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MIAMI (Oct. 19, 2014) – The FIU women's volleyball team suffered its second-straight five set Conference USA loss to the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles Sunday afternoon from Lime Court at FIU Arena. With the 3-2 (25-16, 14-25, 23-25, 25-22, 15-17) loss, FIU falls to 6-15 overall and 3-5 in C-USA action. The Eagles improve to 16-9 and 5-3 in conference play.
 
As a team, the Panthers only had a .119 hitting percentage while the Eagles finished the day with a .145 hitting mark. The two teams combined for 24 blocks with FIU notching a season-best 16 and the Eagles totaling eight.
 
FIU's Lucia Castro had a team-best 12 kills, while Jennifer Ene chipped in with nine and Lea Montavon had seven. Kiona McSwain added two kills to go along with 33 assists and seven digs. Montavon and Castro also led the Panthers on the back row as the two outside hitters combined for 24 digs. Montavon had 13 and Castro garnered 11 for her seventh double-double on the season. Gloria Levorin had a huge day on the front row, tying a season-best seven blocks (five assisted and two solo), and Ene contributed six blocks, four of which were solo stops.
 
For the Golden Eagles, Jasmine Crowell led the way with a match-high 25 kills, and Stephany Purdue and Elise Ames added 11 each. Kristen Fleming led all players in the match with 65 assists, and Mary Pursell had a match-high 19 digs.
 
FIU took the opening set after notching a .214 hitting percentage with eight kills and only two errors against 28 total attempts. FIU also had six blocks in the first set alone as Levorin led the way with four (assisted). After the fast start, FIU dropped the second set 25-14 after only hitting .032 in the frame and giving up a .361 mark to the Eagles.
 
After Southern Miss took a 2-1 lead with a close 25-23 third set win, FIU got even by winning the fourth set 25-22.
 
With the match tied at 2-2, the fifth set was tied at 2-2 early before the Panthers built a 6-3 lead. The Eagles quickly fought back going on a 5-0 run to take an 8-6 lead when the teams switched sides. After USM held a 12-14 lead for match point, FIU took advantage of an Eagle attack error and block assists from Montavon and Levorin to tie the set up at 14-14. Southern Miss responded with a kill by Purdue for the second match point, but a Montavon kill tied it at 15-15. With FIU serving for the lead, Southern Miss rebounded with a kill from Crowell, and a Chanel Joyce ended the match.
 
FIU continues Conference USA action next Friday, Oct. 24, with a road match against the Western Kentucky Lady Toppers. First serve between FIU and WKU is slated for 7 p.m. ET from E.A. Diddle Arena. 
 
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).
 
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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 FIU Arena and Ocean BankField at FIU Stadium.
 
About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers more than 180 bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes $9.8 billion each year to the local economy. FIU is Worlds Ahead in finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. FIU has awarded over 200,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and has over 4-00 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.