{"id":26023,"date":"2013-09-06T15:10:07","date_gmt":"2013-09-06T19:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=26023"},"modified":"2013-09-06T15:10:07","modified_gmt":"2013-09-06T19:10:07","slug":"fgcu_vb-ready-to-face-top-opponents-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2013\/09\/fgcu_vb-ready-to-face-top-opponents-this-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"@FGCU_VB Ready to Face Top Opponents This Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Florida Gulf Coast University Eagles look to get back on the winning track they saw last season, after a disappointing finish in their first tournament of the 2013 season, as they travel to Florida\u2019s capital city for the\u00a0<\/strong>Four Points by Sheraton<\/strong>\u00a0Seminole Invitational Sept. 7-8. On Saturday, the Eagles will face Ohio State at Noon and host FSU at 7 p.m., before returning Sunday to take on Florida A&M at 1 p.m.<\/strong>\u00a0Live stats for all three of FGCU\u2019s matches will be available via CBS GameTracker.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Eagles enter the tournament with a record of 0-3 after falling at last weekend\u2019s\u00a0<\/strong>IUPUI Hampton Inn Invitational in Indianapolis. While looking to claim its first win this weekend, FGCU faces a pair of ranked opponents in the No. 23 Ohio State Buckeyes (3-0) and the No. 15 Florida State Seminoles (2-1).<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the first week of play, FGCU is ranked seventh in the Atlantic Sun for assists (10.67\/set), kills (11.56\/set) and service aces (0.89\/set), eighth for blocks (1.17\/set) and digs (13.22) and ninth for hitting percentage (.090). Individually, junior\u00a0<\/strong>Gigi Meyer (Gainesville, Fla.\/Buchholz HS)<\/strong>\u00a0stands at sixth in the A-Sun for assists with 9.56\/set. Joining Meyer as conference leaders are junior\u00a0<\/strong>Whitney Masters\u00a0<\/strong>(Muncie, Ind.\/Wapahani HS)<\/strong>\u00a0who is ranked seventh in digs (3.67\/set) and senior\u00a0<\/strong>Kaitlin Holm (Fort Myers, Fla.\/Fort Myers HS\/Marshall)<\/strong>\u00a0ranked 10th for kills (2.89\/set).<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

RECAPPING LAST WEEKEND<\/strong><\/p>\n

In its first match of the 2013 season, the FGCU volleyball team put up a close fight against VCU, but came up short, falling 3-0 (27-25, 25-17, 25-22) to the Rams. In its second match FGCU fell 3-0 (25-22, 25-15, 25-13) to Illinois State as poor attacking by FGCU was the biggest difference in the morning match. In the third match, IUPUI knocked out the Eagles 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-18). The biggest difference in the match<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>was seen in the serving game. IUPUI posted nine service aces to FGCU\u2019s two, while FGCU had six service errors to IUPUI\u2019s three.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

SCOUTING OHIO STATE<\/strong><\/p>\n

The No. 23 Ohio State women’s volleyball team enters the tournament undefeated after victories over Northern Illinois, Liberty and Green Bay in last weekend\u2019s NIU Invitational. The 2012 Buckeyes finished fourth in the Big Ten with a 23-11 record after a 3-1 second-round loss in the NCAA Tournament to Kentucky.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s team returns two starters plus libero Davionna DiSalvatore. Junior Taylor Sherwin led the Buckeye offense last weekend with a total of 158 assists over 13 sets, including 68 in their five-set match against Green Bay. Ohio State\u2019s win over Green Bay marked head coach Geoff Carlston\u2019s 300th career win.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

SCOUTING FLORIDA STATE<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

The No. 15 Florida State Seminoles stand at 2-1 after starting the 2013 season at the Long Beach State Mizuno Invitational with a three-set loss to Illinois, and back-to-back wins over then-No. 17 Kentucky and Long Beach State. The Seminoles finished the 2012 season with a 28-4 record after falling 3-2 to Purdue in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After graduating four seniors from the 2012 squad, the Seminoles are a young team, returning only three seniors and two juniors. Sophomore Nicole Walch leads the team in kills with 39 (3.55\/set), while redshirt junior Katie Mosher leads in digs with 44. Junior Sarah Wickstrom leads in assists with a 6.18 average, while freshman Hailey Luke follows close behind with a 5.36 average.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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SCOUTING FLORIDA A&M<\/strong><\/p>\n

In its season opener, the Florida A&M volleyball team (0-1) dropped a 3-0 match (19-25, 17-25, 17-25) to Georgia Tech. Picked as the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference preseason favorite, Florida A&M posted an unblemished 10-0 conference mark and a 15-10 overall record in 2012<\/strong><\/p>\n

In its first match, FAMU was paced by Scharae Steel as she was the only Lady Rattler to finish in double-digit kills with 10, followed by Katherine Huanec with four.\u00a0Diana Gonzales led FAMU in assists with 14, while Joanie Del Castillo led the team in digs with 10.<\/strong><\/p>\n

FGCU returns to The Nest Tuesday, Sept. 10 to face USF at 7 p.m. Later that week FGCU hosts the 2013 Hilton Garden Inn\/Homewood Suites Airport Classic Sept. 13-14. The Eagles face Central Arkansas Friday at 10 a.m. and Marquette at 7 p.m. before hosting No.1 Penn State Saturday at 7 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Florida Gulf Coast University Eagles look to get back on the winning track they saw last season, after a disappointing finish in their first tournament of the 2013 season,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26023"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26023\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}