Off-Season Guide 1: Women's Soccer

The Eagles, led by Shannen Wacker, ended the season with a 14-4-3 record and a lone conference loss to UNF (7-1-1 conference record) to earn a A-Sun Regular Season Championship for the 3rd year in a row. After earning the #1 seed in the A-Sun Tournament, FGCU beat #5 Jacksonville en route to scraping by #2 Mercer in the finals, 1-0 (OT). The Eagles had to travel to Gainesville to take on the Gators in the first round of the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row. UF scored in the 22nd minute and then again in 77th to capture a 2-0 victory.

Photo Courtesy of Jim Dostie

FGCU will be losing seniors Jessica Swartzentruber, Danielle Faller, Jennifer Crittenberger, Julia Martin, and Ashely Ciesielczyk. They all certainly left their mark on FGCU soccer. Crittenberger is fifth all time in minutes (5853) and games started (64) in FGCU history. Faller has a constant motor that led her to start all 78 games in her career. Ciesielczyk is first on the all time FGCU list for assists with 28. Swartzentruber returned from an injury to play her last game at FGCU in the NCAA tournament against UF. Martin had a key assist in the A-Sun semi-finals to lead their team to victory. 

Post-Season accolades are not a rare occurrence for FGCU. This year, Jim Blankenship was named A-Sun Coach of the Year and Ashely Ciesielczyk earned the A-Sun defensive player of the year. Shannen Wacker, Ally Kasun joined Ciesielczyk on the All Conference First Team and Danielle Faller, Jennifer Crittenberger, Emma Blackwell, and Shea Rhoney earned A-Sun Second Team honors.

It will be hard to replace all the great talent and personalities these seniors had but Jim Blankenship did a phenomenal job bringing in great young talent. Lauren Knight, Ashely Parks, Paulina Speckmaler (transfer), Tabitha Tindell, and Yazmin Velez all signed NLIs to FGCU. 

FGCU Soccer contributed to the Eagles being named A-Sun Women's All Sport Champions.