Clemson Box Score (HTML) | Clemson Box Score (PDF)
San Diego State Box Score (HTML) | San Diego State Box Score (PDF)

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (Sept. 20, 2014) - The FIU volleyball team dropped two straight-set matches this afternoon on the final day of the Crimson-White Tournament. With the two losses, FIU falls to 3-10 on the year.

"We are playing well and getting better, but we are making unforced errors at the wrong times," said head coach Rita Buck-Crockett. "Our returners need to step up. We need to take care of things that are in our control. We are playing hard and staying in matches, but when it is our time to make a critical point, we make unforced errors like hitting it into the block, hitting it out of bounce or serving into the net. We need to clean it up."

Clemson 3, FIU 0
Junior Lucia Castro led the attack for FIU, tallying eight kills, while freshman Lea Montavon and senior Martyna Gluchowicz contributed seven and six kills, respectively. Sophomore Anabela Sataric dished out 21 assists and added nine digs, four kills and a solo block in the match.

Defensively, the Panthers totaled 54 digs and 7.0 blocks. Senior Kristine Monforte, Castro and Montavon led the Panthers with 11 digs apiece.

In the first set, FIU took an early 2-1 lead thanks to back-to-back Montavon kills. However, Clemson went on a 9-3 run to take a 10-5 advantage, forcing the Panthers to call an early timeout. Coming out of the break, the Tigers continued to go on the offensive going up by as many as ten to force FIU to call another timeout. Despite scoring the next couple points, the Panthers could not get anything going offensively and Clemson took the first set, 25- 15, to take a 1-0 lead. The Tigers held FIU to a .152 hitting percentage in the frame, while posting a clip of .412 off of 15 kills and two errors against 34 attacks.

The second set began with the two teams changing points over the first couple of plays and neither team gained more than a two-point advantage until an FIU 4-0 run would give it an 11-7 lead. However, Clemson would climb right back in it with a 4-0 run of their own to tie the frame at 11-all. The set remained a back and forth affair as it featured nine ties and three lead changes. With the set tied at 16 apiece, Clemson went on 5-0 run, forcing FIU to call a timeout. The
Panthers came out of the break scoring the next two points, but could not get back in the set, falling 25-18. Despite holding Clemson to a .043 hitting clip, attack errors plagued the Panthers as they only had eight kills with nine errors and 47 attacks for a -.021 percentage.

FIU saw some momentum building in the third set when it held its own once again. It was extremely tight early on as neither team led by as many as two points midway through the frame, but multiple mini runs saw Clemson gain an a 20-12 advantage. However, a late 6-1 Panther run saw the Tiger lead slip to three, but back-to-back Clemson kills, an FIU ball handling error and another Clemson kill saw the Tigers take the set 25-19 as they took the match in straight sets.

San Diego State 3, FIU 0
Castro once again led the offensive attack for the Panthers with six kills, while freshman Jennifer Ene added five. Sataric dished out 18 assists and had four digs, two kills and a two blocks in the match.

Defensively, FIU out-dug and out-blocked the Aztecs as it totaled 50 digs and 8.0 blocks. Monforte led the back row with a career-best 13 digs as Castro and Montavon chipped in with 11 and 10 digs, respectively. Ene and Gluchowicz made their presence known up front with four blocks apiece.

The Aztecs jumped out to an early 8-2 lead as the Panthers could not seem to find a way to stop the San Diego State attack, forcing FIU to call a timeout. SDSU continued to roll offensively coming out of the break going on a 10-2 scoring rampage as the Panthers were forced to use another timeout. The Aztecs wasted no time continuing their offensive attack as they took the first set, 25-11. SDSU held FIU to a -.107 hitting percentage in the frame, while posting a clip of .360 off of 12 kills and three errors against 25 attacks.

The Panthers seemed to gain some momentum in the second after an Aztec service error and SDSU two attack errors. The Panthers continued to go on the offensive, eventually taking a five point lead midway through the frame.  However, San Diego State would come back and tie the set at three more times and eventually took a 20-18 lead to force FIU to call a timeout. The Panthers came out of the break tying the set up four more times and eventually took a 24-23 lead, forcing the Aztecs to call timeout. SDSU came out of the break scoring two straight-points, but FIU got back in it with a kill from Castro. A Sataric service error gave the ball right back to the Aztecs who scored the next point to take the second set, 27-25.

The third set was a back-and-forth affair as both teams exchanged points over the first couple of plays until the Aztecs went on a 5-1 run. The Panthers went on multiple scoring runs to pull within a point four times, but they could not seem to find a way to pull ahead as they dropped the third set, 25-20.

FIU will continue its road trip with a conference match at Marshall before returning home to take on Western Kentucky and UAB. The two matches in Miami against WKU and the Blazers are both set for 6 p.m. ET.

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 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.