Miami, Fla. - The FIU women's volleyball team (7-18, 4-7 C-USA) dropped a heartbreaker against the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, losing 3-2 (25-22, 16-25, 21-25, 25-14,12-15) on Friday night.
 
The Panthers were back at home and every match for the remainder of the season is crucial as FIU is holding on to one of the final spots to qualify for the Conference USA tournament.
 
After tonight's loss, the Panthers are still in the top eight of the conference at seventh place, but their lead in the standings has been cut to just one game after losing against the 49ers. Louisiana Tech and Charlotte are the two schools right behind FIU in the standings.

The Panthers won the first set 25-21. For the first half of the set, FIU was playing from behind. The 49ers had a three-point lead on three separate occasions and the Panthers came back to tie it each time. The Panthers final comeback was an impressive one. Charlotte was leading late in the set 19-15 and from there, FIU went on a 10-3 scoring run to win the set and take a 1-0 match lead.
 
The 49ers came back and tied the match in the second set winning 25-16. The Panthers only lead in the set was early on at 3-2 but Charlotte quickly erased that. The 49ers would hold the lead from that point on and their offense took control late in the second set. They closed out the Panthers on a 5-0 run when the score was 20-16.
 
Charlotte took the lead in the match winning the third set 25-21. Both teams were going back and forth trading points from the very beginning. In this set, there was 13 different ties as neither team could create a comfortable lead. The final tie was when the score was 18-18. Just like the previous set, the 49ers went on a big scoring run late in this set to win.
 
The Panthers tied the match in the fourth set winning 25-14. FIU's offense dominated from start to finish and never surrendered their lead once the score was 5-4. Unfortunately, the Panthers were unable to ride that momentum into the final and decisive set. It started off very close, but the 49ers pulled away midway through and that ended up being the difference in the match. When Charlotte was leading 6-5, they went on a 5-0 run to take a six-point lead. They held off a late comeback attempt by FIU and came out with their third conference victory of the season and second win against the Panthers this year.

Four different Panthers finished with double digit kills. Jade Sadeiko led the team with 17. Kira Givans took full advantage of the playing time and recorded 10 kills. Sarah Nading led both teams with 50 assists and Katie Turner led the Panthers with 23 digs.

UP NEXT
The Panthers will stay at home for their next match as they host the top seed in Conference USA, No.22 Western Kentucky University, on Sunday, Nov. 6 slated to start at 12:00 p.m. ET. The match will be streamed on CUSA.tv

SOCIAL MEDIA
Fans are encouraged to follow the Panthers on Instagram (@FIUVolleyball), Twitter (@FIUVolleyball), and Facebook (Facebook.com/FIUVolleyball) for all the latest volleyball news.

General athletic news can also be found at @FIUSports on Facebook and @FIUAthletics on Twitter and Instagram.