FGCU Eagles Nest: Volleyball

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Dunks of the Day: Sweat, Cooney, Mazziotta

1: Former Florida Gulf Coast volleyball star Brooke Sweat made a great run in the AVP St. Petersburg Open this weekend. As a four seed, Sweat and her partner Lauren Fendrick breezed through the first two rounds and then took down number one seeded Emily Day and Summer Ross, 21-14, 17-21, 15-10, in the quarterfinals. After their semifinal opponents forfeited due to injury, Sweat/Fendrick were pitted against US Olympians April Ross and Kerri Walsh Jennings. After Brooke and Fendrick took the first set 21-19, they dropped the next two, 15-21 and 11-15. However, this is a promising start to the 2014 season for Sweat, who is tied for fifth in the USA Beach Volleyball player rankings. Next up on the AVP Tour is the Milwaukee Open from July 3 through July 6.

3: The first of six FGCU players selected in the 2013 MLB Draft, Harrison Cooney (Burlington Bees) put together his most impressive performance of the 2014 season, on Friday. The righty tossed a complete game shutout, striking out eight batters while only giving up six hits. With a 2.05 ERA, he is now 4-3 with the Class A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels.

4: Daniel Mazziotta is looking to qualify for the US Open on Monday. The former FGCU golf standout will be competing in a sectional qualifier at the Colonial Country Club in Memphis, Tenn. Over 36 holes, 145 golfers will compete for only 13 available spots. Mazziotta has been competing in the PGA Latin America Tour, and in just his fourth start, he won the Mundo Maya Open. Live scoring for the qualifier can be found here.

Dunks of the Day is a series of smaller FGCU news bits put together into one post. If you have a news tip or idea, please email us at fgcueaglesnest@gmail.com

Monday, February 10, 2014

FGCU VB Hires Former Colorado State Assistant Matthew Botsford As New Head Coach

After Dave Nichols stepped down as the Florida Gulf Coast volleyball coach, the Eagles have been on a search to find a new program leader. That search ended Monday as athletic director Ken Kavanagh announced that FGCU has hired former Colorado State assistant Matthew Botsford.

“I’d first like to thank Ken and the administration for giving me this opportunity. From the second I stepped foot on campus it was apparent to me that the successes at FGCU were a reflection of the people in the department and the passion they have, and that’s one of the things that attracted me to the position. Also, I’ve been extremely blessed to have worked with some great coaches in my career, and Tom Hilbert (current CSU head coach) is one of them. My time working with him has been invaluable because he’s shown me how to run a program beyond what just takes place on the court. He’s been a steward of the game, a valued member of the community and I’m extremely thankful for him preparing me to move into this position.” -Botsford via press release

In his two years at CSU, Botsford assisted in the Rams back to back Mountain West championships, and two entrances into the NCAA tournament. CSU was 49-10 in his time in Fort Collins. Prior to Colorado State, the now FGCU head coach spent time coaching at Miami, Notre Dame, and IUPUI.

Botsford brings in hefty recruiting experience, espcially with Miami, that will be crucial in his start with the Eagles. He is taking over a program coming off a 14-19 season that ended in a semifinal loss to JU in the Atlantic Sun tournament.

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Friday, October 25, 2013

FGCU Volleyball Tops Mercer In Five Sets

Courtesy of Linwood Ferguson

FGCU started off a three games in four day stretch off right with hard fought five set victory over Mercer. The Eagles captured the first set 25-21 before slowing down in the second set and dropping it 25-14. After they split the third and fourth sets with the Bears (25-16, 25-18), FGCU won the fifth set 15-7.

Senior and Ft. Myers native Kaitlin Holm led the Eagles in kills with 21 while fellow senior Karina Mambuca led the squad in digs (17). On the night, FGCU record 57 kills and 10 blocks. Excluding the second set, they recorded 10 or more kills in every set. The hitting percentage ended at .214.

That was the Eagles fourth win in five set matches this season, the others coming against FAU, USC Upstate, FIU, and UNK. They are now undefeated on the season when it comes to these grueling contests.

With this win, the Blue and Green now own a 7-3 record (4th) in Atlantic Sun play and move only one game under .500 for the season. FGCU stays on the road as they take on Kennesaw State tomorrow (Oct. 26) at 3:00 p.m. After battling UNF on Monday (Oct. 28), the Eagles will return home to Alico.

For more on FGCU make sure to follow us on Twitter (@FGCUEaglesNest)

Thursday, October 24, 2013

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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Monday, October 21, 2013

Former FGCU Volleyball Star Brooke Sweat Wins AVP Huntington Beach Championship

Former FGCU Volleyball standout Brooke (Youngquist) Sweat won her first AVP Championship this weekend. After Sweat and her partner Jennifer Fopma lost in the first round, they pulled off four wins in the contenders' bracket before defeating Ross-Day in the semifinals to land them a spot in the championship match.

Then in the finals, Sweat and Fopma defeated Lauren Fendrick and Brittany Hochevar 21-9, 15-21, 15-9.

The Fort Myers native still holds school records for most career kills, service aces per set, and points.

In a fitting manner, Sweat sent an ace down the line to capture her first AVP victory: the Championship. On the weekend, the former FGCU Volleyball standout had 15 aces (.88 avg), 140 digs (8.24 avg) and 111 kills (39% hitting).

For more on FGCU make sure to follow us on Twitter (@FGCUEaglesNest)

Saturday, September 28, 2013

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.