BASKETBALL/WOMEN
The 2022-23 schedule for the FGCU women's basketball team has been officially announced with the season set to begin at home on Nov. 7 against Old Dominion.
The Eagles will host 15 home games in Alico Arena. Season tickets and mini-plans for the 2022-23 campaign are now on sale and can be purchased by calling 866-FGCU-TIX, visiting www.FGCUTickets.com, or at the Alico Arena Ticket Office Monday-Friday.
"We have a great schedule. Our team will get to play a lot of high-quality teams that will help get us ready for ASUN play," said head coach Karl Smesko. "Our players enjoy playing in big games, and we have a lot of them scheduled this year."
The team's full schedule can be seen here.
GOLF
BOWLING GREEN, Fla. - Both Sam Baker and Thomas Salanito tied for 19th on the player leaderboard to lead the Green and Blue as individuals at the Streamsong Invitational Sept. 13.
"Really proud of our guys this week," head coach Andrew Danna said. "I think they did a great job navigating the golf course and managing their games throughout the week. We are looking forward to the next opportunity to compete."
Salanito's (Palm Harbor, Fla.) 19th-place effort marked a career-high finish for the junior. He posted a second round of 68, a career-low, and a final round of 70 to enter the clubhouse at 8-under-par (208) for the event. Salanito connected on a par-5 eagle during round two to highlight his three under-par rounds.
Monday and Tuesday's action marked the first collegiate rounds of play for the freshman Baker (Cloquet, Minn). Baker shot back-to-back rounds of 68 to tie his teammate Salanito at 8-under, moving up seven positions during the final 18 holes competition.
Both Salanito and Baker were just three strokes back of cracking the top 10 as each posted the 13th lowest three-round score (54-hole total) in program history.
SOCCER/WOMEN
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Junior Leah Scarpelli (Brick, N.J./Brick Memorial HS/Penn State) scored the goal of the year for the Eagles as the FGCU women's soccer team defeated Queens, 1-0, to open up ASUN Conference play. The Eagles improve to 3-4 overall and 1-0 in the ASUN while the Royals fall to 0-4-3 and 0-1 in conference action.
"An unbelievable goal by Leah," said head coach Jim Blankenship. "To even get the ball on target from that distance is incredible, but to actually score is even crazier. We controlled most of the game and had our chances and luckily, we were able to get out of here with a win. It's always nice to start 1-0 in league play."
Scarpelli's goal came in the 57th minute from about 45 yards out as she sent the ball with her left foot toward the goal that had an eye for the top corner. The Queens keeper was tracking it, but it was put in a spot she could not get to as it snuck over her hands and into the back of the net.
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LYNCHBURG, Va. - The FGCU women's soccer team dropped its first ASUN contest of the season, Sunday, as the Eagles fell to Liberty, 2-0. The Green and Blue fall to 3-5-0 on the season and 1-1-0 in the ASUN while Liberty improves to 5-3-2 and 1-0-1 in league play.
"Tough game for us today," said head coach Jim Blankenship. "Liberty is a good team and they showed that. It will be good for us to get back home to try to rebound next week."
Liberty controlled most of the game as the Flames outshot FGCU 19-5, and had an 10-2 advantage on shots on goal. The Flames also took five corner kicks while the Eagles had none.
SOCCER/MEN
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - FGCU men's soccer (3-0-2, 0-0-1 ASUN) opened ASUN play and pushed their undefeated record to five as they tied 1-1 at Jacksonville (2-2-2, 0-1-1 ASUN), Friday evening at Southern Oak Stadium. This is the best five-game start to a season in the program's history.
Sophomore Aaron Markowitz (Plantation, Fla. / Western HS) scored the lone goal for the Eagles in the 73rd minute.
"I thought we were superior in just about every facet of the game other than converting our opportunities. Our ball retention, tempo, organization, and building from back to our middle third was excellent" said head coach Jesse Cormier. " From the stats, I felt we were territorially dominant but need more efficiency with our final action. We had some excellent contributions from players coming into the game tonight, Aaron Markowitz, Jahvanie Hammond, Pau Santanach, and Timon Zech brought excellent energy and helped us get at least a point on the road tonight."
Overall, FGCU outshot the Dolphins, 22-6 while having seven shots on goal to their three. The Eagles also had a 11-1 advantage on corner kicks.
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FORT MYERS - FGCU men's soccer (3-1-2, 0-0-1 ASUN) battled against 2021 NCAA Tournament qualifier Louisville (4-2-1, 0-1-1 ACC) for 56 minutes before allowing one goal to drop a 1-0 decision on Monday evening at Pickering Field. This loss is the first for the Eagles this season after their best five-game start in the program's history.
