NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Cortney VanLiew's 18 kills led the FGCU volleyball team (21-6, 12-1 ASUN) to a 25-21, 25-22, 25-17 win over Lipscomb (15-10, 10-3) on the road Friday. In doing so, the Green and Blue have now won 10 straight overall, including 22 consecutive sets.

"I thought our serving and defense were the keys tonight," FGCU head coach Matt Botsford said after his team hit .319. "We had a tough time slowing Lipscomb down in the early stages of that first set, but eventually found a better rhythm and the execution improved. You won't see a lot of aces on the stat sheet, but I felt like we were able to impact things from the service line and make things tougher for their attackers. Everyone contributed to this win, and I was really pleased with the focus and communication on the floor and the bench between the players."

The 10-match winning streak is the fifth-longest of the program's Division-I era, and the 22-set streak ties last year's team for the second-longest since then (30 sets, 2007). The longest overall streak in the program's history is 38, which took place in the Division-II era from Sept. 1-30, 2006.

Longest Overall Winning Streaks
2016 - 15 straight
2012 - 15 straight
2007 - 14 straight
2008 - 12 straight
2018 - 10 straight

ASUN Title Race
Not only did FGCU improve its own winning streak, but they snapped Lipscomb's four-match streak and kept themselves in a tie for first-place in the ASUN standings with Kennesaw State, who defeated Liberty in straight sets on Friday. Those two teams will meet for sole possession of first place on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Updated Standings
T-1. Kennesaw State - 21-5, 12-1
T-1. FGCU - 21-6, 12-1
3. Lipscomb - 15-10, 10-3
4. Liberty - 13-14, 9-4
5. Stetson - 15-10, 7-6
6. North Florida - 9-21, 4-10
7. Jacksonville - 5-21, 3-10
8. NJIT - 4-25, 2-11
9. North Alabama - 2-20, 0-13


Friday's Results
Jacksonville 3, NJIT 2
Kennesaw State 3, Liberty 0
FGCU 3, Lipscomb 0
Stetson 3, North Alabama 1

Sunday's Schedule
Stetson vs NJIT, 1 PM
FGCU vs Kennesaw State, 2 PM
Liberty vs Lipscomb, 2 PM
Jacksonville vs North Alabama, 2 PM

VanLiew (Seymour, Ind./Columbus East HS) also finished with seven digs, one ace and one block while hitting .350 and leading all players in kills. It was her 12th match this year with at least 15. Snowy Burnam, meanwhile, produced her third double-double of the season with 10 kills, 12 digs, two assists and two blocks. Sharonda Pickering also aided the offense with seven kills over nine attempts (.667), while finishing second on the team in blocks with four.

Maggie Rick (25) and Chelsey Lockey (13) combined for 38 of the team's 45 assists, while Dana Axner added five. In fact, Axner (Dublin, Ohio/Dublin Coffman HS) had a match-high 23 digs and teamed with VanLiew for the team's two aces. Rick (Alpharetta, Ga./Blessed Trinity Catholic HS) finished third on the team in digs with eight. Daniele Serrano had a match-high eight block assists along with four kills and two digs.
 
Lipscomb scored six of the match's first nine points and led 11-7 following a kill from ASUN preseason player of the year Carlyle Nusbaum, who was held to nine kills over 36 attempts and a .083 hitting percentage by the Eagles, who rank first in the nation in opponent hitting percentage.

From there, FGCU started to chip away, eventually taking a 15-13 lead following a kill from Burnam (Palm City, Fla./Jensen Beach HS). Lipscomb rallied to take a 19-18 lead following another kill from Nusbaum, but FGCU scored seven of the set's final 10 points. VanLiew scored two of the set's final three points via kills, including the set-winner against the defense of Megan Kuper.

