JACKSONVILLE, Fla. --- Cortney VanLiew paced the offensive attack with her second double-double of the season as the FGCU volleyball team (3-1, 1-1 ASUN) produced a 25-14, 25-15, 25-13 win over North Florida on the road Monday afternoon.

"I'm really happy with our team's competitive response after yesterday," FGCU head coach Matt Botsford said. "I thought our players were really engaged in film after our loss and managed the tough critiques the right way, by focusing on what we could improve upon and how."
 
VanLiew (Seymour, Ind./Columbus East HS) finished with 16 kills and 11 digs while hitting .297 and recording her fourth straight match with at least 14 kills to open the season. Erin Shomaker was also a force, totaling nine kills, 11 digs, three blocks and three aces as she just missed her second straight double-double.
 
Chelsey Lockey, meanwhile, had another solid all-around performance with her second double-double in a row. The junior setter tallied 30 assists, 10 digs and three kills. It was her fourth-straight match with at least 30 assists to open the season.
 
"Chelsey was outstanding with her distribution and our team defense ultimately made the biggest difference," Botsford said. "I thought Emma's performance and aggression on the backside really opened things up while Aja and Juliana did a great job being available as quality attack options."
 
Aja Jones (7), Juliana Lentz (4) and Emma Szypszak (3) combined for 14 kills as FGCU hit .330 as a team with only 11 errors over 94 attempts. Four players recorded double-digit digs, led by 14 from Dana Axner, who also tied Shomaker for the team-high in aces while adding six assists.
 
Shomaker (Granville, Ohio/Granville HS) was dominant early, recording five kills and a pair of blocks to lead FGCU to a 25-13 win in the opening set. Four different players recorded a kill, including Lentz (Miami, Fla./St. Brendan HS) and Szypszak, during an 8-0 run midway through the set that put the Eagles in control.
 
While UNF led early in the second set, the Green and Blue reeled off six of seven to open up a 10-7 lead. VanLiew and Jones (Venice, Fla./Venice HS) each had a pair of kills during the run. Two more kills from Jones pushed the lead to 20-13 and after two straight points from the hosts, the Eagles closed the set on a 5-0 run to take a 2-0 lead.
 
An early kill from Szypszak (Mequon, Wis./Homestead HS), followed by three consecutive kills from VanLiew and an ace from Shomaker, gave FGCU an 8-2 lead in the third set. Although the Ospreys ended the run with a point, the Eagles reeled off five more in a row, capped by a kill from Shomaker for a 13-3 lead. Lockey's (Eaton, Colo./Eaton HS) second kill of the set put the Eagles on the brink, and VanLiew closed the match with a pair of kills.
 
Notes 
VanLiew inched even closer to 1,300 career kills as her 16 on Monday pushed her total to 1,290.
 
The Eagles are now 25-7 all-time against North Florida.
 
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COACH BOTSFORD
Matt Botsford is in his seventh season as head coach of the FGCU women's volleyball program in 2019 after being hired on Feb. 10, 2014. In his tenure, Botsford-led teams have compiled a 146-51 (.741) record overall, including a 72-18 (.807) record in ASUN play. Including 2019, 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 five straight seasons and at least 10 wins in conference play six 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 next two, which saw .267 and .256 percentages, are the third and fourth highest in program history. In 2018, he led the program to its first regular season championship since 2012 (fourth overall) and its first-ever ASUN tournament title, NCAA tournament appearance, NCAA tournament win and victory over a ranked team. His first two campaigns resulted in ASUN regular season runner-up finishes, and the following two saw the Eagles advance to the tournament championship and now the team has won two straight regular season titles. 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. Last year, he led the team to a win over Miami (Fla.) - the program's first-ever road Power-5 win, and the Eagles followed that up with a straight-set win over the Hurricanes at a neutral site in 2019.
 
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FGCU Athletics sponsors events in November and April 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 make a contribution, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.
 
ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 82 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 13 seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just nine seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 38 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. Seven FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport – including women's basketball (No. 24, 2019-20) and both men's soccer (2018, 2019) and women's soccer (2018) as three of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Green and Blue posted a department-best sixth-place finish in the DI-AAA Learfield Directors' Cup and top-100 showing nationally, ahead of several Power-5 and FBS institutions. In 2018-19, the Eagles had an ASUN and state of Florida best seven teams earn the NCAA's Public Recognition Award for their Academic Progress Rate (APR) in their sport and have had the highest percentage of teams so honored from these two groups over each of the past three years. FGCU also collectively earned a record 3.46 GPA in the classroom in the spring 2020 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for 22 consecutive semesters. The 2019 Fall and 2020 Spring semesters each saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher team GPA. The Eagles also served an all-time high 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 – being recognized as one of two runners-up for the inaugural NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl.
 
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