Columbus East graduate and Florida Gulf Coast senior Cortney VanLiew goes up for a kill.
Submitted photo
Cortney VanLiew thought she was done playing competitive volleyball.
But in her first year after finishing an illustrious career at Florida Gulf Coast, the Columbus East graduate got the urge to play again.
This summer, VanLiew will head to Finland to play professional volleyball for Polkky Kuusamo, the reigning Finnish League champions.
“I’d always had an idea of wanting to play professionally, but when I decided to go to Louisville (for graduate school), I thought I was done. But as soon as I got there, I realized, I wasn’t able to be done yet. I served as a student manager for the volleyball team last year, and it wasn’t the same as being out there. So I decided to check into playing professionally after taking a year off.”
After earning a bachelor’s degree in accounting a master’s in business administration from Florida Gulf Coast, VanLiew has spent the past school year at University of Louisville. She earned her master’s in sports administration last weekend.
While at Louisville, VanLiew has interned with the school’s sports information department the entire school year and served as manager for the Cardinals volleyball team last fall. She worked some volleyball camps with Louisville last summer and worked mainly with the volleyball, women’s tennis and women’s lacrosse teams for the sports information department, but also did something with all 23 sports, including creating videos, writing bios and keeping stats.
While VanLiew, who was a three-sport athlete at East, was was fluent in volleyball and tennis, she didn’t know much about lacrosse.
“They had a fall game, and said, ‘Here you go. Learn lacrosse,’” VanLiew said. “It actually is a really cool experience. It’s becoming one of my favorite sports to watch.”
VanLiew has taken advantage of the access she had to U of L’s fitness and weight facilities.
“I was able to stay in shape, but in shape is very different than volleyball shape and preparing for an eight-month season,” VanLiew said.
Columbus East graduate and Florida Gulf Coast senior Cortney VanLiew goes for a dig.
Submitted photo
VanLiew played five years of volleyball and three years of beach volleyball at FGCU. In volleyball, she is the school’s all-time leader in kills, was a two-time ASUN Conference Player of the Year and was named honorable mention All-American in 2018 after leading the Eagles to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
A four-time All-ASUN honoree, VanLiew also was a three-time ASUN All-Academic selection and a two-time CoSIDA All-Academic honoree. She was a two-term president of FGCU’s Eagles Council, serveed as the ASUN Student Athletic Advisory Committee president and was a member of FGCU’s Hall of Fame for students. Last year, she was the lone winner of Florida Gulf Coast University’s Kavanagh Eagle Scholar-Athlete Award and also won the Ms. FGCU award for most school spirit
Columbus East graduate and Florida Gulf Coast senior Cortney VanLiew holds her awards from FGCU’s NESTIES program.
Submitted photo
Since VanLiew played beach volleyball at Florida Gulf Coast and didn’t finish her senior season until late last April, she didn’t give much thought to playing overseas last year since most of those leagues had started.
“The timing wasn’t right to look at pursuing anything,” VanLiew said. “Then once I started (at Louisville), I wanted to honor my internship, which goes until the end of May. So I thought it would be best for me to go the next season instead of trying to go halfway through.”
VanLiew signed with an agent in March and was able to reach a deal on a place to play and a contract.
“I woke up to a text Easter morning,” VanLiew said. “They gave me a week to decide. I didn’t know right away. I talked to my agent and wanted to make sure I had all of the facts about it.”
VanLiew also talked to Carly Nausbam, who played at ASUN rival Lipscomb for two of the five years VanLiew was at Florida Gulf Coast. Nausbam is entering her third year on the Polkky Kuusamo team.
“I reached out when I signed with my agent to see if she liked playing there, and as it turns out, I signed with the same team,” VanLiew said. “She loves the team, loves the coach, loves the area, which made me feel good. After talking with my family about me moving across the world, it took me about five or six days (to decide to sign).”
This spring, VanLiew played a little at IU-Southeast in open gyms and scrimmaged with the Grenadiers team and alumni. She said that was a big part of her being able to get back into playing shape, but finding current game film was a bigger challenge.
“That was a concern of mine, and I was trying to find recent video,” VanLiew said. “So I went up to Circle City, my old club and with my mom’s club. One of the things I’m trying to do this summer is to try to get some college girls who are trying to stay in shape for their season for some open gyms to give me a chance to play, as well.”
