NEWARK, N.J. – Cortney VanLiew tallied her fifth double-double of the season as the FGCU volleyball team (10-5, 3-0) dispatched NJIT (2-15, 0-3) 25-9, 25-6, 25-15 on the road Friday.
 
"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."

Offensively, VanLiew (Seymour, Ind./Columbus East HS) had a match-high 10 kills as the Eagles hit .378 with only eight errors. Snowy Burnam tied her season-high with eight kills over 14 attempts, and Giovanna Borgiotti (Vienna, Va./George C. Marshall HS) had seven while hitting .636. Sharonda Pickering, the nation's second most efficient attacker entering the match, had six kills at a .455 efficiency.

The setter tandem of Maggie Rick and Chelsey Lockey combined for 31 assists and each had at least as many as NJIT had as an entire team (15). Rick (Alpharetta, Ga./Blessed Trinity Catholic HS) led all players with 16 assists along with six digs and two aces. Lockey (Eaton, Colo./Eaton HS) had five digs and one ace to go along with her 15 assists.

Defensively, Dana Axner had a match-high 14 digs. VanLiew finished second on the team with 11 digs, while Karissa Rhoades (9) also contributed.

At the net, the Green and Blue had a season-high 24 block assists, which is tied for the fifth-most in program history and the fourth-most in the Division-I era (2007-present). Daniele Serrano, who had four kills, tied Kaitlan Krivdo for a match-high six. VanLiew finished third on the team with a career-high five, while Burnam (Palm City, Fla./Jensen Beach HS) had four and Pickering (Sea Cow's Bay, Tortola, British Virgin Islands) had three.

"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."

Axner (Dublin, Ohio/Dublin Coffman HS) tied Rick for the match-high in aces with two, and she added five assists. Krivdo's (Hope Mills, N.C./Gray's Creek HS) block assist total tied her season-high, while Serrano's (Sanford, Fla./Seminole HS) tally was two shy of her season-high.

As a team, the Green and Blue hit .478 in the opening set and .593 in the second. Meanwhile, they held the Highlanders to negative attack percentages in each set and a -.087 finish. The team's eight attack errors and three service errors both tied for the second fewest committed this year.

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 2 p.m. ET It will be the first-ever match between the two teams.

NOTES
Botsford is now one win shy of 100 in his career at FGCU ... Rick is now at 4,044 career assists, which is 365 shy of eclipsing Gigi Meyer's program record (4,408, 2011-14) … Rhoades (Valrico, Fla./Bloomingdale Senior HS) sits 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 … 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 ... With her next match, Rick will tie Holly Younquist (113, 2008-11) for the seventh-most matches played in program history. She remains on pace to shatter the program record.

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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 99-43 (.697) record overall, including a 45-14 (.763) 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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