The FIU beach volleyball team is now only seven weeks away from the start of the 2016 regular season. Each week leading up to the season opener on March 4, a different beach player will be featured in this weekly series. This week, Sand Panthers introduces the multi-talented freshman, Katie Friesen.

Friesen is one of the youngest players on a relatively young team. As only a freshman, she has made herself known in the FIU athletic community. Friesen is what many would consider a 'franchise player'.

Katie is coming off a successful first season of indoor volleyball. The young setter started 26-of-28 matches for the Panthers. Even while running a two-setter formation, Friesen still racked up over 630 assists on the year. In her very first game as a collegiate athlete, Katie put up 42 assists against the Osprey of North Florida. That mark would go on to be the most assists by any player in a single game for the entire 2015 season. Oh yeah, she also finished the year with eight double-doubles. Only senior Lucia Castro, 'La Leyenda' or 'The Legend', had more (13).

Even with all her success on the hardwood, Friesen (whom her teammates call Freeze) is more comfortable playing in the sand. Beginning in eighth grade, Katie has considered herself a beach player first and an indoor player second.

"I just played during the summers," she explained. "In Canada, where I am from, you can only play three months out of the summer. But in places like Vancouver or Toronto, they have indoor facilities with artificial courts where you can play all year round. But I never had that advantage."

The gifted athlete didn't need much more than three months per year. She soon became the number one beach volleyball player in her province. By the time Katie graduated high school, she had won nine MVP awards between her school and club play. At the age of 15, Friesen was competing nationally for Canada. She even took up basketball and soccer for fun and excelled in both of those as well. Katie is just one of those athletes that everybody knows growing up is going to make it big. Now, on a top-five collegiate team in the nation, Friesen hasn't lost a step. Everyone expects her to earn a spot in the top-10 including herself.

"You have to focus every single practice," Friesen revealed her key to success. "You need to practice with the mindset that you are going to get better or else you're going to get left behind. The game is a lot faster than it used to be. It took a little bit to adjust, but I am adjusted now."

Katie's goal for the season is to be among the top two winningest pairs for the Panthers. She is also looking at the next four years and hoping to be one of FIU's best. More than half of the graduates from the team have gone on to play professional volleyball. Katie anticipates that she will be like so many before her.

"I love traveling," she said. "If beach volleyball gave me the means to travel around the world, like the world circuit, I would love to play professionally. I think it would be cool to represent Canada on the beach."

Katie has made some pretty big transitions over the last year. Her home town of Niverville, Manitoba has a population a little over three thousand. Miami with a population north of 400,000 is quite the change for young Friesen.

"Culturally, it is way different," Katie elaborated. "I have never been in a place where white is not the majority. Where I am from, Caucasians and Mennonites are everywhere. But it's cool and I like it. I like it a lot."

As one would expect, Katie is also good at school. Studying international business, there is not much which she cannot do well.

"I love it. I think my courses are kind of easy, so school isn't that much of a challenge for me, or at least not yet," she added.

The young gun is actually quite the accomplished business woman already. This past summer, Katie ran her own beach volleyball camps in Canada helping out youngsters improve and develop their games. Her love of business and travel have given her clarity on what she wants to do with her future. For now, Katie is enjoying the college life. Here in Miami, she wakeboards for fun. Back home, she hits the slopes with her snowboard. As guessed, she's good at those too.

Each week on Sand Panthers, featured players are asked one random question, posed by the previous Panther to appear on the weekly series. Likewise, they pose a question, which is to be answered by the next player featured on Sand Panthers (without knowing who it is). Last week, senior Gloria Levorin asked: Now that 2015 has come to an end, what is the best memory you have of the past year?

Here was Katie's answer: "I think just switching to college has been a lot of fun because it is something so different. And moving to Miami was also really different from me. So, it has been a real fun experience so far."

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