MIAMI (September 28, 2017) -- FIU Volleyball plays its first pair of Conference USA road contests this weekend, traveling up I-95 to Florida Atlantic Friday night before a Sunday afternoon tilt at UAB. The first service at FAU is slated for 7 p.m.
 
The Panthers took their home-opening loss to North Texas last Sunday, a 3-0 defeat to drop to 1-6 on the season, 0-1 in C-USA games.
 
FIU owns a slim 29-26 margin in 55 all-time games in the series, dating back to 1987. FIU is 17-5 in the last 22 games in the series. FAU swept the two matches between the programs last season, after FIU swept the pair of games played in 2015.
 
Jennifer Ene (Carrollton, Texas) is the leader in attack percentage for the Panthers, sitting eighth in the league with a .364 mark. The Panthers are fourth-best in C-USA in service aces average, with 1.46 per set so far this season.
 
The Owls are off to a 9-4 start, but lost their conference opener at home to WKU last Friday night in Boca Raton in a five-set thriller. FAU has posted the highest kills-per-set mark in the league, at 14.77 in 43 sets played.
 
Following the Friday night contest, FIU will return home for the night and travel out to Birmingham on Saturday to prepare for the 2 p.m. Eastern tip at UAB.
 
Live stats and video links are posted at FIUSports.com.
 
For volleyball ticket information, contact the FIU Ticket Office at 305-FIU-GAME or log onto www.FIUSports.com.
 
Fans are encouraged to follow the Panthers on Twitter (@FIUVolleyball) and become a fan on Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUVolleyball) for all the latest FIU softball 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 eight different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including Lime Court at FIU Arena and Riccardo Silva Stadium.
 
About FIU: Florida International University is classified by Carnegie as a "R1: Doctoral Universities - Highest Research Activity" and recognized as a Carnegie Community Engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as business, engineering, computer science, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes almost $9 billion each year to the local economy and is ranked second in Florida in Forbes Magazine's "America's Best Employers" list. FIU graduates are consistently among the highest paid college graduates in Florida and are among the leaders of public and private organizations throughout South Florida. 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 with multiple state-of-the-art research facilities including the Wall of Wind Research and Testing Facility, FIU's Medina Aquarius Program and the Advanced Materials Engineering Research Institute.  FIU has awarded more than 220,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, the Miami Beach Urban Studios, and Tianjin, China. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and more than 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.