The Panthers came out on fire in the first set, jumping out to a 13-8 advantage but Florida State battled back to come within three at 21-18. The squads traded points to put the score at 22-19 before the Seminoles tallied four straight points to take a 23-22 lead.

Following an FIU timeout, senior Olga Vergun knotted the score at 23-23 with a kill from junior Natalia Valentin. The squads then traded points before two kills by sophomore Andrea Lakovic closed out the set, as the Panthers took the 26-24 win.

Both teams hit over .350 for the set, as FIU recorded a mark of .382 on 18 kills and Florida State tallied an attack percentage of .375 on 16 kills.

The second set saw the Seminoles take an early lead and the Panthers were unable to catch up despite a tremendous effort. FIU put together a run to come within four at 21-17, but Florida State tacked on two straight points to increase its lead to 23-17. The Panthers put up a fight and got within three at 24-21 before a Seminole kill gave FSU a 25-21 win.

With the match tied at 1-1, both squads came out ready to play after the break as the score went back and forth until Florida State scored five unanswered point to take a 17-10 lead. FIU tallied a point to come within seven with match point on the line for Florida State, but the Seminoles prevailed for the 25-17 win to pull ahead, 2-1, for the match.

Florida State took an 14-5 lead in the fourth set and kept its momentum rolling, as FIU would get no closer than seven at 17-10. The Seminoles hit .529 for the set and went on to take away a 25-12 win to clinch a 3-1 win.

"It's always tough to lose, especially at home," said head coach Danijela Tomic. "We had a great crowd again and unfortunately FSU was a better team tonight. There is nothing to take away from them; right now they're better than us. I just wish that we had competed better.

This was the weakest defensive game on our part. We just couldn't stop their right side and their middle blocker. This will be a good lesson for us. If we want to be among the nation's elite and be in the top 25, we have to change some things and that's mental preparation. Every player has to be ready and compete and we didn't do that today.

We had three players in double-digit kills but again we made so many unforced errors. We're not serving tough and we're making errors and that's not a good combination. Also, there was a big difference in our hitting errors tonight and they had seven aces while we had one. They outplayed us tonight an all the credit goes to them. We just have to go back to the gym on Monday and work on the things we have to improve on, learn something from this and move on."

Vergun led the Panther attack with 14 kills, while freshman Jovana Bjelica and Lakovic added 12 and 10, respectively. Valentin led the squad in assists with 14 and also in digs with 11. Defensively, Lakovic, Vergun and sophomore Sabrina Gonzalez each tallied a pair of blocks.

Valentin and Vergun were named to the FIU/UM Invitational All-Tournament Team as Vergun led the Panthers in kills for the weekend with 44 for a 4.0 kills per set ratio, and Valentin notched a team-best 145 assists (13.18 assists per set) over 11 total sets played.

FIU will return to action next weekend when the Panthers travel to Orlando, Fla., for the UCF Invitational. On Friday, Sept. 18 FIU will face Florida A&M at 10:30 a.m. EST and then square off against Southern Mississippi at 7:30 p.m. The following day, the Panthers will meet host Central Florida at 3 p.m.

FIU/Miami Invitational All-Tournament Team
Albany - Brooke Stanley & Valerie Sourbeer
FIU - Natalia Valentin & Olga Vergun
Florida State - Mira Djuric & Brianna Barry
Miami - Genny Mayhew & Lici McGee
Middle Tennessee State - Ashley Mead & Stacy Oladinni

-FIU-