By: Eduardo Almaguer / Staff Writer
Head coach Danijela Tomic gazed across the court before the game and saw a familiar face.
Her former coach and mentor, Van Compton, was now her opponent. While facing her alma mater added an interesting twist to the game for Tomic, she knew where her priorities lie: “When it comes time to play, I want my team to win.”
And win they did.
FIU (13-7, 5-4 SBC) steamrolled through UALR in three straight sets (25-19, 25-14, 25-23) on Oct. 23 in the U.S Century Bank Arena. It marks the first time the team won consecutive matches since Sept. 23-25.
The Panthers brought out their entire arsenal, outscoring UALR (9-15, 4-6 SBC) in kills, assists, blocks, digs and service aces.
Junior outside hitter Jovana Bjelica was the star of the game again, notching 20 kills and a .395 hitting percentage.
“Good players can have one great match, but great players come back and have another great match,” said Tomic. “There’s no other player in our league who plays six rotations and is playing at her level. We asked her to be a leader on the court and she accepted the challenge.”
Setter Jessica Egan tallied 40 assists, freshman Silvia Carli had a career-high seven kills and libero Chanel Araujo had a career-high four service aces to go along with a team-high 17 digs.
Both teams became stingy with points as the first set opened, tying the score an astonishing ten times and never letting the gap grow more than two points.
FIU and UALR traded kills, side outs, serving errors and everything else in the volleyball playbook.
An unusually long, forty-five second rally that ended with a ball skimming off the top of the net onto UALR’s floor seemed to give the Panthers all the momentum they needed.
The Panthers rattled off five straight points to capture the set, 25-19.
FIU wasted no time carrying over the momentum from the first set into the second. The Panthers scored five straight points to make it 5-1 and sent the Trojans into an early timeout. A block by Carli widened the lead to 9-2 as FIU began making it look easy.
The Panthers spun off five straight kills to build the lead to 22-13, which led to the Trojans’ second timeout of the set.
FIU did not let up, scoring two more points before UALR stopped the bleeding, but the damage had been done. Outside hitter Marija Prsa slammed a kill, that the Trojans could not handle, to win the set, 25-14, and lead the match 2-0.
The third set opened up and became another tug of war, as both teams traded blows several times. UALR found an open spot on the Panthers’ side of the net and scored a kill to make it 13-12 in the Trojans’ favor. Tomic decided to reel her team in with a timeout to wake them up.
“I told them they needed to play this set like it’s the fifth set,” said Tomic. “The intensity on our side wasn’t where it needed to be.”
The tussle continued as FIU and UALR tied the score seven times to make it 20-20. Araujo broke the stalemate with her fourth service ace of the game, but the Trojans wasted no time in answering back.
Bjelica slammed a kill to break another tie score to make it 23-22 and send the Trojans to a timeout. With the score 24-23, Egan sent a pass to Prsa, who shot it across the net for the final kill of the game.
The crowd roared in celebration as the team jumped up and down the court.
“Everything kind of went our way,” said senior Sabrina Gonzalez. “We took care of business and did what we needed to do.”
FIU 3, ASU 2
Head coach Danijela Tomic started the match against Arkansas State by benching three of her usual starters.
She wound up losing one of them permanently when the match ended. Sophomore outside hitter Una Trkulja suffered a torn MCL and a dislocated patella in the first set of the match on Oct. 21 against Arkansas State University (16-7, 6-2 SBC). Her ACL may have torn as well.
“She’s definitely out for the season,” said Tomic. “We are not very deep in that position [outside hitter]. Our players now have to know there’s no one to go in for them.”
Though the loss of Trkulja hurts, FIU’s (12-7, 4-4 SBC) dramatic five-set win over ASU softened the blow, (28-26, 20-25, 25-21, 19-25, 16-14). The win snapped ASU’s six-game winning streak.
“This was a tough match, physically, mentally and emotionally,” said Tomic, who notched her 150th career win.
Three Panthers set personal bests in the match. Junior outside hitter Jovana Bjelica exploded with a career-best 31 kills and a .424 hitting percentage.
Setter Jessica Egan nearly doubled her previous career-high 33 kills by posting 60 in this game. Freshman middle blocker Silvia Carli, playing her first full game this season, had a career bests in kills (5) and total blocks (8).
Both teams were extremely stubborn as the first set opened, refusing to allow the other to build a large lead. FIU and ASU traded one-point leads five times in the first 10 minutes of the set.
The Panthers had a slim 24-23 lead in the middle of a rally when Trkulja suddenly crippled to the ground in pain after coming down from an attempted kill. Everyone in the U.S Century Bank Arena fell silent as Trkulja’s whimpers echoed across the Bank. She did not move as the team’s medical staff circled around her.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue arrived at the scene approximately 30 minutes after the injury and wheeled her away in a stretcher 15 minutes later to the sound of applause from the crowd.
“Whenever you have something like that, it’s tough to get back into it,” said Egan.
After the 50-minute delay, they resumed the set and knotted the score at 26. Bjelica then launched two straight rockets over the net and gave her team the win, 28-26, as the crowd roared.
The second set saw the Panthers fall victim to several errors. ASU took a quick 9-4 lead that forced Tomic to call a timeout.
FIU tried mounting a comeback, but the Red Wolves scored the final kill to take the set 25-20 and knot the match 1-1.
After the scoreboard read 1-0 on a Sabrina Gonzalez kill to open the third set, the Panthers did not relinquish the lead for the rest of the set. Carli slammed down a kill, building a five-point lead for FIU, 15-10.
The Panthers managed to keep the Red Wolves at bay and took the third set 25-21. The fourth set did not start well for FIU, as they were quickly in a timeout huddle after a 9-5 deficit.
They were becoming a lot more porous as they allowed four consecutive kills to land on their side of the net. ASU had extended the lead to 17-10. The deficit proved too large for FIU to overcome as they dropped it 25-19.
The final set saw an aggressive tug of war between both teams with the score knotted, 8-8.
ASU rallied back from a 12-8 deficit to knot the score 14-14, but that was be the last point they scored. The crowd erupted as Bjelica smashed kills 30 and 31 for the match win, 16-14.
“This was huge,” said Bjelica after the match. “We needed this to get confidence in our team and ourselves.”
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