FORT MYERS, Fla. - Winners of the Atlantic Sun Conference Championship for the third season in a row, Florida Gulf Coast University will stay in the state of Florida for the start of the 2023 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Championship as the Eagles will take on the University of Florida in Gainesville Thursday night at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.
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The Eagles (26-6) will face off with Florida for the fourth time in program history. The Gators have won all three previous matches, with all of them coming in sweeps. This will be the second time the two programs meet in the NCAA Tournament as the teams met in the second round of the 2018 edition in Orlando.
UF, the No. 4 seed in the Upper Left Bracket, went 8-0 to start the season and took No. 1 Wisconsin to five sets in Gainesville before suffering its first loss. Since moving to 10-1 on the season, the Gators have gone 8-8; however, all of those matches were in Southeastern Conference play. In total, eight schools from the conference made it to NCAA postseason play.
Conversely, the Eagles started the season 7-5. Since then, FGCU has gone 19-1, winning the regular season of the ASUN by a game over Lipscomb. In the conference's championship tournament at Alico Arena, the Eagles won nine of the 10 sets played, sweeping Lipscomb in the finale to take the tournament crown and the league's automatic bid to the NCAA's.
Thursday's winner will play Friday against the winner of Thursday's eariler match in Gainesville between No. 5-seeded Georgia Tech and South Alabama.
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