By Jordyn Matez
Sports Editor

The FGCU volleyball team shut out New Jersey Institute of Technology in three straight sets on Sunday afternoon, moving to tie with Kennesaw State University for 1st place in the ASUN conference standings. Both FGCU and KSU currently hold an 11-1 record in the ASUN conference.
FGCU has now won nine straight matches including a 19-set win streak, totaling 14 of 15 overall. Should they win all three sets in their next match, they will match the second longest streak in the program’s Division-I era with 22 wins. The current D-I record was in 2007 with 30 sets.
Cortney VanLiew led the team to a victory throughout the match, finishing with a match-high 15 kills, 10 digs, two block assists, one ace and one assist. VanLiew hit .556 overall in her second straight double-digit dig performance and her 10th double-double of the season.
“Cortney was really good, especially at the end,” FGCU head coach Matt Botsford said. “She was making some good decisions. She was relying a little bit too much on the scouting report in the first set instead of allowing her athleticism to take over. I think she loosened up a little and just let herself play as we got into sets two and three, so that was nice to see.”
Aside from VanLiew, Maggie Rick and Chelsey Lockey provided a combined 33 assists of the team’s 35, while Dana Axner held a team-high 15 digs. Axner’s performance, along with a combined 13 from VanLiew and Snowy Burnam, accounted for 38 of the team’s 47 digs.
Next, the Eagles will continue ASUN play on the road when they face Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee on Friday, Nov. 2 at 7:30 p.m.