GAINESVILLE, Fla. - FGCU wrapped up play at the Sunshine Invitational with a 3-0 sweep of Georgia Southern Saturday.

Erin Shomaker (Granville, Ohio) reached the 1,000 career kill milestone in the win over the Sun Belt foe. Shoemaker became the fifth Eagle to ever reach 1,000 career kills.

FGCU improved to 6-3 in the win as the Eagles posted a 2-1 record in Gainesville. The Eagles defeated VCU 3-1 to begin the invite on Friday and then dropped a matchup against tournament host #16 Florida 3-0.

Florida swept each of its matches to go 3-0 on the weekend. VCU went 1-2, defeating Georgia Southern but falling to both FGCU and #16 Florida. 

Georgia Southern dropped all three of its matches, against FGCU, VCU and #16 Florida.

"First and foremost, a huge congratulations to Erin for her 1,000 kill," head coach Matt Botsford said. "She has been such a vital part of our successes over the past four years, and we are all so proud to see her hit this benchmark. Today's match started out a little slow with our offense, and much of that is credit to Georgia Southern's outstanding defensive effort. As the match went on, we cleaned up a lot of our play and were able to spread things out more effectively. Lily did a great job providing an offensive spark on the left. As our block and defense definitely started to clean-up, we found a good recipe for success."

In a battle of the Eagles, 12 tie scores and five lead changes occurred in the opening set against Georgia Southern. FGCU outlasted Georgia Southern for a 26-24 set-one victory, holding them to a .073 hitting percentage in the first.

Trailing 14-10 in the second, FGCU rallied to capture a 2-0 set advantage. FGCU used a 6-0 run to retake the lead en route to its 25-20 set-two victory.

The Green and Blue fed off of its gained momentum to soar out to a 11-4 lead in the third. The Eagles sealed the match in three sets, winning the third 25-14.

Saturday's sweep of Georgia Southern marked the second sweep of an opponent for the Eagles this season.

Ten different Eagles record a kill on the day. Lily Felts (Knoxville, Tenn.) led all Eagles in kills with a season-high of nine, hitting .563 percent. Shoemaker added nine to surpass 1,000 career kills.

Both Chelsey Lockey (Eaton, Colo.) and Dana Axner (Dublin, Ohio) posted double-digit digs, 11 each. In fact, Lockey posted a double-double, adding 29 assists to direct the offense to a .217 hitting percentage for the match.

FGCU's outpaced Georgia Southern at the service line and up at the net, winning the ace battle 8-5 and in blocks 5-2.

The Green and Blue will be back in action on the road next Tuesday (Sept. 13) to take on in-state foe FIU in Miami, Florida. First serve between the Eagles and Panthers is scheduled for 6 p.m.

For complete coverage of the volleyball program, follow the Eagles on Twitter at @FGCU_VB, on Instagram at @FGCU_VB, on Facebook at /FGCUVolleyball and online at FGCUathletics.com. You can also sign-up to have news on FGCU volleyball or other programs delivered directly to your inbox by visiting www.fgcuathletics.com/email. 

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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 190-62 (.754) record overall, including a 96-20 (.827) 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 14+ seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just 10 plus 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. In five of the past six semesters (Fall 2019 – Fall 2021), the Eagles reached another milestone as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher team GPA in each. 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.