Catching up with the Eagles: Aug. 29-Sept. 4 FGCU cross country, soccer, volleyball results
Here is a roundup of how FGCU athletic teams fared in contests played from Monday, Aug. 29 to Sunday, Sept. 4, including weekly awards won by Eagles athletes and a schedule for games being played this week.
Women's soccer downs FAU
The Eagles got a late goal from senior Grace Paradis to take down Florida Atlantic, 1-0, Sunday afternoon at Pickering Field. Paradis just got her head on the ball in the 89th minute as the Eagles improved to 2-3.
"Phenomenal result for us," said head coach Jim Blankenship. "We haven't gotten the results we've wanted, but I've been telling them to stay focused and that we are getting better each game. FAU is the best team we've played so far and our defense played great and we got rewarded for it at the end."
FAU had a 13-8 shot advantage, but in the second half, the Eagles outshot the Owls, 7-6, forcing more action in their offensive area. The Eagles also had a 7-3 edge in corner kicks including a 5-1 advantage in the second half.
More: Catching up with the Eagles: Aug. 21-28 FGCU soccer, volleyball results include Big 10 wins
The goal for Paradis was her first of the season and second in her FGCU career. Junior Leah Scarpelli and graduate student Margaret Berry helped shut down the Owls with their strong play on the back line, but also picked up assists on the goal.
In the net, graduate student Katie Sullivan made a season-high six saves for her first shutout of the season.
For the fifth time in her career, junior Louise Lillback was named ASUN Women's Soccer Player of the Week last Tuesday.
"I'm happy for Louise," said Blankenship. "She's made a big impact in our first couple of games and we expect it to continue to happen this season. Scoring in three games so far, including against a nationally-ranked team in UCF shows how dangerous she can be."
In two games vs. Southern and No. 23 UCF, Lillback scored two goals and also added an assist. Lillback has earned Player of the Week honors in all four seasons she has played for the Eagles, including twice last season.
Men's soccer washed out vs. UCF
The men's soccer match between UCF and FGCU was declared a no contest due to weather Friday night. The game was called in the 39th minute with the score tied 1-1.
After posting a pair of shutouts in the opening week of play, including a 1-0 win against Northwestern, Wyatt Kistner was named the ASUN Men's Soccer Goalkeeper of the Week Tuesday.
"Wyatt has performed well and our team, defensively, has built some good early chemistry," said head coach Jesse Cormier. "We will continue building upon our foundation of communication and accountability as we have many more quality opponents on the horizon."
The redshirt sophomore anchored a defense that helped the Eagles (1-0-1) earn a 0-0 draw at South Florida last Thursday before picking up its sixth Power 5 win in program history on Sunday against the Wildcats. He had a career-high five saves in the win over Northwestern, while being pressed into action just once against the Bulls.
Volleyball goes 1-2 in Colorado
FGCU Volleyball split the twin-bill action at the Colorado State Invitational Friday, beating Alabama State 3-0 before falling to Colorado State 3-1. The Eagles finished the weekend with a 3-0 loss to Arkansas to fall to 4-2 on the season.
"Nice match in the morning with some good opportunities to see some different lineup variations out on the court," head coach Matt Botsford said. "The ball control and serving was outstanding and led the way for us. This evening started out with that same service pressure putting us in a good spot in set one.
"Unfortunately, CSU found their rhythm defensively at the net and our hitters had a real tough time creating. We became really high error, too predictable and just couldn't apply pressure. There were some nice runs where I felt like our floor defenders were keeping us in it, but without point scoring, we found ourselves not able to contain their runs."
Barron Collier graduate Skylar English (16) and Erin Shomaker (13) recorded double-digit kills and hit a .470 against Alabama State. English hit .519 and Shomaker hit .478.
Shomaker led the charge against the Rams with 20 kills while Juliana Lents added 10. Colorado native Chelsey Lockey recorded 44 assists.
Shoemaker moved into fifth all-time in FGCU career kills (971) and is now just 29 kills away from becoming the fifth Eagle to ever reach the 1,000 career kill mark.
Lockey posted a double-double, a team-leading 14 digs and 19 assists against Arkansas while the Razorbacks held Shoemaker to just three kills.
FGCU won three ASUN weekly awards last Monday for its 3-0 performance at the Maryland Invite.
Shomaker won ASUN Player of the Week, Dana Axner took home the ASUN Defensive Player of the Week honor and Lockey was awarded the ASUN Setter of the Week. Anxer captured her seventh career defensive player of the week, and Shomaker's won her fifth player of the week honors.
Cross Country has top runner at UCF
Grad student Osman Humeida took the individual title at the UCF Invitational and helped the FGCU men's cross country team to a third place overall finish in the highly competitive meet. The Virginia native finished in 15:32.1, a full 12 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Josh Stern from Florida.
Humeida is the first Eagle to win the individual title at the UCF Invitational in the program's history.
Joining Humeida in the top 10 was senior Bus Baker, who placed ninth (15:59.8). Freshman Matthew Speruta, an Ida Baker grad, took the 22nd spot (15:57.00) in the first collegiate race.
Florida earned first place with seven runners among the top 12 to finish with 27 points, Miami was second with 66 and the Eagles finished third with 84 points.
The women's team finished sixth overall and was led by sophomore Karley Piers, who finished just outside the top 10 runners in 11th place with a time of 19:03.6.
Eagles Schedule This Week
THURSDAY
Women's Soccer at FSU, 7 p.m.
FRIDAY
Men's Soccer at Georgia Southern, 7 p.m.
Men's Golf at Rod Myers Invitational, 8 a.m. in Durham, N.C.
Volleyball vs. VCU, noon at Sunshine Invitational, Gainesville
Volleyball at Florida, 7:30 p.m. at Sunshine Invitational, Gainesville
SATURDAY
Men's Golf at Rod Myers Invitational, 8 a.m. in Durham, N.C.
Volleyball vs Georgia Southern, 1 p.m. at Sunshine Invitational, Gainesville
SUNDAY
Men's Soccer at Mercer, noon
Women's Soccer vs. FIU, 1 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Florida Gulf Coast cross country, men's and women's soccer, volleyball
