On the strength of winning the women’s all-sports race and placing second in the men’s all-sports race, FGCU has won the Bill Bibb Trophy and claimed the 2014-15 Atlantic Sun Conference All-Sports Championship for the second time in three years.
FGCU won the women’s Sherman Day Trophy by totaling 126 points out of a possible 165 for 76.4 percent, well ahead of second-place Lipscomb (67.2 percent). The men fell just short of North Florida for the Jesse C. Fletcher Trophy by earning 100.5 points out of 138 for 72.8 percent. Combined, FGCU’s six men’s teams and nine women’s programs in the A-Sun totaled 226.5 points out of 303 for an overall percentage of 74.8, just enough to surpass UNF’s 72.8.
The Eagles won A-Sun regular-season and tournament championships this year in women’s and men’s soccer, women’s basketball and men’s tennis. Second-place finishes in volleyball and men’s basketball and third-place showings in women’s golf, cross country and tennis helped secure the Green and Blue’s triumph.
“We are extremely proud of another tremendous collective overall performance by our student-athletes, coaches, staff and donors in earning our second combined and women’s all-sports trophies in three years,” Director of Athletics Ken Kavanagh said. “In turn, this celebration is again shared with the countless Green and Blue predecessors who have established and maintained the tradition of excellence that Eagles Athletics has become in such a short tenure (inclusive of our six-time CCSA champion women’s swimmers and divers who finished No. 26 in the nation). It is indeed an honor to be associated daily with such a wonderful group whose continued playing successes are matched with record-breaking classroom results more than befitting the overall definition of ‘student-athlete.’”
Beyond the A-Sun and CCSA successes for FGCU in 2014-15, the women’s soccer team hosted the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament game as the women and the men have each played in the NCAA Tournament three times in the last four years. The women’s basketball team claimed its first Division-I NCAA Tournament victory as the Eagles earned the No. 7 seed and took down No. 10 Oklahoma State in the First Round in Tallahassee.
The men’s tennis team reached unprecedented heights this season as it ventured west to face all-time national championship leader UCLA in the NCAA Tournament. Additionally, men’s golfer Jake Sherwin was selected as an at-large individual selection for the NCAA Championship and competed in the Lubbock Regional.
For more information, go to www.fgcuathletics.com.