MIAMI – FIU volleyball standouts
Abbie Hughes (Mason, Ohio) and
Lina Bernier (San Juan, Puerto Rico) were named the Conference USA Freshman of the Week and Defensive Player of the Week, respectively, for the week ending Nov. 11, the league office announced on Monday.
Hughes helped the Panthers to a 2-0 week with wins over Middle Tennessee (3-0) and Rice (3-1), to extend their winning streak to three matches. She had 33 assists on the week for an average of 7.43 assists-per-set, and 15 kills, to go along with a .452 hitting percentage, while also averaging 2.14 kills-per-set, and recorded a .310 setting percentage. In addition, Hughes recorded 27 digs for a 3.86 digs-per-set average. The Ohio native had 19 assists against the Blue Raiders and followed that up with a 33-assist performance against the Owls. Hughes also recorded 11 kills and 16 digs against Rice for her first career triple-double. This is Hughes' third weekly honor of the season, and her second-straight. She was named the Setter of the Week on Oct. 1, and the Freshman of the Week on Nov. 5
Bernier recorded 35 digs on the week and a 5.0 digs-per-set average, and also averaged 1.86 assists-per-set in the two wins. She had 15 digs – and a .818 reception percentage – and four assists against Middle Tennessee. She then followed that up with 20 digs – and a perfect reception percentage – against Rice to go along with nine assists, falling just shy of her third double-double of the season. This honor marks the second honor of the season for Bernier. She was also named Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 24.
FIU has earned the No. 6 seed for this week's 2018 Air Force Reserve Conference USA Volleyball Championship to be held at the Cam Henderson Center at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, Nov. 16-18. The Panthers, who finished the regular season with a 9-5 record (17-11 overall), will face the three seed, UTSA, in the final match of the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 16.
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