FORT MYERS, Fla. – After guiding the FGCU volleyball program to its second ASUN Championship title and NCAA berth, graduate Cortney VanLiew (Seymour, Ind./Columbus East HS) was named a Senior CLASS Award Second Team All-American on Wednesday evening. The honor is a capstone for VanLiew who will leave FGCU as one of the all-time greats in the volleyball program.
 
"What a way to cap off one of the most prolific careers in our program's history! The Senior CLASS Award recognizes the totality of a student-athlete's contribution to their sport, their University, and their community," said head coach Matt Botsford. "Cortney gave all of herself to each one of those categories and I am so grateful to have coached her."
 
The award, chosen by a nationwide vote of Division I women's volleyball coaches, national volleyball media, and fans, is given annually to the most outstanding senior student-athlete in Division I women's volleyball. Sydney Hilley of Wisconsin was named the overall winner to headline the first team selections. VanLiew was part of the five-member second team.
 
VanLiew, along with teammate Dana Axner (Dublin, Ohio/Dublin Coffman HS) became the first representatives from the volleyball program to be recognized among the initial top-30 since the award began in 2010. VanLiew then became the first Eagle volleyball player to be named a finalist in November and just the fourth FGCU student-athlete overall.
 
The outside hitter received her undergraduate degree in accounting with a minor in Spanish this past spring 2021 and commenced working on her master's degree in business administration this fall. She returned for the 2021-22 campaign to utilize the extra year of eligibility due to the COVID pandemic. She has compiled a 3.678 cumulative GPA for her undergraduate career and has been a President's List selection, a Dean's List selection, an AD's Honor Roll selection, and a member of the ASUN Honor Roll. She is the program's first two-time CoSIDA All-Academic Team selection and was just the second three-time ASUN All-Academic honoree in program history. To highlight her undergraduate career, she was inducted into the FGCU Hall of Fame as announced last spring.
 
In the community, VanLiew has compiled over 250 community service hours during her time at FGCU at places such as LEAD Like a Girl SWFL, Project Life Movement, Read Across America, Naples Humane Society and more. She served twice as the President of Eagles Council (SAAC), and she's been heavily involved with the ASUN's Student Athlete Advisory Committee, as well. Additionally, she has been an advocate and outspoken ambassador for FGCU on mental health for student-athletes. She is at the forefront of working with young children during camps and clinics and has been heavily involved in outreach on and off campus.
 
She is also one of the all-time top players in program history after setting the all-time career kills record earlier this year. She finished her time in the Green and Blue with 1,658 in 148 matches played. She also became one of three players in program history to record 1,000 career kills and 1,000 career digs joining fellow FGCU Hall of Famer Amanda Carroll and Olympian Brooke Youngquist Sweat. VanLiew also had 1,126 digs for her career which ranks as the seventh most in program history. She is a two-time ASUN Player of the Year (2018, 2019) for indoor volleyball and an AVCA Honorable Mention All-American in 2018. She was a three-time First Team All-ASUN honoree. In the summer of 2020, VanLiew was selected to the ASUN's All-Decade Team (2010-19). Among her NCAA peers, she currently ranks 22^nd nationally for career kills among active players. In the ASUN, she ranks 4^th all-time in conference history for career kills as well.
 
To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior or graduate student and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.

An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities. 

For more information on all of the candidates, visit seniorCLASSaward.com.
 
FGCU Senior Class Award Top 10 Finalists
2011 – Adam Glick – Men's Soccer (1^st Team Honors)
2016 – Tabby Tindell – Women's Soccer (1^st Team Honors)
2019 – Riley Randolph – Softball (2^nd Team Honors)
2021 – Cortney VanLiew – Volleyball (2^nd Team Honors)
 
2021 Senior CLASS Award Volleyball First Team All-Americans
Dani Drews, Utah
Sydney Hilley, Wisconsin (overall winner)
Kayla Lund, Pittsburgh
Jonni Parker, Penn State
Alli Stumler, Kentucky
 
2021 Senior CLASS Award Volleyball Second Team All-Americans
Kennedy Eschenberg, BYU
Nicole Lennon, Rice
Mac May, UCLA
Dana Rettke, Wisconsin
Cortney VanLiew, FGCU
 
For complete coverage of the volleyball program, follow the Eagles on Twitter at @FGCU_VB, on Instagram at @FGCU_VB, on Facebook at /FGCUVolleyball and online at FGCUathletics.com. You can also sign-up to have news on FGCU volleyball or other programs delivered directly to your inbox by visiting www.fgcuathletics.com/email.
 
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COACH BOTSFORD
Matt Botsford is in his eighth season as head coach of the FGCU women's volleyball program in 2021 after being hired on Feb. 10, 2014. In his tenure, Botsford-led teams have compiled a 184-59 (.757) record overall, including a 96-20 (.827) record in ASUN play. Including this past year's unprecedented spring season, 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 six of the past seven seasons and at least 10 wins in conference play every season. 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 three straight regular season titles, including a division title and ASUN tournament runner-up finish in the spring 2021 season. 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. In 2018, 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.
 
#FEEDFGCU
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 86 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 14+ seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just nine seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 42 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. Eight FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport - including women's basketball (No. 21, 2020-21), beach volleyball (No. 20, 2021) 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 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 24 consecutive semesters. The 2019 Fall, 2020 Spring, 2020 Fall, and 2021 Spring semesters 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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