FORT MYERS, Fla. – After helping compile a historic season for the No. 20 ranked FGCU beach volleyball program, the Eagles were honored with a pair of AVCA Top Flight Awards on Thursday. Snowy Burnam and Cortney VanLiew earned the accolade at the No. 4 flight, while Emma Hansen and Kaitlyn Luebbers were honored at the No. 5 flight.
 
The Green and Blue finished the year with a 29-9 overall record to set a new school record for single-season wins and finished as the runner-ups in the 2022 ASUN Championship Tournament.
 
Burnam and VanLiew concluded the season with a record of 19-6, while Hansen and Luebbers were 28-9 to lead the Eagles with the most wins as a pair.
 
"Snowy and Cortney are inseparable off the court and that's chemistry you just can't fake on the court. They both fed off of each other and ended up with some huge wins for us," said head coach Chris Sweat. "With neither of them being full-time Beach players, as well as fifth year seniors, I think they really enjoyed getting to play their last season together and both worked so hard to elevate their game. This award is it the perfect example of two of FGCU's finest giving all they had to a program and getting big wins for the team."
 
Burnam concluded her FGCU beach career as the program's all-time wins leader with 69 after going 25-12 overall this season. VanLiew was 20-6 overall this season with her 40 career wins ranking 12^th all-time.
 
Hansen and Luebbers were also named to the All-ASUN Second Team this spring. Luebbers posted a 28-9 overall record to set the individual wins record and the freshman wins record for a single-season in program history.
 
"It was pretty evident very early on that Emma and Kaitlyn were going to be one of our pairs this year. They clicked right away and knew exactly how the other one liked to play," said Sweat. "In some of our biggest wins this year, they set the tone and grabbed a win for us right off the bat. They consistently put us in great positions to win all year."
 
This marks the first time FGCU has had multiple pairs earn AVCA Top Flight honors. Burnam and Kayla Whetstone were the first Eagles to earn the honor in 2019.
 
Introduced in 2018, the Top Flight awards program is designed to recognize excellence in collegiate beach volleyball from all over the country and across all flights.  
The nature of Beach Volleyball dictates that each player fills an important role on the team - each pair must give their greatest effort to help the squad clinch the three wins necessary to defeat the opponent. It takes all 10 athletes performing at a high level to achieve greatness. With this in mind, the AVCA created this award to reward the hard work and consistent play of pairs at every flight. 
In order for a pair to be eligible for the award, two athletes must compete in at least 15 matches together and at a specific flight number. Should that pair win at least 75% of their matches—regardless of the overall result of the dual—those athletes will achieve Top Flight status.
 
FLIGHT 1

Pair	School	Division	Record*
Alejandra Suarez and Lily Witkoski	Ave Maria University	NAIA	16-1
Makenna Campbell and Avari Ridgway	Corban	NAIA	18-4
Giada Bianchi and Paige Kalkhoff	Florida International	DI	24-8
Erica Brok and Makenzie Morris	Florida Atlantic	DI	24-7
Kaylee Glagau and Brooke Van Sickle	Hawai'i	DI	30-9
Abby Collier and Camryn Presley	Hendrix	DIII	20-6
Megan Rice and Reka Orsi Toth	Loyola Marymount	DI	27-6
Ania Esarte and Lucie Pokorna	New Orleans	DI	25-6
Lunden Evans and Jazz Schmidt	Palm Beach Atlantic	DII	27-6
Melanie Paul and Madison Shields	Pepperdine	DI	22-7
Julia Sangiacomo and Michelle Shaffer	Santa Clara	DI	14-3
Daniela Alvarez and Tania Moreno	TCU	DI	25-6
Giuliana Poletti Corrales and Brooke Pertuit	Texas A&M Corpus Christi	DI	24-8
Tina Graudina and Haley Harward	USC	DI	27-1
Conley Harris and Natalie Escher	Vanguard	NAIA	16-5

*All records as of May 1, 2022

FLIGHT 2

Pair	School	Division	Record
Sarah Blacker and Maja Kaiser	Arizona	DI	24-8
Cabriella Bouterse and Miah Pena	Ave Maria University	NAIA	12-4
Hailee Ryan and Sara Ostojic	Concordia Irvine	DII	21-4
Allison Hansen and Allanis Navas	Grand Canyon	DI	28-3
Avery Poppinga and Marine Kinna	Loyola Marymount	DI	24-8
Kylie Deberg and Kelli Greene-Agnew	LSU	DI	13-3
Parker Bracken and Kylie Deberg	LSU	DI	14-4
Grace Cook and Chloe Tome	Missouri State	DI	23-5
Simone Priebe and McKenna Thomas	Pepperdine	DI	23-6
Jordan Smith and Lauren Wilcock	South Carolina	DI	19-4
Charlie Ekstrom and Maddi Kriz	Stanford	DI	15-4
Carolina Ferraris and Anete Namike	Stetson	DI	26-6
Megan Kraft and Sammy Slater	USC	DI	23-0
Morgan Nash and Vashti Elias-Romero	Vanguard	NAIA	17-4

