Sand Volleyball Sweeps FGCU on Friday

The Stetson sand volleyball team (5-4, 2-0 A-Sun) opened up Atlantic Sun Conference play with a pair of wins at Florida Gulf Coast Friday afternoon in Fort Myers.

The Hatters won nine of the 10 matches on the day, including two wins at the no. 1 position by Julie Bassett and Kaley Melville.

"FGCU played well, they were competitive and we had some close games," Stetson head coach Tim Loesch added. "The matches were a lot closer than the scores appeared. When everything got close our girls played with a lot of confidence and stuck with the game plan, and pulled out two good wins against a strong team. I am real proud of them."

"It was huge for us," Loesch said about picking up two A-Sun wins. "We talked about that before the match. We wanted to started out the conference regular season in front and not play catch-up. It was important for us to start off strong and I think we did."

The Hatters will play their first matches at home on Tuesday morning against Florida Atlantic. The first match is scheduled for 10 a.m.

MATCH 1: STETSON 4, FGCU 1

No. 1: Kaley Melville / Julie Bassett (STET) def. Brooke Kohler / Britt Muse (FGCU) 21-18, 23-21
No. 2: Kait Holm / Whit Masters (FGCU) def. Maren Rygh / Savannah Byl (STET) 22-20, 21-16
No. 3: Jordann Dierickx / Katie DiGirolamo (STET) def. Olivia Mesner / Linds Childs (FGCU) 21-10, 21-15
No. 4: Alisha Hoffman / Catherine Coston (STET) def. Liga Strautniece / Chris Pinder (FGCU) 21-19, 21-16
No. 5: Erin Robertson / Erika White (STET) def. Jill Hopper / Nat Feathers (FGCU) 21-17, 21-13

MATCH 2: STETSON 5, FGCU 0

No. 1: Kaley Melville / Julie Bassett (STET) def. Kait Holm / Whit Masters (FGCU) 21-12, 21-19
No. 2: Maren Rygh / Savannah Byl (STET) def. Brooke Kohler / Britt Muse (FGCU) 21-15, 21-18
No. 3: Jordann Dierickx / Katie DiGirolamo (STET) def. Olivia Mesner / Linds Childs (FGCU) 21-15, 15-21, 17-15
No. 4: Alisha Hoffman / Catherine Coston (STET) def. Liga Strautniece / Chris Pinder (FGCU) 21-13, 20-22, 15-8
No. 5: Erin Robertson / Erika White (STET) def. Jill Hopper / Nat Feathers (FGCU) 21-13, 21-6