Both the Eagles and Cardinals received votes in the latest United Soccer Coaches' poll with Louisville being just four spots out of the top-25.
Graduate forward Jovoney Brown (Savanna-La-Mar, Jamaica / North Florida) had the most shots with three and one on goal.
CROSS COUNTRY
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - Grad student Osman Humeida (South Riding, Va. /Freedom HS/Virginia Tech) set a new men's cross country program record in the 8K to highlight FGCU's performances at the North Alabama Showcase on Friday morning. The men's team placed 17th overall, while the women's team placed 19th.
"Obviously proud of Osman's historical finish and record! He has worked hard and developed nicely," said head coach Cassandra Goodson. "I'm also very proud of Bus and establishing himself as the third best runner in FGCU history right between Lucas Kiprotich and Argeo Cruz. All the men executed the race plan that we talked about and raced like they've been training by supporting one another and leaving it all out on the course. The women also had a solid day! We are so happy that Blake had such a big PR today. Also, Karley running just seconds behind her PR so early in the season is exciting! It was good to see Mary and Reilly running together. They beat some good teams in the conference and improved by beating some teams that we lost to last week".
Humeida previously broke the school record last season at the ASUN Championships with a time of 24:31.4. He ran 24:01.60 seconds to set a record and placed 11th out of a very highly competitive field that included a total of 360 runners. The Virginia native crossed the line before all other ASUN competitors and ran faster than the last two ASUN Runners of the Week.
TENNIS
ORLANDO, Fla. - The FGCU men's tennis team kicked off its fall season on Friday at the UCF Sizzler with redshirt-junior Guglielmo Stefanacci (Prato, Italy/International School of Florence) picking up a singles win for the Eagles while three doubles teams collected victories.
"Overall, today was a good first day," said head coach CJ Weber. "We had many opportunities to compete and get better, and we got to see where our starting point is this year. We have a long journey ahead of us and right now, I just want the guys to enjoy each moment."
With the Eagles' three returning All-ASUN players not in action on day one of singles, Stefanacci picked up the lone win of the day for the Green and Blue, taking down Valentin Dun of Georgia Southern, 6-2, 6-1. He will now advance to take on the #1 seed in the Red draw, Bogdan Pavel of UCF, tomorrow.
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ORLANDO, Fla. - The FGCU men's tennis team wrapped up the UCF Fall Sizzler, Sunday, highlighted by redshirt-junior Magnus Johnson (Naples, Fla./Homeschool/UCF) and senior Max Damm (Bradenton, Fla./Saint Stephen's Episcopal School) winning the Ice doubles title.
"I really enjoyed the guys in this tournament," said head coach CJ Weber. "It's tough to feel good about everything in a fall tournament; but we really grew a lot after the first day of competition. We won a title today with Max and Magnus, and I'm super pumped for them because they are playing so mature and complementing each other well. Mainly, I'm so happy because every single one of my guys is a better player now than he was 3 days ago."
Facing Judson Blair and Pol del Castillo Masich of Georgia Southern, Johnson and Damm proved why they were the top seed in the draw by winning 6-3, wrapping up a 3-0 weekend to begin the season.
VOLLEYBALL
FORT MYERS - FGCU Volleyball won the Homewood Suites FGCU Invitational Saturday to wrap up non-conference action.
FGCU defeated Florida Atlantic 3-0 (25-21, 25-15 and 28-26) in a battle of invitational unbeatens. The in-state victory over the Owls extended FGCU's current win streak to five. The Saturday sweep also marked the fifth sweep of the season for the Green and Blue.
The Eagles also grabbed the all-time series lead against the Owls, 7-6. In the loss, FAU dropped to 10-2 overall on the season.
In the morning action on Saturday, FGCU silenced the St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers 3-0 (25-11, 25.14 and 25-16). On Friday, FGCU played matador to take down the Bulls from the University of Buffalo 3-1.
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Fifth-year senior Chelsey Lockey received ASUN Setter of the Week honors as announced by the conference Monday.
The award marked the second setter of the week recognition for Lockey this season. The Eaton, Colorado native tallied 113 assists this weekend directing the Eagle offense to a perfect 3-0 record en route to Homewood Suites FGCU Invitational champions.
Lockey averaged 11.30 assists per set as the Eagles boasted a .276 attacking percentage. She posted a double-double in the invitational opener against Buffalo (45 assists and 13 digs) and was just one dig shy of adding another pair of double-double efforts in the following two matches.
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