The season began in February, and the FGCU beach volleyball team finished the regular season with a record of 14 wins and 18 losses. Although the Eagles finished below .500, there were plenty of highlights throughout the season and a chance for more success in his 2024 ASUN Beach Volleyball Championship Tournament.
The Eagles opened the season with three straight wins over Southern Mississippi, Mercer and Eckerd on February 23 and 24 in DeLand, but lost in their first game of the season to conference rival and No. 16 Stetson, 4-1.
The next tournament was held in Jacksonville on March 1st and 2nd, and FGCU once again improved to 3-1 with wins over Jacksonville and Mercer while splitting two games with North Florida. In the win over Jacksonville, senior Casey Johnson broke the Eagles' all-time wins record with his 70th win.
However, what started to become a problem for the Eagles was the number of top-ranked opponents the team faced throughout the season. FGCU played 17 games against ranked opponents.
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These teams included Stetson three times, as mentioned above, and Florida Atlantic three times. The Eagles played twice against Florida State, TCU, and FIU, and once each against Tampa, Arizona State, Washington State, Georgia State, and LSU.
Throughout the season, FGCU was able to battle and come away with some upset wins. On March 9, the Eagles defeated the 20th-ranked Tampa Spartans, 3-2. A trip to Fort Worth a few weeks later ended on a positive note, with the Eagles defeating the No. 13 FIU Panthers 3-2 on March 23. In the next game on the road to Atlanta, the Eagles defeated the 15th-ranked Georgia State Panthers 3-2 on April 5 for the final upset win of the regular season.
Another highlight for FGCU this season was the three times the Eagles had a pair win the ASUN Beach Volleyball Pair of the Week award. On March 13th and 27th, sophomore Nicole de Oliveira and junior Caitlin Lubars were named Pair of the Week. And on April 10, graduate student Shelby Beisner and fourth-year student Trinity Rosales received the award.
Johnson, Beisner, Rosales and Manaia Lewi were honored for their time at FGCU on Senior Day, March 20, when the Eagles played Palm Beach Atlantic and No. 16 FAU, splitting both games.
FGCU's next match is the 2024 ASUN Beach Volleyball Championship Tournament to be held in DeLand from April 24th to April 27th. The seeding for the tournament has not yet been finalized as the last ASUN team will conclude the regular season on April 20th.
The conference tournament bracket format is unique. All eight schools participating in his ASUN conference in beach volleyball will compete in the tournament. FGCU will be joined by Austin Peay, Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, Jacksonville, North Alabama, North Florida and Stetson.
After the first round is played, the four losers of those matches will be placed in the loser bracket. If a team loses in that bracket, it is eliminated from the tournament. In this case, the loser on the winning side is given a chance to redeem himself in the tournament. Ultimately, the finals will be held between the winner of the winner's bracket and the winner of the loser's bracket to determine the 2024 ASUN Beach Volleyball Champion.
The Eagles will be looking for a chance to recover. In games against ASUN schools, FGCU was 2-4 against him. However, the Eagles only played three other conference members during the season.
FGCU has never won an ASUN Beach Volleyball Championship, falling short to Stetson in the championship finals four times. This includes the past two seasons with the defending champion Hatters. The Eagles will look to make history in DeLand in the coming weeks.