FGCU volleyball prepares to defend ASUN Tournament title

For the past three seasons, the Florida Gulf Coast volleyball team celebrated on their floor as ASUN Tournament champions. Now, this year’s team wants to win it again, as they go for four in a row.

“We can think back to the previous years and that feeling of winning and it just pushes us even harder to achieve that once again,” outside hitter Skylar English said.

The Eagles are flying high, based on their performance during conference play. The Eagles finished with a 15-1 record in the ASUN for the second year in a row, which secured the Regular Season Championship and top seed.

“We knew coming into this we had a lot of experienced players that understand what winning volleyball can look like should look like,” FGCU volleyball head coach Matt Botsford explained. “Ways to make the game a little easier on ourselves.”

The Eagles secured the regular season title the second to last game of the season. For Botsford, that stretch will serve his team well.

“We’ve had to win important games and that’s what happens in tournament play, right?,” Botsford said. “You can’t slip up. And we were in that position for much of this year in the regular season.”

“This last weekend was a good wrap up I think showing what we’re capable of,” setter Raegan Richardson said. “And I think we’re pretty confident going into it.”

Senior Skylar English has another season playing for the Eagles, but for the teammates she came in with, this is an opportunity to further cement themselves in program history.

“We wanted to do things that FGCU volleyball has never done before,” English answered. “And we’ve done that already but we want to do more than that.”

The Eagles start ASUN Tournament play against Queens on Thursday in the quarterfinal round.