The new year has already brought some success to Panther Nation as the Winter sports are still competing strong. Women’s Swimming & Diving, Women’s Basketball and Men’s Basketball have all had several competitions since the beginning of the 2014.
Women’s Basketball working with what they have
News broke last week that junior center Marita Davydova, who was arguably the second best player on the team behind senior point guard Jerica Coley, will be out for the entirety of the 2013-2014 basketball season. She only played in one exhibition game before the season.
Even without Davydova the women are 1-1 in Conference USA play as of Jan. 13 and 2-1 overall since the beginning of the calendar year. This brings their overall record to 7-8. The single conference loss came in the C-USA opener against Rice University.
In that Rice game, Coley became FIU’s all-time leading scorer. As of Jan. 13, Coley has scored 2,561 points.
The women next take the court tonight, Jan. 15, against rival Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.
Swimming & Diving splashes to victories in 2014
The only sport that is based on the Biscayne Bay Campus is the Women’s Swimming & Diving team. With two second place finishes and a first place finish to start off the year, the remainder of the season looks to end strong.
The second place finishes were in the Orange Bowl Classic in Key Largo on Jan. 3 and the FIU Invite the following day back in Miami. The first place finish came on Jan. 11 in the Senior Day contest against Central Connecticut State University.
There were six seniors who took their final competitive swim in the pool at BBC. They were Sabrina Beaupre, Mary Boucher, Sarah D’Antoni, Melissa Moreno, Sonia Perez Arau and Valeriia Popova.
The women will take to the water against the Eagles of Florida Gulf Coast University on Jan. 25 in Fort Myers, Fla.
Men almost to 10 win season
The men’s basketball team posts a 1-2 record in the new year. That win however, came in the first C-USA game against the Owls of Rice. The losses on the other hand, handed out in a 93-88 overtime loss to the Rattlers of Florida A&M University and a beat down from Louisiana Tech University as the Bulldogs beat the Panthers with a score of 85-51.
The Panthers are all about streaking this season as there are two distinct streaks of outcomes. The first was a six game win streak that included wins over teams in the final games of the KSU Tournament, three other Florida-based universities and Texas Southern University.
However, there was also a three-game losing streak which included losses to The University of Louisville Cardinals and Georgetown University. The final loss of that streak was the game against the Rattlers directly before conference play began.
This record comes along with a key factor missing in guard Raymond Taylor being officially ineligible.
The Panthers start a three-game homestand with a matchup against C-USA foe in Old Dominion University on Jan. 16.
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