FT. MYERS, Fla.--Although the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles came up short of the NCAA Division II single game attendance record, on the court, they ran away with a 3-0 win over the Barry Buccaneers Thursday night.
On Alumni Weekend, the Eagles packed 2,638 fans in Alico Arena, the largest crowd to watch an Eagles volleyball game. The total was well short of the NCAA record of 3,502 by Nebraska-Kearney against Nebraska-Omaha in 1996.
Game one was all Eagles, as the large but ruly crowd seemed to intimidate the Buccaneers and FGCU took the frame 30-15. Samara de Freitas led Barry with four kills, but the Eagles out-hit the Bucs .424 to .077. Heather Van Olst led the Eagles with six kills on 14 swings.
Game two went to the Eagles 30-21 as they hit over .400 again. Lorine Durski had four kills for Barry, but the Eagles' Ericka Fonseca blistered the nets for nine kills and hit .727.
The Buccaneers played their best volleyball of the match in game three. They led 10-8 before the Eagles rolled off five of the next six points to go up 13-10 and the Bucs could get no closer than two points the rest of the way. Fonseca put away her 19th kill of the match to make the final 30-26.
Fonseca celebrated senior day with a match-high 19 kills and hit .680. Van Olst added 15 kills and Brooke Youngquist had 14. Durski had 14 kills for Barry, while de Freitas had 11 and a .391 attack percentage. Maria Romanowski had 33 assists for the Bucs and Lauren Evans had 16 digs.
Short Box Score (Match)
2006 Barry University Buccaneers
Barry vs #10 Florida Gulf Coast (Nov 02, 2006 at Fort Myers, Fla.)
Florida Gulf Coast def. Barry 30-15,30-21,30-26
Barry (14-12) (Kills-aces-blocks) - Lorine Durski 14-1-0; Samara de
Freitas 11-0-0; Nicole Castera 6-0-2; Samara Ferreira 3-0-2; Maria
Romanowski 2-1-0; Julie Priester 1-0-0; Caitlin Shawver 1-0-0; Totals
38-2-2.0. (Assists) - Maria Romanowski 33. (Dig leaders) - Lauren
Evans 16; Lorine Durski 8; Maria Romanowski 8
Florida Gulf Coast (27-2) (Kills-aces-blocks) - Fonseca, Ericka
19-1-5; Van Olst, Heather 15-2-0; Youngquist, Brooke 14-2-0; Gomes,
Patricia 4-0-5; Ziegler, Cara 3-0-2; Ginest, Chandra 1-0-0;
Alessandra, Thais 1-0-0; Hendry, Whitney 0-1-0; Totals 57-6-7.0.
(Assists) - Ginest, Chandra 44. (Dig leaders) - Hendry, Whitney 16;
Youngquist, Brooke 16; Ginest, Chandra 11
Site: Fort Myers, Fla. (Alico Arena)
Date: Nov 02, 2006 Attend: 2638 Time: 1:25
Referees: Jim Fales, Charlie Perkhiser