FORT MYERS, Fla. - Fifth-year senior outside hitter Lily Felts (Knoxville, Tenn./Tennessee) earned AVCA Division I All-American Honorable Mention distinction Wednesday.
Felts represents the only ASUN volleyball student-athlete to receive an All-American award this season. Felts' All-American honor marks just the third ever AVCA All-American honoree in head coach Matt Botsford's tenure. Felts now joins Erin Shomaker (2020 Honorable Mention) and Cortney VanLiew (2018 Honorable Mention) as the only Eagles to obtain such recognition.
"Lily's inclusion within the All-American team is a great honor for her and for our program, and certainly well-deserved after her amazing season," coach Botsford said. "I am so happy that in the final year of her eligibility she chose to be part of Eagle Family and that in doing so, we were able to provide a quality experience for her. Lily's impact here at FGCU was significant, and this is the perfect way to conclude her career."
Earlier this month, the Knoxville, Tenn. native was named an AVCA Southeast All-Region Honorable Mention. Felt's 2022 accolades also included the ASUN Player of the Year and First Team All-Conference distinction. FGCU has been the home to the ASUN's Player of the Year honor for six consecutive seasons.
Felts joined the Eagles in 2022 after spending her first four collegiate seasons as a Tennessee Volunteer, racking up more than 1,000 kills in her career. In just one season with the Eagles, the explosive outside hitter posted 357 kills and averaged 3.35 kills per set. Felts was one of only two Eagles to tally more than 300 kills on the year to place top-5 in the ASUN.
In all, Felts helped to propel FGCU to 26 wins, a Power Five victory over Maryland, 17 sweeps, back-to-back ASUN Tournament titles and a NCAA Tournament appearance in Gainesville, Florida. FGCU was just three points shy of knocking off sixth-seeded Iowa State in reverse sweep action.
She recorded double-digit kills in 23 matches with a season and career high of 27 in a sweep of Stetson, breaking FCCU's three-set match kill record. Felts also fired 13 against Iowa State and had a team-leading 10 kills over Liberty in the ASUN Championship match.
Felts flexed her savvy from the service line as well as the outside hitter was second on the squad (31) helping FGCU boast a nationally top 15 aces per set mark (1.9) entering postseason play.
Defensively, the all-around player added 224 digs as one of only four Eagles to hit the 200 dig threshold this season.
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COACH BOTSFORD
Matt Botsford completed his ninth season as head coach of the FGCU women's volleyball program after being hired on Feb. 10, 2014. In his tenure, Botsford-led teams have compiled a 210-66 (.761) overall record, including a 109-23 (.826) mark in ASUN play. Botsford the winningest coach in FGCU history and ranks 13th in the nation among all active DI coaches in career winning percentage. He has taken the program to heights it has not seen in the Division-I era (2007-present), registering at least 20 wins in eight of the past nine seasons (excluding COVID 2020) and at least 10 wins in conference play every year. This season (2022), Botsford recorded his 200th career win at FGCU with a 3-0 sweep of Queens en route to back-to-back ASUN Tournament Titles and a third NCAA Tournament appearance. In 2018, he led the Eagles program to its first regular-season championship since 2012 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. Now, FGCU has made seven straight ASUN title match appearances, won four-straight regular season titles (five total under Botsford), including capturing three ASUN Tournament Championship crowns. On Sept. 10, 2016, Botsford led the Eagles 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. In 2018, he also led his squad 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. In 2021, the Green & Blue posted its best-ever RPI of 31 and tallied 27 victories, tying the program record previously set in 2016, 2018 and 2019 seasons, and notched a NCAA First Round win over Texas Tech. The win over the Red Raiders marked the second NCAA First Round win for the Eagles following its 3-2 win over No. 13 UCF in Orlando in 2018. Furthermore, FGCU has now been the home to the ASUN's Player of the Year for the six consecutive season.
#FEEDFGCU
FGCU Athletics sponsors events in November and April to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (https://www.fgcu.edu/adminservices/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 https://www.fgcu.edu/adminservices/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.
ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 94 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 15-plus seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just 11-plus seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 46 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. In 2022, the men's golf team became the first program to earn an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament. Eight FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport - including women's basketball (No. 20, 2021-22), beach volleyball (No. 20, 2022) and both men's soccer (2018, 2019) and women's soccer (2018) as four of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Green & 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 in their sport. FGCU also collectively earned a record 3.50 GPA in the classroom in the fall 2020 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for 26 consecutive semesters. The past six semesters (Fall 2019 – Spring 2022) saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher cumulative 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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