In addition to the win against the Highlanders, Botsford earned his 99th career win and is one game closer to earning win 100
Offensively, sophomore Cortney VanLiew lead the way. VanLiew finished with a double-double of 10 kills and 11 digs. This was her fifth double-double of the season and her 11th in her career. VanLiew also added five blocks and one assist.
Senior Maggie Rick also played a big role on the offensive end. Rick would end up with 16 assists, two aces and six digs. With her 16 assists, Rick now has 4,044 career assists and is 365 shy of eclipsing Gigi Meyer's program record (4,408, 2011-14).
Following Rick, freshman Chelsea Lockey finished with 14 assists, five digs and one ace.
Defensively, it was freshman Dana Axner and the Block Party (seniors Kaiti Krivdo and Sharonda Pickering, juniors Daniele "Dani" Serrano and Giovanna "Giogio" Borgiotti and sophomore Snowy Burnam) that paved the way.
Axner finished with 14 digs, two aces and five assists.
The Block Party combined a season-high 24 block assists (Krivdo: 6, Pickering: 3, Serrano: 6, Burnam: 4) tied for the fifth-most in program history and the fourth-most in the Division-I era (2007-present). The squad also had a combined 26 kills (Krivdo: 2, Pickering: 5, Serrano: 5, Borgiotti: 6, Burnam: 8).
In addition, Serrano pushed her career block assist total up to 222, which is 21 shy of moving past Ashley Yance (242, 2005-09) for second most in program history.
Other players that contributed were senior Karissa Rhoades and sophomore Alayna Ryan.
Rhoades added three kills, an ace and nine digs. Rhoades' nine digs put her at 827 career digs through Friday, which is ninth in program history and 48 shy of passing Heather Van Olst (884, 2004-06) in eighth.
Ryan added one dig to the mix.
"Tonight was a very clean match, and it started with a great defensive effort and service pressure," FGCU head coach Matt Botsford said. "Our block was really effective throughout and our middles did an nice job working hard to control the net. Kaiti and Dani have been working extremely hard in that regard and the last few matches you can see the impact it is having."
No one on the Highlanders reached kills or assists in double figures. Senior Iva Mandic was the closest as she finished with six kills while junior Liz Benson had six assists.
The only stat in double figures came from junior Adriana Nieto as she finished with 14 digs
"Overall what stood out, aside from the execution level, was the focus each player displayed through all three sets," Botsford said. "We played very good assignment volleyball and were able to play to our strengths."
FGCU is now 7-0 all-time against NJIT and has never dropped a set against the Highlanders. They'll be back in action on Sunday at North Alabama at 1 p.m. It will be the first-ever match between the two teams.
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