Box Score JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (September 9, 2016) – The FIU volleyball team (3-4) continued their momentum from last Saturday's victory over Southeastern Louisiana to take down Nicholls State, 3-1 (16-25, 25-17, 25-21, 26-24) on Day One of the Best Western Osprey Invite, hosted by the University of North Florida.
The Panthers were led by senior
Katie Hogan, who notched her second double-double of the season with 11 kills and 13 digs. She also added a career-high six service aces and five blocks to lead the team with 19.5 points. FIU hit only .174 for the match, but led the Colonels in kills, attacks, aces and blocks.
FIU began the match slowly with a 25-16 loss. The team had nine kills and eight errors to show for their 34 attacks. With the loss, the Panthers have yet to win the first set in any match this season.
The Panthers picked it up in the second set as they usually do, tying the match with a 25-17 victory. Junior
Taija Thomas led the team in kills with three on five attempts, while junior
Jennifer Ene led on defense with three blocks. Ene would go on to post six in the evening.
Thomas ramped up her offense even more in the third set to lead the way for a 25-21 victory, to take a 2-1 lead. Thomas had five kills in the set and hit .364. She would go on to finish the night with a team-leading 13 kills. Redshirt freshman
Lina Bernier came alive in the third set, with four kills on five tries for an .800 attack percentage.
FIU closed out the match on an 8-1 run to take the fourth set, 26-24. Ene led the offense with four kills. Freshman
Helene Thelle also had four kills on the set, hitting .800. Thelle, in her first match in a role other than libero, posted six kills and a .500 hitting percentage.
For the match, junior
Mariana De Paula Silva led the way in assists with 36 and sophomore
Sheila Rojas led the defense with 16 digs.
The Panthers will be back in action tomorrow morning for a matchup against Mercer in the first game of a doubleheader. First serve against the Bears is set for 9:00 a.m. (ET). FIU will later face North Florida at 4:00 p.m. (ET). to wrap up the Best Western Osprey Invite.
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Facebook.com/FIUVolleyball) for all the latest FIU volleyball news. Follow all of FIU's 18 athletic teams on Google (FIU Athletics), Twitter (@FIUAthletics), Facebook (
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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 seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including FIU Arena and Ocean Bank Field at FIU 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/.
