 2022 campaign is Sunday, Nov. 13 versus North Florida (10-15, 7-6 ASUN) at 2 p.m.

The ASUN Tournament is slated to begin on November 17-19 from Nashville, Tennessee.

EAGLES ON THE RISE

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IT TAKES A TEAM to achieve our newest goal - a $10 million campaign to address student-athlete needs in continued academic success, life skills, mental health, nutrition, and strength and conditioning as well as departmental needs in facility expansion and improvement as well as mentoring and leadership training for coaches and staff. The name embodies our mission and the purpose of the E.A.G.L.E. Campaign - Eagle Athletics Generating Lifetime Excellence. Join Our Team and pledge your gift today to help the Eagles of tomorrow!

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 205-65 (.760) record overall, including a 107-23 (.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.