By: Eduardo Almaguer / Staff Writer
Glance at FIU’s box score for the Nov.4 game against University of Louisiana-Monroe and your first assumption is that the Panthers lost.
Star outside hitter Jovana Bjelica, often the catalyst for the Panthers’ offense, had a paltry .086 hitting percentage, one of her lowest marks of the season. The offense managed its fifth-lowest hitting percentage of the season with a .165 mark. The team failed to record a service ace for the first time this season. To cap it off, they notched 17 errors.
Luckily for them, ULM was even worse.
FIU (17-7, 9-4 SBC) overcame numerous mistakes to beat ULM (9-14, 3-10 SBC) in three straight sets (25-17, 25-22, 25-18) to win its sixth straight match. Despite Bjelica’s shortcomings, she was the only player with double-digit kills in the match (12). Setter Jessica Egan, the only bright spot for the team, notched her second career double with 18 assists and 14 digs.
FIU had more kills, digs and blocks than the Warhawks. The Warhawks had the lowest hitting percentage this season for a team facing the Panthers with an abysmal .039 mark to go along with their 25 errors.
As the two teams opened the first set, four of the first five points scored were errors, quickly setting the tone of the match. Both teams were staunch as neither could manage more than a two-point lead until late in the set.
With the Panthers holding a slim, 16-15 lead, senior Sabrina Gonzalez slammed down a kill that completely rattled ULM. The Warhawks choked and committed five consecutive errors to give FIU a commanding 22-15 lead.
The deficit was too much for ULM as they fell to FIU 25-17.
Set two was the opposite of its predecessor. After a string of ULM errors, FIU built a 9-4 lead. A Warhawk kill and a Bjelica error shortened the gap to 12-11 as the Panthers saw their big lead slip away.
Though ULM never took the lead, they continued gnawing at FIU’s ankles, never falling behind more than one point. Egan and Bjelica spun off back-to-back kills to finally widen the gap. Senior Andrea Lakovic slammed down the final kill of the set to take it 25-22.
The Panthers carried over their momentum from the second set into the third as they wasted no time in building a 10-3 lead. ULM later managed to cut it down to a four-point deficit after an error by Gonzalez.
Once again, the Panthers saw their large lead evaporate as the Warhawks tore it down. They constantly found holes on the Panthers’ side of the net, tallying consecutive kills to tip the score to 16-15, still in FIU’s favor.
The Panthers quickly regrouped however, and spun off seven straight points, punctuated by none other than a Warhawk error. The rally was more than enough for the Panthers to shut the door on ULM, eventually taking the set 25-18.
The final point for FIU, another Warkawk error, was the apparent breaking point for ULM head coach Ernest Vasquez, who was handed a yellow card as the match ended, often a caution for misconduct.
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