Three players record career-highs in FIU road loss at Louisiana

Photo by Sergio Nasser

Photo by Sergio Nasser

By: Eduardo Almaguer / Staff Writer

Danijela Tomic, head coach of the Panthers’ volleyball team, has often said that if her team is going to lose, it had better be in five sets.

Well, her team met the criterion when they lost in five sets to University of Louisiana on Nov. 6. The problem, however, is that this loss was to a team that was 4-9 in Sun Belt Conference play. FIU was already ahead 2-0 before its complete collapse and it had heartbreak written all over.

The Panthers (17-8, 9-5 SBC) lost all the momentum they picked up after a tremendous first-set comeback to lose to the Ragin’ Cajuns (13-17, 5-9 SBC) in five sets, (26-24, 25-16, 27-29, 21-25, 11-15). The loss snapped FIU’s six-game winning streak. It was also the first time the team lost when leading 2-0 this season.

The Panthers tallied 28 errors, the most since Sept. 2 against Auburn, which ironically was the last time they lost a five-set match.

Though three Panthers notched double doubles, only one, senior Sabrina Gonzalez, had a hitting percentage above .231. Junior Jovana Bjelica had 28 kills and 21 digs, setter Jessica Egan had 60 assists and 11 digs, and Marija Prsa had 16 kills and 19 digs.

The Ragin’ Cajuns punished the Panthers to the tune of a 9-1 lead to open the first set. FIU was behind for the majority of the set, albeit cutting the deficit ever so slowly. Gonzalez managed to close the gap to five points, 21-16, with her first kill of the game.

Prsa committed an error to give back the point to UL, but FIU was about to complete a tremendous comeback. With the help of some sloppy Cajun plays, the Panthers roared back to tie the game 22-22. UL spun off two straight points, but two kills by Bjelica tied it again.

UL choked and committed two straight errors to give FIU a huge first-set win. Judging by the finish of the set, one would think there was no way FIU could lose the match.

It was a close affair in the second set until back-to-back kills by Prsa launched FIU to a healthy 18-10 lead. The Cajuns tried to fight back, but the Panthers answered every opposition kill with two of their own. Bjelica and middle blocker Silvia Carli slammed down two kills to win the second set 25-15.

The Panthers, clearly benefitting from the momentum behind them, claimed another big lead when they saw themselves jump to a 20-14 lead in the third set.

Then came the collapse.

The Cajuns scored six consecutive points to tie the match and sent FIU scrambling to a timeout. Out of the break, the match became an anxious tug of war, as both teams sent the set into extra points. Starting from 23-23, the teams tied five times. With the score 27-27, UL broke through with a kill and an FIU error to capture the third set.

The Panthers were still dazed from having the rug pulled from under them when the fourth set began. FIU was never able to build a lead in the set, often falling victim to errors on their side of the net. Though FIU did not fall behind by more than five points in the entire set, they could not mount any momentum either, eventually losing 25-21.

As the pivotal fifth set opened, Egan fed a pass to Gonzalez that she proceeded to slam down for the first point of the game. Unfortunately for FIU, that was the only lead they would have.  UL quickly grabbed a lead on a Panther error and never looked back, eventually capping their dramatic comeback with a 15-11 win.

Be the first to comment on "Three players record career-highs in FIU road loss at Louisiana"

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published.


*