FORT MYERS, Fla. – For the fourth-consecutive season, FGCU women's soccer head coach Jim Blankenship was placed amongst the nation's best, earning a top 10 spot on AllWhiteKit.com's national ranking. Blankenship enters the season at No. 9 for the second-straight year.

AllWhiteKit's CoachRank is a data-driven, objective system that measures the success of women's collegiate coaches over a long period. Coaches that have been at their current institution for three seasons or longer qualify for a score of 0-100 based on conference performance, conference tournament results and NCAA tournament appearances.

"It's an honor to be listed among some of the best in the game," Blankenship said. "I've been fortunate to have a tremendous support system and players who continuously want to see the program reach new levels. This wouldn't be possible without any of them."

Blankenship remains the highest-ranked coach in the ASUN, and stands alongside the likes of FSU's Mark Krikorian (No. 1), Florida's Becky Burleigh (No. 5) and North Carolina's Anson Dorance (No. 8). Every coach in front of Blankenship other than BYU's Jennifer Rockwood, has either won a national title or finished as the runner's up.

Through 10 seasons in Fort Myers Blankenship has guided the Eagles to seven straight ASUN regular season titles and five ASUN Tournament titles leading to five automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament. Overall, the Green and Blue have compiled an impressive 129-47-20 (70.7 W%) record along with a 66-10-11 (81.8 W%) mark in conference action. Blankenship's record in the ASUN is aided by a remarkable 44-match unbeaten streak against conference foes, including tournament matches. This streak stands as the longest active streak and the fourth longest in NCAA history. During his more than 25 years of coaching, Blankenship is nearing the 400-win mark, standing at 369-118-31 entering the 2017 season.

2016 was another banner season for the Eagles hoisting both the regular season and tournament championships. FGCU utilized a 6-0-1 record in ASUN play to win its seventh-straight ASUN title before clinching its third straight ASUN Tournament title a few short weeks later. Following the regular season, Tabby Tindell was named the ASUN Player of the Year, highlighting seven award winners for FGCU. In total, Blankenship has coached four ASUN Player of the Year award winners, five ASUN Defensive Player of the Year winners, an ASUN Goalkeeper of the Year, three ASUN Freshman of the Year recipients, the 2011 ASUN Scholar-Athlete of the Year, nine NSCAA All-South Region selections, and an NSCAA Third Team All-American.

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