FGCU VB @ Stetson Recap

The FGCU volleyball team (14-3, 4-1 A-SUN) pulled off another A-SUN win as they defeated Stetson (2-11, 0-4 A-SUN) 3-1 (25-18, 25-14, 25-22, 22-25, 25-13). With the win, the Eagles are now 22-2 against the Hatters

"The serving tonight was outstanding," FGCU head coach Matt Botsford said. "(Assistant Coach) Stephanie (Zielinski) did a great job scouting some potential targets for us and the girls executed from the line extremely well. Stetson is a very good defensive team so we expected some long rallies. I thought our players stayed patient in looking for the right opportunity to terminate and managed well outside of those situations. Snowy and the middles really helped open things up for the offense, and Chelsey found a good balance with distribution throughout the match."

"Overall, we fought. We played hard," Stetson head coach Yang Deng said.  "Obviously they are a good team, and we need to have everyone bring their best to be able to compete.  You can see we still have a lot of potential.  Our consistency is getting better, and that is something we really work hard on in practice.  We are starting to see some results."

Throughout the match, several milestones and jumps in placement came into play.

Offensively, it was juniors Snowy Burnam and Cortney VanLiew and sophomore Chelsea Lockey that led the Eagles. Burnam was one dig shy of her 13th career double-double as she hit a season-high 16 kills to go with her nine digs, two aces and three blocks. With her 16 kills, Burnam now has 551 career kills and is 22 shy of surpassing Leigh Pudwill (572, 2015-16) for 15th all-time. In addition, Burnam's nine digs put her at 483 as she surpassed Ana Kokanovic (476, 2007-08) for 19th all-time and needs 17 more to become the 19th Eagle to reach 500 digs and 41 to surpass Ingrid Felicio (524, 2004-05) for 18th all-time.

VanLiew and Lockey finished with a double-double each. VanLiew finished with 14 kills and 10 digs, while Lockey finished with 53 assists and 10 digs. VanLiew added a solo block and an ace, while Lockey added two kills, two aces and two blocks.

With her 14 kills, VanLiew now has 1,053 in her career while her 20th career solo block tied Brooke Kohler (20, 2011-12) for 15th all-time and needs one to pass Kohler and two to pass Cara Ziegler (21, 2006-07), Karina Mambuca (21, 2012-13) and Roberta Santos (21, 2007-08) for 12th all-time. VanLiew's 10 digs put her at 656 in her career and needs 26 to pass Vanessa Benke (681, 2013-15) for 13th all-time. Furthermore, her lone service ace put her at 58 in her career. In addition, it was VanLiew's sixth career double-double.

Lockey's 53 assists put her at 1,135 in her career and surpassed Camille Dominguez (1,089, 2010-11) for sixth all-time.

Senior Daniele Serrano and freshman Erin Shoemaker finished with nine kills and two blocks each. Serrano reached two milestones herself as her nine kills put her at 726 as she passed Jill Hopper (725, 2011-13) for eighth all-time. Serrano needs 112 to pass Ericka Fonseca (837, 2005-06) for seventh all-time. Meanwhile, her two block assists put her at 417 as she is now five shy of passing Campbell's Rachel Templin (422, 2003-06) for third most in A-SUN history.

Sophomore Dana Axner finished with a season-high 29 digs and two aces. Her 29 digs made her the eighth Eagle to reach 900 career digs as she now has 927 and needs 21 to surpass Gigi Meyer (947, 2011-14) for seventh all-time.

"Dana was phenomenal, and as we have grown accustomed to, played at a very high level on the defensive end," Botsford said. "29 digs in four sets is a special performance. She is such a tough competitor and really has learned how to influence the course of a set and match."

Sophomore Tori Morris, who had four kills, joined Burnam in recording a team-high four block assists, while three others had two apiece en route to 14 total as a team.

Shomaker, in addition to her offensive output, notched a season-high six digs, while redshirt senior Amanda Carroll also chipped in six. In fact, Carroll joined Serrano in pushing their career match participation total to 115, surpassing Olivia Mesner (2011-14) for seventh on the program's Division I era list. Carroll also added three aces, which put at 119 in her career. Carroll needs 30 to surpass Kokanovic (139, 2007-08) as the all-time leader.

As a team, FGCU's 12 aces is the fifth-most in a conference match in program history, and the team's 77 digs is tied for the seventh-most in a four-set A-SUN match.

Notes:
Senior Giovanna Borgiotti got one kill in the match that put her at 535 (17th all-time) in her career.

Botsford earned his 130th career win as head coach for the Eagles and his 371st overall win as a coach in the NCAA.

Longtime assistant coach Daniel Mahy earned his 308th career win as a coach in the NCAA (281st with FGCU) while Zielinski earned her 69th.

Next Up:
FGCU returns home next weekend to host Jacksonville on Friday at 7 p.m. and Kennesaw State on Sunday at 2 p.m. The first one will be Cancer Awareness Night as fans are encouraged to wear pink, while Sunday's tilt will be a rematch of last year's A-SUN championship match.