FORT MYERS, Fla. - The FGCU volleyball team (24-6, 15-1 ASUN) wasn't at their best, but clinched an outright ASUN championship with a 20-25, 25-21, 25-18, 25-16 win over Liberty (14-16, 10-6) on senior night at Alico Arena on Saturday.

"There's a lot of emotion in a game like this," FGCU head coach Matt Botsford said. "You have five individuals who have given so much to the program that it was hard to focus on the task at hand, which was to play a really tough Liberty team. It wasn't great volleyball from our end, and we're going to have to be much better, but I expect we will be. I'm just really pleased the girls could cap off the regular season in the fashion that they did and win the championship outright.

With the win, FGCU has now won 13 straight, which surpasses the 2008 team for the fourth-longest streak in the Division-I era. In fact, they've lost just three sets over the past 10 matches, which includes victories in 30 of the past 33 sets. After previously clinching the top seed in next weekend's ASUN tournament, the Green and Blue will play the winner of No. 4 Liberty and No. 5 Stetson in the semifinals at 5 p.m. on Friday. The championship is slated for 7 p.m. on Saturday.

Sharonda Pickering led the Eagles with 12 kills while hitting .647. Maggie Rick (21) and Chelsey Lockey (18) led the way in assists, while Dana Axner had a match-high 22 digs. Daniele Serrano led the team with six blocks, while Pickering (Sea Cow's Bay, Tortola, British Virgin Islands/Elmore Stoutt HS) and Tori Morris each had five. Giovanna Borgiotti also had four.

"The scary thing is (Sharonda) just almost hit .700, and I never felt her and Maggie were in a great rhythm, so that tells you just how talented she is," Botsford said. "It was a little bit disjointed, but she was effective."

Down 6-4 in the opening set, Liberty used an 11-4 run to take control and claim an early lead in the match. FGCU got back-to-back kills from Cortney VanLiew and Pickering to take a 10-7 lead in the next set, but the Flames rallied to tie things at 20 apiece.

VanLiew (Seymour, Ind./Columbus East HS) then started a 4-0 rally with a kill as the Eagles scored five of the set's final six points to tie the match. The surge continued in the third as FGCU scored five of the first six points and led 18-11 following an ace from Axner. A 5-0 run later in the set, highlighted by a pair of kills from Serrano, sealed it. The Green and Blue then jumped out to a 13-5 lead in the final set before cruising to a nine-point win.

With those six blocks, Serrano (Sanford, Fla./Seminole HS) becomes the program's all-time leader in career blocks with 343, surpassing Olivia Mesner's total of 342 set from 2011-14. She is also the career leader in block assists and needs 13 more solo blocks to hold all three records. In terms of single season records, she has broken the program records for block assists and total blocks in 2018.

With her seven kills, VanLiew now has 416 this year, which surpasses Amanda Carroll (415, 2015) for the third-most in a single season in the Division-I era. Carroll (Albuquerque, N.M./Sandia HS) holds the two best seasons - 485 in 2016 and 454 in 2017. This weekend's effort also gives VanLiew 724 in her career, which is two shy of passing Jill Hopper (725, 2011-13) for the fifth-most career kills in the same era.

Axner (Dublin, Ohio/Dublin Coffman HS), meanwhile, has 536 digs after her 11th 20-plus dig match of the season. In fact, she has that many in four straight and nine of the past 15 matches. In doing so, she surpassed Whitney Masters (519, 2014) for second-place on the Division-I era single-season list, and she sits just 23 shy of eclipsing Vanessa Benke (558, 2015) for the top spot. The freshman also ranks 12th on the career list just 30 matches into her career.

Rick (Alpharetta, Ga./Blessed Trinity Catholic HS), who became the program's all-time assist leader this past Tuesday, is up to 4,451 entering the postseason. With her performance, she also became just the second player in program history to record at least 1,000 assists and 800 digs in her career, along with Gigi Meyer (4,408 assists/947 digs), and with her 127th match played, she became the program's all-time leader in that category on Saturday, too.

Lockey (Eaton, Colo./Eaton HS) eclipsed 400 assists this year in Saturday's match. She has 10 straight matches with double-digit totals.

NOTES
Prior to the match, the FGCU volleyball program honored its five-member senior class that includes Carroll, Rick, Karissa Rhoades, Kaitlan Krivdo and Pickering. That senior class includes the program's all-time leader in kills (Carroll), the all-time leader in assists (Rick), the all-time leader in matches played (Rick) and the program's single-season leader in hitting percentage (Pickering), plus Rhoades (Valrico, Fla./Bloomingdale Senior) has nearly 900 digs in her career, and Krivdo (Hope Mills, N.C./Grays Creek HS) ranks among the program's top 20 in the Division-I era in total blocks, block assists, blocks per set, matches played and hitting percentage.

"It means a lot hearing everything our entire class has accomplished," Rick said. "It's exactly what Matt brought us here to do. He talked about it in the recruiting process, and just to know that we came here and did exactly what we were supposed to do and maybe even a little bit more is really heartwarming. We're really proud of that."
 
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COACH BOTSFORD
Matt Botsford is in his fifth season as head coach of the FGCU women's volleyball program in 2018 after being hired on Feb. 10, 2014. In his four plus seasons, Botsford-led teams have compiled a 113-44 (.720) record overall, including a 57-15 (.792) record in ASUN play. Including this season, he has taken the program to heights it has not seen in the Division-I era (2007-present) – registering at least 20 wins overall in four straight seasons and at least 10 wins in conference play five straight seasons. Furthermore, the team's offensive efficiency has drastically improved since Botsford started. In his first two seasons, his squad produced hitting percentages of .212 and .220. The past two, which have seen .267 and .256 percentages, are the third and fourth highest in program history. All four seasons under Botsford have seen a top-3 ASUN regular season finish and at least an ASUN semifinal appearance. His first two campaigns resulted in regular season runner-up finishes, and the past two have seen the Eagles advance to the tournament championship. On Sept. 10, 2016, Botsford led his team to a five-set win over Indiana in Alico Arena, which signified the program's first-ever win over a team from a Power-5 conference.

SUPPORT THE CAUSE
FGCU Athletics sponsors events throughout the year to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics' charities of choice. For more information, including how to contribute, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help.

FOOD DRIVE
FGCU is collecting food donations at home events all during November to benefit FGCU Campus and Harry Chapin Food Banks. Donations can be dropped off at the marketing table in the Alico Arena lobby.

TOY DRIVE
The FGCU athletic and police departments, Lee County Sheriff's Office and Heroes Unlimited have teamed up to participate in a holiday toy drive. New, unwrapped toys are being collected and will be delivered to the Golisano Children's Hospital of Southwest Florida this holiday season. Collection boxes have been placed in the lobbies of Alico Arena, UPD and the FGCU Family Resource Center until Wednesday, Dec. 14. No toy is too small, and all toys will be wrapped prior to delivery.