This is an extended version of a story originally published at FGCU360.com. For the original story, visit here.

By Seth Soffian

Matt Botsford knew when he was hired as FGCU volleyball coach almost six years ago it would take tireless work to turn the Eagles into a top-50 national program.

With that mission accomplished, Botsford makes sure his current roster understands something about making the next leap into the top 25: it will be even harder.

Fortunately for the Eagles boss, he has junior star Cortney VanLiew helping lead the push.

“When your best players are the hardest working people in the gym, that’s when you have good things happen,” Botsford said of VanLiew, an honorable mention All-American, 3.9 GPA accounting major and president of the FGCU Eagles Council student-athlete advisory committee.

“She is brilliant. Not just as an athlete. She’s brilliant in the classroom. She’s got one of the most amazing work ethics I’ve ever seen. It’s challenging to be successful in all of these arenas. When you see somebody doing it as effectively as she does, it really amazes me sometimes.”

RECORD PACE

Almost a year since defeating nationally ranked UCF in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in FGCU’s first NCAA D-I postseason appearance, the Eagles can take the top seed into the ASUN Tournament, Nov. 21-23 at home in Alico Arena.

VanLiew, the first All-American in FGCU volleyball history and one of only a couple handfuls of All-Americans in school history across all sports, again is playing a leading role, as she did last season when program career kills leader Amanda Carroll went down early in the year with a knee injury.

It was a rare instance when VanLiew was able to exceed Botsford’s sky-high expectations, which are only so lofty because he knew what a gem of a player he was getting when he recruited the undersized, somewhat overlooked three-sport star from Seymour, Indiana.

Even as a star outside hitter in high school, VanLiew didn’t have any offers to continue playing the position at Power 5 colleges because of her height, listed at 5-11 but closer to 5-9, at best.

Most schools, rather, wanted to turn her into a libero. But VanLiew, one of 10 national finalists for the Wendy's High School Heisman Scholarship, wanted to stay in the front row. She chose FGCU over Memphis and St. Louis, where she also had offers to play outside hitter.

“I’m so glad that I picked here,” said VanLiew, who is only the fourth player in program history with more than 1,000 career kills and is on pace to pass 2016 beach volleyball Olympian Brooke Sweat for second place on the program career kills before the start of the postseason. 

“I love the people. I love the place. I love the program. Everything has exceeded my expectations.”

Botsford said FGCU needed to get bigger and more physical when he arrived. Since players with premier levels of both aren’t always readily available, especially to lesser-established programs, Botsford said VanLiew’s abilities made her recruitment an easy decision.

“I think sometimes coaches get a little too committed to this idea that it’s the size that matters,” he said. “She’s a tremendous athlete, and she’s got a huge arm. I know there’s a ton of people who wish they would have recruited her the way we did.”

‘PLAYING BIGGER’

As the youngest of three siblings from a height-filled, ultra-competitive, athletically gifted family, VanLiew said she’s long played with a chip on her shoulder because of her relative lack of height.

That doesn’t go just for when she faced taller front-row players in top-tier club competition during high school but when she competed in her own family, in which she’s the only person under 6-2.

“I’ve been undersized my whole life,” she said. “It’s something I’ve had to work through to impact the game in other ways. I can’t always out-jump everyone else. But I can hit different shots. I look forward to playing bigger every single day.”

VanLiew’s mother, Janet, is 6-2 and was a four-year volleyball letter-winner at Louisville in the early 1980s. Known then by her maiden name, Craddock, VanLiew’s mother was a 1983 Olympic Festival medalist and still ranks in the program top 10 in aces.

Today, Janet VanLiew teaches alternative education to middle school students. Cortney marvels at her mother's connection with kids from difficult backgrounds. 

“It’s awesome to watch her,” said Cortney, who’s high school-age community service work included starting a reading and tutoring program for elementary age children, a program she’d like to renew when time allows.

“She can take the roughest kids and get them to listen. She’s very understanding. I think I inherited a little bit of that. It helps me be more understanding with people from any type of background, which I’m very thankful for. Everyone has gone through some things you don’t know about and may never know about.”

VanLiew’s father, Mike, an engineer, is 6-5 and was a standout high school swimmer, another of the sports in which Cortney excelled in high school, along with track and field.

Together, VanLiew’s parents pushed her, she said, but not the way too many parents go too far.

Rather than her parents, it was VanLiew’s older brothers who most helped create an environment for over-the-top competition – the kind that sometimes produces overturned game boards or even broken noses.

“We’ve had a couple of those,” she said with a laugh of the latter. “We are a very competitive family.”

Eldest brother Chad, who is 6-3 and about seven years Cortney’s elder, set high bars in athletics and academics for Cortney to obsessively pursue. And surpass. Such as when she bettered his state-level Wendy’s High School Heisman Award.

“That was a big one,” she said, laughing at her picture being emblazoned on posters at various Wendy’s around the country, including across the street from ASUN peer Stetson in DeLand.

“My motto has always been, anything my oldest brother can do, I can do better. (But) I have to give him the credit. He pushed me to be better every single day. Probably would never tell him that to his face.”

From 6-8 middle child Toby, who played NAIA basketball in Indiana but didn’t have the same natural gifts as his siblings, Cortney said she learned watching how hard he worked to succeed.

“It taught me never to take what I have for granted. And it taught me to always push through everything, because he did it,” VanLiew said. “He’s been a role model. Both of them have been my entire life. I’m very thankful for my whole family for pushing me every single day.”

BIG GOALS

Cortney is considering a career in accounting, which naturally is Chad’s profession. She certainly has the focus and determination. The A- grade she said she received in one class, the one that dropped her GPA a hair below 4.0, taught her what she needed to do “to make sure I don’t have a slip-up like that again," she said.

Like her mother, though, she also loves teaching and connecting with others – the way she has on the Eagles Council trying to bring FGCU’s student-athletes closer with other students, who she points out often have their own full-time jobs or other time-consuming demands outside class.

“We’re all going to college. It’s stressful in itself,” said VanLiew, whose love of teaching might also lead to a coaching career. “I don’t know what level that would be. But I can’t see myself not around volleyball.”

As the postseason arrives, VanLiew knows the sizable opportunities ahead. She said she has always been “big on goal setting.” But she also knows not to lose sight of the smaller daily steps needed to keep pushing her and FGCU to ever greater heights, however much work it takes.

“I don’t think there’s such a thing as too much,” she said. “I love it. I love being pushed to the next level. (FGCU coaches) have pushed me places I never really thought was possible.”