MIAMI (Jan. 20, 2016) – The FIU women's tennis team travels to Ft. Myers, Fla., on Saturday, Jan. 23, to take on the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles in the Panthers' first dual match of the 2016 season.
First serve for Saturday's match is set for 1 p.m., from the FGCU Tennis Complex.
FIU comes into this weekend's contest having registered a 64-37 mark in singles action this year, including a team-best 15-4 record by freshman
Maryna Veksler. Sophomore
Nerma Caluk (No. 69) finished tournament play with a 12-3 record having won eight of her last 10 matches.
Returning four letterwinners from a team that went 13-8, FIU enters its third season in C-USA action this Spring. Three all-conference honorees (Caluk, senior
Carlotta Orlando and junior
Nina Nagode) lead an FIU squad which has improved its win total in each of the last two seasons under third-year Head Coach
Katarina Petrovic. As the No. 5 seed in the C-USA Tennis Championships, the Panthers advanced to the semifinals, defeating Southern Miss (4-0) and Middle Tennessee (4-3) before falling to the No. 30-ranked Rice Owls. It was FIU's best performance in a conference tournament since reaching the Sun Belt Championship match in 2012. Six Panthers earned C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll (GPA of 3.0 or better), including
Yana Koroleva and Caluk, who received C-USA Commissioner's Academic Medals (GPA of 3.75 or better).
Earlier this year, the Panthers took on the Eagles during the 2015 FIU Invitational (Oct. 30 – Nov. 1). FIU finished the three-day tournament 8-0 against FGCU in singles action.
Saturday's contest will mark the fifth meeting all-time between FIU and FGCU with the Panthers holding a 3-1 edge in the series history. The last meeting between the two schools resulted in a 6-1 win for FIU on March 2, 2015, at the FIU Tennis Courts.
Fans are encouraged to follow the Panthers on Facebook (
Facebook.com/FIUWTennis) for all the latest FIU women's tennis news. Follow all of FIU's 18 athletic teams on 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 offer 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 $8.9 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/.
