Lee Today

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.

Original source can be found here.