In the second set, FGCU got a trio of kills and an ace from VanLiew to score six of the first seven points. Lipscomb responded by rallying to trim the deficit to one, 11-10, and force a timeout. The home team tied it at 18, but VanLiew smacked home two more kills to spur a 4-0 run as the Eagles eventually got the three-point win following a double-block of Nusbaum by Serrano (Sanford, Fla./Seminole HS) and Pickering (Sea Cow's Bay, Tortola, British Virgin Islands/Elmore Stoutt HS).

The Green and Blue closed the match by hitting .500 over 30 attempts in the final set. Pickering had three kills over the first seven points as FGCU jumped out to a 5-2 lead. Lipscomb held a 9-8 lead, but the Eagles went on a 3-0 run that was capped by a setter dump from Rick.

Despite a service error that pulled Lipscomb within one, FGCU reeled off five straight, capped by another double-block from Pickering and Serrano, to take a 16-10 lead. The Eagles weren't threatened after that, led by as many as nine and had only one error the whole set.

Series History
FGCU is now 9-16 all-time against Lipscomb, but have taken five of the past seven overall, including four straight for the first time in series history.

Closing In On History
With Friday's performance, Axner needs only five more assists to give FGCU just the second trio in program history to each record at least 100 assists in a same season. Rick has 664, while Lockey has 362. They would join the 2012 group of Gigi Meyer (683), Courtney Greenberg (510) and Whitney Masters (121).

In fact, only four times in program history has an FGCU volleyball team had at least two players with at least 100 assists:

2012 – Gigi Meyer (683), Courtney Greenberg (510), Whitney Masters (121)
2011 – Gigi Meyer (1050), Camil Dominguez (202)
2007 – Roberta Santos (606), Chandra Lefever (523)
2005 – Laura Manovill (689), Ciara Sandoval (679)

Notes
Burnam's double-digit dig performance was her sixth of the past nine matches, and she's had 10 or more kills in six of the past eight.

Rick pushed her career assist total to 4,349, which is 60 shy of breaking Gigi Meyer's program record of 4,408 set from 2011-14. She would need to average 20 over the final three regular season matches to break the record in front of her home crowd on Nov. 10, although postseason totals would also help her eclipse the mark.

On top of that, Rick has now competed in 124 matches, and is on pace to become the program's all-time leader three matches from now. She would jump Courtney Stephens, Whitney Masters and Meyer, who each played in 126 matches.

VanLiew pushed past Ana Kokanovic (678, 2007-08) for seventh-place on the program's Division-I era career kills list on Friday, which also puts her 10th on the program's overall list. The sophomore outside hitter now has 680 and is 14 shy of moving up another spot (Eleonora Kazarian, 693). In fact, only five other players have had at least 700 kills in the Division-I era.

Moreover, VanLiew now has 10 plus kills in 21 of 27 matches this year and increased her ASUN-best total to 372. She's also closing in on Lipscomb's Nusbaum for the lead in kills per set - VanLiew has 4.04 compared to her 4.08. The margin was 0.16 entering play Friday.

Axner now has 10 plus digs in 15 consecutive matches, including 24 of 27 overall this year. She eclipsed Holly Youngquist (459, 2009) and Karissa Rhoades (460, 2017) for fifth-place on the program's Division-I era single-season list Friday and sits at 461 overall. Next up is Youngquist's 2011 total of 466. She is attempting to become only the third player in the same era with 500 or more digs in a season, joining Vanessa Benke and Whitney Masters.

Serrano is up to 277 career block assists - just four shy of breaking Olivia Mesner's (280, 2011-14) program record. She also needs only 18 total blocks to surpass Mesner (342) for that record, too.

In regard to single season marks, Serrano now holds the program record for most block assists with 109. She entered Friday tied with Mesner (101, 2012) for the lead and now holds two of the top four single seasons along with her 98 as a freshman. The junior middle blocker also needs 12 total blocks to break another single season record currently held by Ericka Fonseca (127, 2005).

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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 110-44 (.714) record overall, including a 54-15 (.783) record in ASUN play. 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 three straight seasons and at least 10 wins in conference play four 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.
 
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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.