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VILLANOVA, Pa. – The No. 22 and 12^th-seeded FGCU women's basketball team put up a valiant effort Monday night against No. 10 Villanova before falling to the fourth-seeded Wildcats 76-57 in the Second Round of the 2023 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament at Finneran Pavilion.
 
FGCU's season ends at 33-4. Villanova (30-6) advances to play either No. 2 Indiana or Miami (Fla.) in Friday's Greenville Regional Semifinal in Greenville, S.C. The Green & Blue also saw its 15-game winning streak come to a close, and fell to 6-21 all-time against ranked teams.

Graduate guard Sha Carter (Southfield, Mich./Wylie E. Groves HS/Walsh) scored a game-high 11 points for FGCU. Villanova got a game-high 31 points from senior Maddie Siegrist, a potential National Player of the Year candidate who set the NCAA record with her 36th straight 20-point game.
 
The Eagles etched their names in the NCAA record book earlier in the tournament, winning their third game as a 12 seed – the most in tournament history. FGCU also knocked off Missouri 80-70 in 2018 and downed Virginia Tech 84-81 in 2022. San Francisco (1986), Kansas (2013), BYU (2014) and Quinnipiac (2017) all won twice and advanced to the Sweet 16 in their respective NCAA Tournament journeys, and Belmont won back-to-back first-round games in 2021 and 2022.
 
Monday's loss closed the book on FGCU's seventh straight NCAA Tournament appearance and ninth overall in just 12 years of eligibility, joining squads from the 2021-22, 2020-21, 2018-19, 2017-18, 2016-17, 2014-15, 2013-14, and 2011-12 seasons.
 
No. 4 seeds are now 19-3 (.837) in Second-Round series vs. No. 12 seeds. This is the first NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament that has seen two No. 12 seeds advance to the Second Round, as Toledo knocked off Iowa State 80-73 in the Seattle 3 bracket.
 
FGCU finished with 425 3-pointers this season – just six 3s behind their own all-time record of 431 in 2017-18. The Eagles tripled their opponents' treys total, allowing only 144 this season. FGCU led the nation in made 3s per game in each of the past three years and in four of the last five seasons.
 
Entering this season, FGCU was selected by both the coaches and the media to repeat as ASUN champions. FGCU is currently ranked No. 2 in the Collegeinsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll. The Eagles finished with a program-best-ever No. 20 ranking in 2021-22 and have four Top 25 finishes in the past five seasons.
 
The Green & Blue and Connecticut are the only active programs in the nation to win at least 25 games in 13 straight seasons. FGCU joins South Carolina as the only two Division I programs to win 30 or more games in six of the last nine seasons.
 
For complete coverage of FGCU women's basketball, follow the Eagles on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @FGCU_WBB and online at www.FGCUAthletics.com. You can also sign up to have news on FGCU women's basketball and other programs delivered directly to your inbox by visiting www.fgcuathletics.com/email.
 
COACH SMESKO
FGCU head coach Karl Smesko maintains a record of 643-132 (.830) overall in his career, the third-highest winning percentage among active Division I coaches behind only UConn's Geno Auriemma and LSU's Kim Mulkey. He has also led the Eagles to a 249-19 (.929) mark in ASUN regular-season play and a 33-2 (.943) record in ASUN tournament play. Over the previous 11-plus seasons, he has guided FGCU to a 185-7 (.963) record in conference play with six undefeated seasons. The 13-time ASUN Coach of the Year has led the program to 13 straight 25-win seasons and 19 consecutive 20-win campaigns, including 30-plus wins in six of the last nine years. On top of all that, the Eagles are 582-105 (.847) all-time since Smesko started the program in the 2002-03 season, and the Green & Blue's .848 all-time winning percentage is the best in NCAA Division I women's basketball history.
 
E.A.G.L.E. CAMPAIGN
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!
 
#FEEDFGCU
FGCU Athletics sponsors events in November and April to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (https://www.fgcu.edu/adminservices/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 https://www.fgcu.edu/adminservices/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness. 
 
ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 96 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 15-plus seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just 11-plus seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 48 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. In 2022, the men's golf team became the first program to earn an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament. Nine FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport - including women's basketball (No. 20 in 2021-22 and No. 22 in 2022-23), baseball (No. 20 in 2023), beach volleyball (No. 20, 2022), and both men's soccer (2018, 2019) and women's soccer (2018) as five of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Green & 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 3.66 GPA in the classroom in the fall 2022 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for 27 consecutive semesters. The past seven semesters (Fall 2019 – Fall 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.
 
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