Bautista Samperi | PantherNOW
The No. 3 seeded Panthers will start their Conference USA Beach Volleyball Tournament against No. 6 Missouri State on Thursday, April 24 at 12:30 p.m. ET.
FIU finished the season with a 12-18 record and lost the last three games of the regular season.
The matchup against Missouri State will mark the second consecutive year that these two teams faced each other to start the conference tournament as FIU swept the Bears 3-0.
Sophomore Katarina Drozd and freshman Brianna Luoma lead FIU for most of the season as they have a team-best 19-10 overall record as a pair.
The pair also have the highest-scoring set in the NCAA this season after they defeated then-No. 1 UCLA 39-37.
Six Panthers appeared in every match this season as Zoe Cahill, Ola Chudzik, Katarina Drozd, Brianna Luoma, Julia Panko, and Sofie Vogel each played in all 30 games.
The Panther are still searching for that first Conference USA championship since joining back in 2022.
Last season FIU lost to the Tulane Green Wave who would be the eventual conference runners-up.
The first round matchup against the Bears will also be a personal one for head coach Terri Del Conte as she played and began her coaching career at Missouri State, where she is still the all-time leader in several of the program’s indoor categories.
If the Panthers are able to beat Missouri State and advance to the semifinals, they would go against the winner of the Tarleton State versus Tulane matchup.
They would meet the winner of that series in the first match of Day 2 at 9:30 a.m. ET.
The winner will advance to the semifinals, scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET on Friday, April 25.
About Post Author
