Florida Gulf Coast University's beach volleyball opened its 2025 season Friday by splitting a pair of matches at the Beach Berg Invitational hosted by Southern Mississippi. The Eagles lost to No. 8 LSU, 3-2, before sweeping Southern Miss, 5-0, to finish the day 1-1.

In the LSU match, the Tigers' No. 5 duo of Gracey Campbell and Elle Evers got LSU its first point with a 22-20, 21-10 win over Erin Miller and Mia Thompson. FGCU evened the match when the Eagles' No. 4 pair of Alexis Keeter and Ava Lilliquist knocked off Skylar Martin and Tatum Finlason, 21-16, 22-20. 

LSU won the next two counting matches to finish, taking an insurmountable 3-1 lead before FGCU's No. 2 team of Jaci Carpenter and Emma Soncrant rallied from a set down to beat Aubrey O'Gorman and Julia Sprecher, 13-21, 21-19, 17-15, to earn the Eagles' other victory in the match.

Against Southern Miss, FGCU swept all five matches, but the Eagles did have to go three sets to win two of the pairings. 

Keeter and Lilliquist finished their win first for the Eagles, taking the No. 4 pairing, 21-15, 21-19. Next in line for FGCU was the No. 5 team of Miller and Thompson, who earned a 21-13, 20-22, 15-13 win in their match to make it 2-0 FGCU. 

De Oliveira and Luebbers clinched the match for FGCU with a 21-18, 21-15 win at No. 1. Luebbers, the Atlantic Sun Conference Preseason Player of the Year, now has 75 career wins and is eight wins away from setting the FGCU all-time career wins record. De Oliveira was also named preseason All-Conference for the Eagles and the team of De Oliveira and Luebbers were named ASUN Pair of the Week twice in 2024. 

The team of Andrea Dietz and Sydney Majick (21-15, 21-18 at No. 3) gave the Eagles a 4-0 lead before Carpenter and Soncrant closed out the sweep with their second come-from-behind win of the day, rallying to beat USM's Laurel Dennis and Sadie McAda, 13-21, 21-16, 15-9, at No. 2. 

FGCU - who received votes in the AVCA Collegiate Beach Preseason Poll - resumes action on Saturday morning, facing ASUN foe North Alabama at 9 a.m. before closing tournament play against No. 6 Florida State at 11:10 a.m.