Volleyball Eagles on A-Sun road trip
Special to the Breeze
Winners of four straight and with an unblemished conference record (3-0), the FGCU volleyball team takes its first Atlantic Sun Conference road trip this weekend as the Eagles head to South Carolina and Georgia for matches Friday at USC Upstate and Saturday at Kennesaw State.
The Eagles (9-7 overall) look to hit double-digit wins on the road trip.
Prior to the non-conference win Tuesday over Bethune-Cookman, the Eagles rattled off three-straight A-Sun wins at Alico Arena.
The Eagles have fared well in first conference road tests, turning in a 6-1 mark, including sweeps in 2007, 2009, 2012 and 2013.
Basketball
The Eagles’ men’s team has been predicted in near-unanimous fashion to continue their conference success as they were selected to win the league.
Bernard Thompson has been tabbed as the Preseason Player of the Year and Preseason Defensive Player of the Year. Additionally, Brett Comer was named the Facebook Fan-Voted Preseason Player of the Year and a unanimous selection to the 10-member Preseason All-Conference Team, while Jamail Jones also earned a spot on the team.
Coming off an A-Sun Tournament Championship in 2012-13 and A-Sun Regular-Season Championship in 2013-14, the Eagles garnered seven of the eight first-place votes in the coaches’ poll (63 points) and received 25 of 26 first-place votes in the media poll (207 points). FGCU is the only school with two unanimous All-Conference Team selections in Comer and Thompson, and is tied with North Florida for the most all-league selections with three.
“It’s nice again for the team to be acknowledged and they’re certainly great honors for Bernard, Brett and Jamail to be recognized,” said second-year coach Joe Dooley. “But it’s important for us to remember that a very difficult non-conference schedule hopefully will prepare us for a 14-game regular season and conference tournament, which will decide everything and we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”
Golf
Coming off a historic 2013-14 season, which saw a Division-I best 14-8 record, a six-match win streak and five A-Sun Conference awards, the women’s tennis team looks to lay the groundwork for another successful season as it begins its fall campaign this weekend (Oct 10-12) at the Bedford Cup hosted by North Florida in Jacksonville.
Founded in 2011, the Bedford Cup is a battle ground for top players from each of the 11 D-I women’s tennis programs in the state.
The tournament includes five singles draws and three doubles draws. All seven from the Eagles roster will participate in the tournament.