Boca Raton, Fla. (Oct. 23, 2015) – The FIU volleyball team (13-8, 7-3 in C-USA) took down Florida Atlantic in a five-set thriller, 3-2 (15-25, 22-25, 25-16, 25-19, 15-10). The Panthers completed an epic comeback after dropping the first two sets of the match. A total team effort contributed to the victory and led to several records being broken.
In a strong outing for the Panthers, seniors
Lucia Castro and
Adriana McLamb moved up in FIU's all-time standings. Castro led the team with 20 kills on the night, which gives her 1,174 kills for her career and places her fifth all-time in Panther's history, surpassing '09-alumni Olga Vergun. McLamb, with 15 digs in the match and 822 in her career as a Panther, landed her tenth all-time in digs, surpassing '07-alumni Alyse Santisi. McLamb cracked the top-10 in only her third year as a Panther.
The Owls took the first set by a score of 25-15. The Panthers were active defensively for the beginning of the set. Led by senior
Gloria Levorin with three total blocks, the defense was not enough to stop the 15-5 run by the Owls to end the set.
In the second set, the tightly contested battle went the way of Owls once again. The Panthers dropped the second set 25-22, giving Florida Atlantic a 2-0 lead. Castro led the set with five kills.
FIU came back strong in the third to take a 25-16 victory and force a fourth set. The Panthers jumped out to an early 8-1 lead, but it did not last long. With a 16-14 lead, the aggression and offensive intensity of FIU set up the victory. The Panthers were led by Castro and sophomore
Jennifer Ene who had five kills apiece in the set. Ene would finish the match with 11 kills and five blocks.
The Panthers clawed in the fourth to tie the match 2-2 with a 25-19 vitory. Junior
Katie Hogan came alive for FIU and led the offensive onslaught with four kills. Hogan would end the night with 11 kills and seven digs.
The Panthers reached a new level of intensity in the final set of the match to complete the comeback and win the match with a 15-10 victory. Levorin led in all facets of the game including leadership on the court.
With the victory, the Panthers become the only team to defeat the Owls twice this season. They also snapped a 6-0 winning streak and a perfect 8-0 record at home for the Owls.
Freshman
Dominique Dodd got the nod for the Panthers in the second set and would go on to post a career-high 27 assists in the game. Castro also broke a personal best with 60 attacks in the game. Her previous high was 57, set in October 2013. FIU as a team posted 13.5 blocks which places them at 66.5 for the season and ranks them eighth all-time in school history with six games remaining in the regular season.
The Panthers will travel to Murfreesboro, Tenn., to take on the Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee on Sunday afternoon. First serve is set for 2 p.m.
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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 Bank Field 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/.
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