FORT MYERS, Fla. – Florida Gulf Coast University women's soccer continues its three-match road swing Thursday at Eastern Kentucky and Sunday at Bellarmine. Thursday's match at EKU has been moved to 2 p.m. at Lexington Sporting Club's turf field No. 3.
The Eagles soar into the Bluegrass State 2-0 in Atlantic Sun Conference play, defeating both North Florida and Jacksonville 2-0. FGCU, Central Arkansas and Lipscomb are the only three teams that remain undefeated. Head coach Jim Blankenship won his 450th career game last Thursday. The Green and Blue is looking to start 3-0 in conference for the first time since 2021.
Sophomore goalkeeper Olivia Molina and defender Lauren Dwyer earned the conference's weekly honors Monday, the ASUN Goalkeeper of the Week and Defensive Player of the Week.
Molina also garnered national recognition Tuesday by earning a spot on TopDrawerSoccer's Team of the Week. Her back-to-back shutouts marked her third consecutive clean sheet of the season. She has not surrendered a goal in the last 324 minutes between the pipes, spanning over four matches. Molina has corralled a conference-leading 58 saves this season, which ranks 12th nationally. Her 7.75 saves per match ranks seventh across the nation. She broke FGCU's single-season program record a season ago in total saves with 117.
The ASUN's Preseason Player of the Year, Ashley Labbe, paces the Eagles offensively in goals scored with four, currently placing third across the ASUN.
FGCU is 2-0-1 all-time against Eastern Kentucky dating back to 2021. Thursday marks just the fourth-ever meeting between the two programs. Last time (2023), the Colonels forced a 1-1 draw in Richmond, Kentucky, as Kendal Gargiula scored FGCU's lone goal in the match.
EKU is currently tied for fourth in the ASUN at 4-5-1 overall and 1-1 in league action. EKU lost to Lipscomb 3-0 but bounced back with a 1-0 win at Austin Peay. EKU was picked to finish fifth in the preseason coaches poll. Six different Colonels have scored this season. Ella Grode, Ana Manning and Maddy Murphy have found the back of the net twice.
FGCU will stay in the Bluegrass State to face Bellarmine on Sunday at 1 p.m., the fifth all-time meeting. The match will be streamed on ESPN+. FGCU is 3-0-1 when facing the Knights, shutting out Bellarmine in the last two outings with a 1-0 victory a season ago.
Bellarmine was picked to finish eighth. The Knights (1-6-2, 0-1-1) host Stetson on Thursday before squaring off against the Eagles Sunday. Emma Nicholson has scored a team-leading five goals for Bellarmine, which ranks second in the ASUN. Cambria Kingman's 40 saves trails none other than FGCU goalkeeper Molina.
