GAINESVILLE, Florida (February 16, 2017) -- Due to the weather forecast in the Gainesville area, game times and matchups have been altered for FIU in the upcoming Aquafina Invitational, hosted by the University of Florida this weekend.
 
The Panthers will now play at 9 a.m. on Friday against Maryland, followed by a 1:30 p.m. contest scheduled against Florida A&M.
 
Saturday's Panthers schedule now has Florida A&M at 3:45 p.m., followed by a game versus Northwestern State at 6 p.m.
 
FIU will finish with the host and newly-crowned No. 1 Gators on Sunday at 11:15 a.m. to conclude the tournament. Florida is No. 1 in both major national polls.
 
FIU is off to a 5-1 start after nearly sweeping the Felsberg Invitational Tournament last weekend in Miami. The Panthers defeated Georgetown three times and went 2-1 against Memphis over the three-day event. Storms prevented two of the scheduled teams in the field from traveling to South Florida last weekend.
 
Sophomore Jackie Schoff (Bradenton, Florida / Lakewood Ranch HS) leads the Panthers with a .550 batting average. She collected the conference-high 11 hits in the six FIU games last weekend. She was also perfect on the basepaths, with four stolen bases in as many tries.
 
The top slugger on the team is junior transfer Kasandra Castle (Lake Worth, Florida / Palm Beach Central HS), who hit two home runs in one game last Saturday, driving in seven runs. She has a league-best 12 RBI through the first weekend. Castle was named a conference player of the week by CollegeSportsMadness.com on Tuesday.
 
The Panthers as a team are second in the league with 30 RBI, and third in C-USA with a .311 batting average. The team earned run average of 1.54 and the strikeout total of 41 are also tops in the league.
 
Following the five scheduled games in Gainesville, the Panthers will play in a tournament at FGCU the following weekend.

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About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports, and is a proud member of Conference USA. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including FIU Arena and the FIU Football 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/.