Volleyball team comes out of Jaguar Invitational with one win

Alex Toledo // Contributing Writer

The women’s volleyball team took part in the Jaguar Invitational in Mobile, Alabama, where they lost to Florida A&M University 1-3 and to South Alabama 0-3 in Day One. The team, however, beat Southeastern Louisiana 3-2 in Day Two and now stands at 2-4 for the season.

To kick off the Jaguar Invitational in Mobile, Alabama, hosted by the University of South Alabama, the Panthers played against the Lady Rattlers of FAMU.

Unfortunately for the Panthers, they lost to FAMU 1-3. The team lost the first set 20-25, put on a dominant performance in the second set winning 25-8, and then losing the final two sets 23-25 and 22-25, respectively.

Senior Katie Hogan accumulated 17 kills on a whopping .593 hitting percentage as well as three assists and four digs. Redshirt freshman Lina Bernier had 10 kills, nine assists and eight digs. Freshman Sophia Sires added 18 assists while freshman Helena Thelle started her collegiate volleyball career with a team-leading 13 digs.

The Panthers lost the second game of Day One of the Jaguar Invitational to host South Alabama 0-3, (20-25, 13-25 and 19-25, respectively). This game was not as close as the first. FIU put up 34 points while South Alabama put up 56. The Panthers had 30 kills and three aces while the Jaguars had 42 kills and 10 aces. Senior Katie Hogan and redshirt Lina Bernier both had eight kills while junior Tajia Thomas contributed seven kills on a .538 hitting percentage. Junior Mariana De Paula Silva added in 15 assists as well.

To finish the Jaguar Invitational, the FIU Panthers faced and defeated the Southeastern Louisiana Lady Lions 3-2 on Saturday morning. FIU won the first set 25-17, lost the second set 20-25, won the third set 25-21, lost the fourth set 21-25 and won the final set 15-11.

Junior Tajia Thomas had 15 kills on a .387 hitting percentage to pair with her seven digs. Once again, senior Katie Hogan and redshirt freshman Lina Bernier finished with the same amount of kills, each with 12. Hogan also had 12 digs and two blocks while Bernier accrued 16 digs and seven assists.

Junior Mariana De Paula Silva put together quite the all-around performance, accumulating an astonishing 41 assists, two blocks, nine digs and two kills.

The Panthers will move forward and prepare for the UNF Invitational from Sept. 9 to Sept. 10, where they will face Nicholls State University, Mercer University and the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.