*All records as of May 1, 2022

FLIGHT 3

Pair	School	Division	Record
Katie Grose and Zelie Kessler	Ave Maria University	NAIA	12-3
Peyton Dueck and Addison Hermstad	Cal Poly	DI	19-4
Ellie Hanford and Natalie Honzovicova	Coastal Carolina	DI	11-1
Emma Falk and Maria Zweig	College of Charleston	DI	15-2
Shannon Evans and Tatum Smith	Concordia Irvine	DII	15-3
Yasmin Kuck and Kayla Whetstone	Georgia State	DI	14-4
Vilhelmiina Prihti and Macy Gordon	Loyola Marymount	DI	15-2
Reilly Allred and Holly Carlton	LSU	DI	27-5
Hailey Brockett and Alexis Filippone	TCU	DI	18-3
Devon Newberry and Jaden Whitmarsh	UCLA	DI	16-1
Delaynie Maple and Julia Scoles	USC	DI	25-1
Carly McKinney and Emma Galloway	Vanguard	NAIA	18-5

*All records as of May 1, 2022

FLIGHT 4

Pair	School	Division	Record
Gabi Bailey and Kyra Thompson	College of Charleston	DI	16-3
Snowy Burnam and Cortney VanLiew	FGCU	DI	18-6
Angel Ferary and Bella Ferary	Georgia State	DI	32-2
Claire Newlander and Nicci Reinking	Long Beach State	DI	17-3
Vilhelmiina Prihti and Macy Gordon	Loyola Marymount	DI	13-3
Kelli Greene-Agnew and Grace Seits	LSU	DI	15-2
Maria Gonzalez and Ana Vergara	TCU	DI	27-6
Olivia Knutson and Katie McLamb	Tusculum	DII	24-5
Sophie Moore and Natalie Myszkowski	UCLA	DI	22-5
Audrey Nourse and Nicole Nourse	USC	DI	21-4
Kayla Carrell and Addison Conley	UT Martin	DI	24-1

*All records as of May 1, 2022

FLIGHT 5

Pair	School	Division	Record
Sabrina VanDeList and Tye Wedhorn	Colorado Mesa	DII	15-5
Emma Hansen and Kaitlyn Luebbers	FGCU	DI	22-7
Lisa Luini and Kendall Mather	Florida International	DI	19-6
Haley St. Martin and Curry Ward	Florida Southern College	DII	23-1
Kate Privett and Raelyn White	Florida State	DI	14-3
Chloee Kleespies and Becky Tresham	Georgia State	DI	15-4
Cami Sanchez and Dana Roskic	Grand Canyon	DI	14-1
Isabelle Reffel and Jacinda Ramirez	Loyola Marymount	DI	18-6
Sierra Caffo and Ellie Shank	LSU	DI	15-3
Melissa Knaut and Maria Ramos	Park (Missouri)	NAIA	17-2
Megan Muret and Rochelle Scott	TCU	DI	27-6
Melea Meadows and Veronica Makovey	University of Mobile	NAIA	14-4
Mollie Ebertin and Sunny Villapando	USC	DI	17-5

 *All records as of May 1, 2022

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COACH SWEAT
Chris Sweat is in his third season as head coach of the FGCU beach volleyball program after spending the prior five seasons as an assistant coach. A member of VolleyballMag.com's Under 40 Coaching Hotshots list in January 2020, he led the Eagles to a 4-0 start in 2020 prior to the COVID-19 shutdown and has compiled a 50-23 (.685) record to open his head coaching tenure. In 2022, Sweat was named the ASUN Coach of the Year after leading the Eagles to a 29-9 overall record setting a new program record for single-season victories en route to an ASUN Championship runner-up finish.
 
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FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 92 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 14+ seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just 10 plus seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 45 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. In 2022, the men's golf team became the first program to earn at 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 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 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 25 consecutive semesters. The past five semesters (Fall 2019 – Fall 2021) each saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher team GPA in each. 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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