FGCU Women's Soccer Dominates A-Sun Honors

Courtesy of Linwood Ferguson

Just like this season, the FGCU Women's Soccer team (12-3-3) dominated the Atlantic Sun awards. The following are Eagles who received honors:

Goalkeeper of the Year: Brittany Brown
Freshman of the Year: Tabby Tindell
Coach of the Year: Jim Blankenship

All-Atlantic Sun First Team
Emma Blackwell- D*
Tabby Tindell- F*
Brittany Brown- GK
Tessa Berger-D
Ally Kasun- MF
Paulina Speckmaier- MF

All-Atlantic Sun Second Team
Melissa Arnold - D
Shannen Wacker - F

All-Atlantic Sun Freshman Team
Tabby Tindell - F*
Paulina Speckmaier - MF*

*=unanimous selection

Since the Eagles captured the A-Sun regular season title, they will be hosting the semifinals and finals. Following a first round bye, FGCU will face the winner of No. 4 Mercer and No. 5 Stetson on Friday, Nov. 8. The Championship, which will be held at the FGCU Soccer Complex, will be broadcasted on ESPN3.

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FGCU Women's Soccer Clinch Four-Peat

Courtesy of Linwood Ferguson

Tonight FGCU Women's Soccer clinched its fourth A-Sun title. They didn't even step onto the field. With Jacksonville losing, the Eagles captured the four-peat and the No. 1 seed in the Atlantic Sun tournament.

With the No. 1 seed, FGCU, along with the No. 2 and 3 seeds, will host the first round. Dunk City will also play host to the Championship Round or Final Four.

In their regular season finale tomorrow (Oct. 26), the Eagles will battle Stetson and look to defend their undefeated conference record.

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Eagles In The Classroom: NCAA Release GSR

Courtesy of Linwood Ferguson

Today the NCAA released its annual Graduation Success Rate (GSR) reports. This is the class that began college in 2006 and is calculated by students who graduated within six years. Headlining FGCU sports are Women's Soccer and Women's Tennis, both of whom had a 100% GSR rate. Here is FGCU's full list.

Men's Sports
Basketball: 53%
Baseball: 60%
Cross Country: 38%
Golf: 80%
Tennis: 73%

Women's Sports
Basketball: 40%
Cross Country: 56%
Golf: 83%
Soccer: 100%
Softball: 72%
Swim & Dive: 67%
Tennis: 100%
Volleyball: 89%

Overall, the Atlantic Sun conference had 26 perfect scores, including every Women's Tennis team (for the 2nd year in a row). Fifty-one A-Sun schools posted a score equal to or higher than the national average.

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FGCU Men's Soccer Turning Season Around

Courtesy of Linwood Ferguson

Dunk City didn't look so bright for Bob Butehorn's squad on Mon. Sept. 23. They were 0-5-1 on the season and had just returned from a West Coast trip with two demoralizing losses. The Eagles were blown out by No. 6 Washington 5-0 and then lost an OT nail-biter to Seattle.

"We'll take the lessons we learned this weekend and continue to work on moving our game forward," Butehorn said after the loss to Seattle.

Three weeks later, FGCU is standing atop the Atlantic Sun standings with a 4-0-0 conference record and a pep in their step that isn't unusual when on a six game winning streak.

Interestingly enough, their six game streak started in none other than Philadelphia, Penn., the site of FGCU's historic upset over Georgetown.

After the Eagles' inability to capitalize in overtime before Philly, Felipe DeSousa, with the help of some fancy footwork, was able to send one in the bank of the net, capturing FGCU's first win of the season.

Then staying on the road, the Blue and Green traveled to Princeton and went into another overtime period. This time it was freshman Will Suedois who netted the Eagles' winning goal. It was the first of his young collegiate career.

“I think the most important item for us was that we shut a team out at its home venue where it hadn’t lost this year," Butehorn said.

Now, FGCU has ripped off four A-Sun wins in a row, two in Dunk City and two on the road. While this phenomenal feat is definitely the product of a great team effort, the Eagles have had special help from freshman Isaiah Madrid.

The Albuquerque product scored three goals, one game winner, on only eight shots in FGCU's two matches this weekend. This, along with tallying an assist, landed him as the A-Sun Co-Player of the Week.

Now the Eagles will look to defend their winning streak and undefeated conference record as they host A-Sun foe Mercer on Thursday, Oct. 17 at 7:00 p.m.

All quotes courtesy of FGCUAthletics.com

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FGCU Fall Sports Update

Courtesy of Linwood Ferguson

Here the FGCU Eagles Nest brings you up to date in what has been in happening in all the FGCU fall sports. Enjoy.

Volleyball 3-10 (2-1)
The Eagles started off slow, losing their first five matches, but are now 2-1 in conference play, with wins over UNF and Kennesaw State. They will battle another conference foe, Mercer, tonight (Saturday Sept. 28th) at Alico. Both Karina Mambuca and Kaitlin Holm have been dishing out block parties while Christine Pinder will look to carry over her impressive kill performance from the KSU match.

Men's Soccer 1-5-1 (0-0-0)
Felipe DeSousa and the Eagles finished in dramatic fashion on Friday night, as he scored with only 57 seconds left in OT to give FGCU the win over Penn. The story was not the same against Seattle last weekend, as they lost 3-2 in OT against the Redhawks. FGCU will now take on Princeton on Sunday Sept. 29th at 4:00 p.m in one of their nationally televised matches (ESPNU).

Women's Soccer 6-3-1 (1-0-0)

Courtesy of Linwood Ferguson

Ally Kasun and Co. have been one of the most impressive FGCU programs this fall. They are still defending their A-Sun title, beating Jacksonville, their only conference opponent so far. They have been traveling quite a bit, flying all the way to Honolulu to take part in the University of Hawaii Outrigger Hotels & Resorts Classic. They left 2-0 with wins over Portland State and Idaho State. They take on UNF Sunday Sept. 30th, at the FGCU Soccer Complex.

Men's Tennis
The FGCU Men's Tennis team is currently opening their season at the Bedford Cup (Sept. 27-29) in Tallahassee.

Women's Tennis
The Women's Tennis team is opening their season at the UCF Invitational this weekend (Sept. 27-29)

Men's Golf
The Eagles, led by Blake Biggs (221), tied for 11th in the Golfweek Conference Challenge. Then, they tied for 8th in the Saint Mary's Invitational as Matt Cote sunk his first whole in one. Next, FGCU will travel to Atlanta to battle Kennesaw State (Oct. 21-22).

Women's Golf
They opened their season 3rd out of 4 at the Eat-A-Peach Invitational. Then, the Eagles hosted the Eagle Invitational in which Briana Carlson won the individual championship and FGCU tied for 1st with Barry University.

Swim & Dive
After the Blue/Green Scrimmage, the FGCU Swim/Dive team headed to Gainesville this weekend (Sept. 27-29) to compete in the All-Florida Invitational.

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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.

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