Matt Botsford 
Head Coach

Coach Botsford completed his ninth season as head coach of the FGCU women's volleyball program after being hired on Feb. 10, 2014. In his tenure, Botsford-led teams have compiled a 210-66 (.761) overall record, including a 109-23 (.826) mark in ASUN play. Botsford the winningest coach in FGCU history and ranks 13th in the nation among all active DI coaches in career winning percentage. He has taken the program to heights it has not seen in the Division-I era (2007-present), registering at least 20 wins in eight of the past nine seasons (excluding COVID 2020) and at least 10 wins in conference play every year. This season (2022), Botsford recorded his 200th career win at FGCU with a 3-0 sweep of Queens en route to back-to-back ASUN Tournament Titles and a third NCAA Tournament appearance. In 2018, he led the Eagles program to its first regular-season championship since 2012 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. Now, FGCU has made seven straight ASUN title match appearances, won four-straight regular season titles (five total under Botsford), including capturing three ASUN Tournament Championship crowns. On Sept. 10, 2016, Botsford led the Eagles 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 also led his squad 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. In 2021, the Green & Blue posted its best-ever RPI of 31 and tallied 27 victories, tying the program record previously set in 2016, 2018 and 2019 seasons, and notched a NCAA First Round win over Texas Tech. The win over the Red Raiders marked the second NCAA First Round win for the Eagles following its 3-2 win over No. 13 UCF in Orlando in 2018. Furthermore, FGCU has now been the home to the ASUN's Player of the Year for the six consecutive season.

PRIOR TO FGCU
Botsford, who played at Tri-State University (now Trine University) from 1995-98, served as an assistant coach at five different collegiate institutions, with the most recent occurring as an assistant at Colorado State University from May 2012 to February 2014. While there, he helped lead the Rams to two consecutive conference championships and NCAA Tournament berths. On top of that, the program also recorded a program-best 27 consecutive wins in 2013.
  
Prior to his time at Colorado State, Botsford served as an assistant coach at Notre Dame, Miami, IUPUI and the University of Indianapolis. Furthermore, he served as an interim head coach at his alma mater at the age of 21 and has international and national coaching experience.
 
Botsford was the lead recruiter at Notre Dame from February 2008 until July 2011, and his 2010 and 2011 classes were ranked 13th and 15th, respectively, in the nation by media outlets. The Fighting Irish advanced to the NCAA Tournament in 2009 after winning the Big East title and going undefeated through the conference schedule (14-0). In total, he coached two All-Americans and six All-Big East performers – including the 2010 Big East Freshman of the Year Andrea McHugh – during his time in South Bend.
 
Prior to his three plus years at Notre Dame, Botsford cultivated relationships with players and coaches throughout Florida as he served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of Miami for nearly four years from June 2004 to February 2008. He helped solidify two of the highest-ranked recruiting classes in the relatively short history of the program, signing at least one top-100 rated player in each of his final three years and the first top-50 recruit for the Hurricanes.
 
Outside of the collegiate landscape, Botsford also has a vast array of experience. In the year between his stints at Notre Dame and Colorado State, he was the head coach of Lindesberg Volley as part of Sweden’s Elite Series, leading the club to a first-ever league title and automatic representation in European Cup play. While with Lindesberg Volley from August 2011 through May 2012, he coached four players who went on to play for Sweden’s National Team.
 
The foray into Sweden wasn’t the first for Botsford as he played professionally with the Vingaker Volleyball Club in the country in 2002-03, the final of his three professional stints. In the collegiate offseason he also played from 1998-2003 on beach tours with both the MPVA and the EVP, the latter of which named him the league’s Rookie of the Year in 2000.

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Kate Morrell

Kate Morrell joined the FGCU volleyball staff as an assistant coach in February 2020 and has since been elevated to Associate Head Coach.  

Morrell joins the Eagles from Mercer University, where she served as an assistant indoor and beach volleyball coach since August 2017. While there, she had head coaching responsibilities for the beach program, while recruiting and training indoor players such as Annie Karle and Brittany Major, who both earned Southern Conference all-freshman team honors in 2018. Both players then landed a spot on the 2019 Southern Conference all-tournament team.
 
Morrell also served as the Master Coach of Texas One Volleyball in Houston from June 2016 to May 2017 following a successful playing career that saw her play professionally in the Philippines, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
 
Morrell played collegiately as an outside hitter at UAB following a one-year stint at Hutchinson Community College. She was a member of both the indoor and beach programs at UAB, where she was a three-year letter-winner and was named to the Conference USA Commissioner's Honor Roll while serving as a team captain in 2012-13. She graduated with a bachelor of arts in public relations in May 2013. ​

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DANA AXNER 

The Florida Gulf Coast University volleyball program and head coach Matt Botsford announced the hiring of assistant coach and former FGCU great Dana Axner on June 27, 2023.

Axner was a highly decorated libero during her five-year Eagles career. She emerged as a two-time ASUN Conference Defensive Player of the Year and also became FGCU's and the ASUN's all-time leader in career digs (2,486).

"I had the pleasure of coaching Dana for five seasons, and during that time, I learned a lot about who she was as a player, a competitor and a person," Botsford said. "In each of those categories, she was elite. When I learned that she had a desire to continue her path within the sport as a coach, I knew if I could ever make it happen that I would love to work with her. Dana is a teacher by trade and by heart, and that is ultimately what we do. I have seen her in action on that front, and as I have grown accustomed to seeing from her, she is phenomenal. From the start, first as a recruit and then as a player, Dana always shared my vision for what FGCU volleyball could become. She helped make a lot of that vision become a reality, but she understands there is more ahead we aspire to do. She wants to help contribute to this next step. There is no doubt we are closer today because of her addition to our staff."

During her time in the Green & Blue, her backrow prowess helped fuel 121 wins, seven Power Five victories, the program's first win over a ranked opponent, three ASUN Tournament Championships and two NCAA Tournament First Round wins.

FGCU is one of only 15 programs nationally to have recorded 120 or more wins in the past five seasons.

In 2022, Axner guided the Eagles (26-7, 13-3 ASUN) to back-to-back ASUN Tournament Championships with a sweep of top-seeded Liberty, punching FGCU's ticket back to the Big Dance for the third time in the past five campaigns.

The Dublin, Ohio, native earned all-conference recognition all five seasons, including first-team distinction in 2018 and 2019. Axner was also a three-time ASUN All-Academic Team honoree and awarded the ASUN's Fall Winner of Life distinction in 2021.