Box Score (.pdf)

Spartanburg, S.C. – The USC Upstate volleyball team suffered a 3-0 defeat to the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles Friday evening in A-Sun action from the Hodge Center.

Upstate falls to 9-11 on the season and 0-4 in league play, while FGCU improves to 10-7 overall and 4-0 in the conference.

Kayla Eversgerd led the Spartans offensively with nine kills, and Rebecca Shearer just missed her first career double-double on 23 assists and eight digs; and hit .833 after tallying five kills on six attempts. Lexi Gober added eight digs to tie Shearer for the team lead.

Olivia Mesner and Eleonora Kazarian recorded 14 and 11 kills each for the Eagles. Gigi Meyer dished out 40 assists, and Mackenzie Allen, Courtney Stephens and Whitney Masters each had double-digit digs.

Upstate led twice early in the first set as Alexa Lagaly put it in front 6-5 with her kill. Florida Gulf Coast answered with four straight points to lead 10-7 and force the Spartans into a timeout. Upstate came out of the timeout and took the lead back at 11-10 courtesy of Emily Koelling's kill. Koelling kept the Spartans ahead by one several plays later as her service ace made it 15-14. The Eagles would rally to re-gain the lead, 18-15, after collecting three points in a row behind the serving of Masters. Upstate managed to trim its deficit down to one three times with the last coming when a ball-handling error by Meyer cut the score down to 21-20. FGCU scored the final four points of the set to win 25-20.

The Eagles tallied nine of the first 11 points, including five straight to start, to begin set two as Mesner increased FGCU's lead to 9-2 after her kill. Florida Gulf Coast then used a 9-3 run to push its lead out to 18-5 on an attack error by Shannon Weiss. Eversgerd had back-to-back kills after that, but the Spartans would be held to one point the rest of the way as FGCU won the second set 25-8, increasing its lead in the match to 2-0.

Upstate split the first four points to sit tied at 2-2 to open the third set following two straight kills by Eversgerd.  The Spartans stayed within two of the Eagles with Eversgerd making the score 12-10 after picking up her fourth kill of the frame. Florida Gulf Coast broke the set open with a quick 4-1 run to extend its lead to 16-11. Upstate was able to get to within two at 18-16 as Shearer, Eversgerd, Weiss and Kayla McAvoy each posted a kill to complete a 5-2 run. The Eagles outscored the Spartans 7-2 to finish as Caroline Jordan's service ace gave FGCU the 25-18 set victory and win the match 3-0.

Upstate welcomes Stetson to the Hodge Center tomorrow afternoon for a 3 p.m. matchup. The contest will be televised on ESPN3.

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