FORT MYERS, Fla. – The seniors showed out for Florida Gulf Coast (19-29, 13-8 ASUN) to knock off Queens (12-32, 4-17) 6-3 and cap their senior day with a series sweep.

The Eagles honored their eight seniors – Olivia Black, Emily Chiarella, Grace Taylor, Tiffany Meek, Nikki Gibson, Parris Wiggs, Maddox Thomas and Sietske Drijvers – before the game.

"They're going to be a tough class to replace," head coach Linday Fico said. "It's going to be tough to replace eight people in general but when you are able to mesh two really good groups of seniors together, mine from Mercer and then (David Deiros') that stayed on and returned, it's hard to put it into words how proud I am of them, how they've led on and off the field. Anytime you've got that type of leadership, you're going to miss it. They're also doing a phenomenal job of leaving a legacy behind them.They're teaching my young ones what to do, how to do it, how to act, and all of that stuff. I'm thankful for them more than anything. I'm proud of them and we have more softball to play." 

The seniors started strong in the first inning. Gibson singled to drive in Drijvers, and Sophie Wylie crossed home after the throw reached the backstop to put FGCU up 2-0 early.

FGCU continued the run parade in the second. Wiggs and Meek hit back-to-back singles, and advanced into scoring position on the throw from Meek's single. The Eagles took advantage of a Queens defensive miscue, with two Royals' errors on the same play off the back of Black, allowing both Wiggs and Meek to score. Drijvers was hit by a pitch for the second time, and she and Black pulled off a double steal for Black's 99th career stolen base.

K'Mari Williams collected one of her career-high three hits on the day with an RBI infield single to bring Black home, and Mackenzie Leiti scored Drijvers with an RBI single of her own to cap off the four-run second inning.

Queens' bats pushed three runs across between the third and fourth, but Grace Taylor (8-9) entered and finished off a spectacular weekend of softball in the circle, allowing only one hit in four innings of relief.

"I have full trust in my defense behind me," Taylor said. "I'm not a big strikeout pitcher, so I get to produce a lot of ground balls. So just being able to trust my teammates behind me, (Gibson), Sophie (Wylie), the rest of the infield, they've been huge this year."

Next, FGCU will head on the road for the final series of the regular season at Stetson, beginning at 2 p.m. on Friday, May 1.

2026 softball single game tickets are on sale at https://fgcuathletics.evenue.net/list/SB. 

For more information on FGCU Softball, follow @FGCUSoftball on Instagram, X (Twitter) and Facebook, and visit fgcuathletics.com.

Postgame Notes
– FGCU is 6-0 against Queens in Fort Myers and is 10-2 against the Royals all-time
– Every senior hitter (Black, Gibson, Meek, Wiggs, Thomas and Drijvers) reached base in the win
– Drijvers was hit by a season-high two pitches
– Williams had a career-high three hits for FGCU
– Drijvers scored two runs for the Eagles
– Taylor earned the win after allowing one hit in four innings of relief
– Taylor finished the weekend with 13 innings pitched and five strikeouts to just one run and six hits allowed Read Full Article