MIAMI (Oct. 14, 2013) – Coming off a tough 3-0 loss to Tulsa on Sunday afternoon, the FIU volleyball team (8-10, 2-4) will be back on the court on Tuesday night to host Florida Gulf Coast. First serve is set for 6 p.m. on Lime Court at US Century Bank Arena.
Keeping Up with the Panthers
Live stats will be available for the match and can be accessed via the FIU volleyball schedule page at FIUSports.com. A free live video stream for all FIU matches will be available via PantherVision, by clicking
HERE, and fans can also follow the action on Twitter (@FIUVolleyball).
Game Promotions
For tomorrow's white-out, the first 250 fans in attendance will receive a FREE #PantherNation t-shirt and sunglasses.
Last Time Out
The Panthers lost in straight sets (25-14, 25-17, 25-14) to an aggressive Golden Hurricane team on Sunday. Redshirt junior
Ksenia Sukhareva led the way for the Panthers with a team-best 10 kills, while senior
Jessica Egan notched a high of 20 assists for the day. Sophomore
Adriana McLamb lead a team-high six digs, with Sukhareva finishing with four. Defensively, senior
CeCe Spencer led FIU with two blocks, while senior
Kimberly Smith and Sukhareva had one block apiece in the effort.
For the season, Sukhareva (197 kills, 3.08 kps) and Smith (184 kills, 2.97 kps) lead the Panther offense, while senior
Jessica Mendoza owns a team-leading marks of 200 digs (3.08 dps) and is tied with Sukhareva for service aces (12). Smith also leads the FIU defense with 69 total blocks (1.11 bps).
Scouting the Eagles
With Head Coach Dave Nichols at the helm for his sixth season, the Eagles find themselves with an 8-11-0 record and sit in fifth place in the Atlantic Sun Conference with a 5-2-0 record. The Eagles offense is spearheaded by Jessica Barnes (203 kills, 3.39 kps) and Kaitlin Holm (184 kills, 2.83 kps), while Gigi Meyer leads her team with 664 assists (10.22 aps). Whitney Masters has a team-high 256 digs (3.94 dps) and Christine Pinder has 210 digs (3.28 dps), which is good for second on the team. Barnes also leads FGCU in blocks (203, 3.38 kps) with Holm adding numbers of 184 kills (2.83 kps) to the effort. The Eagles are 4-3 on the road this year, most recently losing to ETSU on Sunday, 3-0, which snapped the team's seven-game win streak, dating back to Sept. 21.
Series History
FIU leads the all-time series, 5-2, but have suffered back-to-back losses in 2012 to the Eagles (3-2, 3-0).
Next Up
FIU welcomes Florida Atlantic on Friday at 6 p.m., before hitting the road for three matches at Tulane (Oct. 20), East Carolina (Oct. 25) and LA Tech (Oct. 27).
Fans are encouraged to follow the Panthers on Twitter (@FIUVolleyball) and become a fan on Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUVolleyball) for all the latest FIU volleyball news.
Follow all of FIU's 18 athletic teams on Google+ (FIU Athletics), Twitter (@FIUAthletics), Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUSports), YouTube (FIUPanthers), and Instagram (FIUathletics). The official FIU Athletics hashtag for the 2013-14 athletics year is #PantherNation.
About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including U.S. Century Bank Arena and Alfonso Field at FIU Stadium.
About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. Its colleges and schools offer more than 180 bachelor¹s, master¹s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida¹s anchor institutions, FIU is Worlds Ahead in its local and global engagement, finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. FIU has awarded 200,000 degrees and enrolls 50,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. FIU is a member of Conference USA and has 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/
