MIAMI (October 10, 2016) – The FIU volleyball team (7-11, 1-3 C-USA) will travel to Huntington, West Virginia to play the Thundering Herd (14-5, 3-1 C-USA) on Tuesday, October 11 at 6:30 p.m. (ET). The match was originally scheduled for Friday, October 7 but was postponed due to unsafe traveling conditions during Hurricane Matthew.
FIU is coming off a close defeat to Rice on Sunday afternoon. The team went into the match with great energy and outplayed one of Conference USA's top teams in many facets (kills, hitting percentage, attacks and assists). The final score was 3-0 (25-22, 25-23, 26-24) in favor of the Owls. FIU hit a solid .240 hitting percentage, led by freshman
Sophia Sires, who broke her career-high in assists with 43 assists in her fourth start of the season. FIU's most recent lineup featured junior
Tia Clay who posted 10 kills, her second consecutive double-digit kills in back-to-back matches.
Scouting Marshall: The Thundering Herd (14-5, 3-1 C-USA) enters Tuesday night's matchup coming off a five-set win over UTSA on Sunday. The Thundering Herd outlasted the Roadrunners in a nail-biting match (22-25, 25-19, 25-17, 23-25, 15-11).
Marshall holds the longest sweep-streak of any C-USA team since 2011 with seven-straight sweeps earlier in the season, beginning with Bowling Green on September 7 and ending with Florida A&M on September 16. Their streak ended with a four-set loss to No. 7 Florida in mid-September.
This week, Marshall was tied for third among Conference USA teams for the third-best winning percentage. They are led by senior Allie Kellerman, who is currently ranked second in C-USA with 302 total digs. She has been named C-USA Defensive Player of the week three times this season. Another player to look out for is freshman Ja'cara Walker, who leads the team offensively with 3.28 kills per set and 0.36 service aces per set.
FIU is 1-2 lifetime against Marshall, defeating them for the first time last season, 3-1.
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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/.
