FIU Volleyball Team--Lakovic’s Career-High 23 Kills Lead FIU to 3-2 Win Over UL
MIAMI (Nov. 7, 2010) – Junior Andrea Lakovic recorded a career-high 23 kills to lead FIU to a thrilling 3-2 (25-17, 17-25, 24-26, 25-15, 15-10) win over Sun Belt Conference foe Louisiana on Sunday afternoon at the U.S. Century Bank Arena.
With the win, FIU improves to 16-10 (10-4 SBC) while Louisiana falls to 17-13 (7-7 SBC). FIU is now 6-1 at home in 2010 and the Panthers improve to 55-9 when playing on their home court since Head Coach Danijela Tomic took over the reigns of the FIU volleyball squad in 2005. The five-set win pushes FIU’s record to 22-6 in five-set matches played during the Coach Tomic era, and the Panthers are now 4-1 this season in such contests.
The first set saw FIU run out to a 20-13 lead before the Panthers gained another point to make it 21-13. Louisiana would then tally a kill to put the score at 21-14, but FIU got the point back on a kill by Lakovic. The Ragin’ Cajuns retaliated with a pair of points to make it 22-16, and a hard kill from the left side by freshman Una Trkulja would then put the score at 23-16. Louisiana managed a point to make it 23-17 before sophomore Jovana Bjelica slammed down a kill from the left side to put FIU in set-point position at 24-17. Bjelica would then strike again to give FIU a 25-17 set victory and a 1-0 lead for the match.
In the second stanza, Louisiana ran out to a 17-9 lead before redshirt sophomore Renele Forde posted her first career kill to make it 17-10. A violation on the Ragin’ Cajuns would then make it 17-11 and the deficit was cut to 17-12 on a Louisiana attack error, but a Panther service error put the gap back to six at 18-12. Junior Sabrina Gonzalez then tallied a kill up the middle to put the score at 18-13 but Louisiana countered with a score of its own to make it 19-13. The squads traded points to put the score at 20-14 and Lakovic posted a kill to bring FIU to within five at 20-15, but the Ragin’ Cajuns got the point back to put the score at 21-15 before Lakovic tallied a score to make it 21-16.
Following a ULL timeout, the Ragin’ Cajuns extended their lead to 23-16, this time forcing an FIU timeout. Bjelica tallied a kill out of the break to put the score at 23-16 but a ULL tip brought the Ragin’ Cajuns to set-point position at 24-17. A Panther attack error would then end the set as ULL took away a 25-17 set win and brought the match to a tie at 1-1.
The third set saw the Ragin’ Cajuns take an early lead but FIU would not go away, fighting to an 18-18 tie. A Panther attack error gave ULL a 19-18 advantage but FIU got the point back to knot the score at 19-19. A Ragin’ Cajun attack error would then put the Panthers on top, 20-19, before Lakovic and Natalia Valentin combined for a block to push FIU’s advantage to 21-19 and force a ULL timeout.
Out of the break, ULL tallied two straight points to take a 22-21 lead. The Panthers then called a timeout of their own and Lakovic slammed down a pass from Valentin to tie the score at 22-22 following the break. The Ragin’ Cajuns would then take advantage of a pair of FIU errors to get to within set-point position at 24-22, forcing another Panther timeout. Out of the break, Bjelica tallied two straight kills to bring the score to a tie at 24-24 before ULL posted two consecutive scores to take a 26-24 set win and a 2-1 match lead.
In the fourth stanza, FIU took a 20-14 lead and a kill by Gonzalez pushed FIU’s advantage to 21-14 and a double-hit violation on ULL put the score at 22-14. The Panthers tallied another point to make it 23-14 before Gonzalez slammed down a pass from Valentin to put FIU in set-point position at 24-14. A Panther service error put the score at 24-15 but ULL made an error of its own from behind the service line to give FIU a 25-15 set win, knotting the match at 2-2.
The fifth set saw FIU take an 8-6 lead before the changeover on a hard kill by Bjelica from the right side. The squads traded points and a kill up the middle by Lakovic put FIU on top, 10-7, forcing a ULL timeout. Out of the break, the Ragin’ Cajuns tallied a point but a service error put FIU’s lead back to three at 11-8. The teams traded points again to make it 12-9 and a ULL block put the deficit at two at 12-10.
Following a Panther timeout, Trkulja recorded a kill from the left side to put the score at 13-10 before Lakovic and Valentin combined for a block to put FIU in match-point position at 14-10. Lakovic would then tally the final kill, giving the Panthers a 15-10 set win and a 3-2 match victory.
Lakovic’s 23 kills led the Panther offense while Bjelica tied a career-high with 20 kills as she picked up her third double-double of the season, also contributing 11 digs on the day. Valentin posted her 15th double-double of the campaign and fell just one assist shy of a season-high, tallying a team-leading 58 assists and chipping with 11 digs.
Defensively, Araujo tied a career-high with a squad-best 22 digs, while Lakovic posted a team-high seven blocks versus the Ragin’ Cajuns.
Valentin now sits on top of the FIU rally-scoring era (2001-present) career digs charts with 1,070 career digs as she surpassed Yarimar Rosa’s (2007-09) previous rally-scoring era-leading total of 1,053 career digs this weekend. On the all-time career digs list, Valentin now ranks second behind Adriana Fundora’s (2000-03) FIU record 1,326 career digs.
FIU returns to action next weekend when the Panthers close out the 2010 regular season with a pair of SBC matches versus Troy (Friday, Nov. 12 – 4:30 p.m.) and South Alabama (Saturday, Nov. 13 – 6:30 p.m.). Both matches will take place at the U.S. Century Bank Arena, and Saturday night will serve as Senior Night as Valentin and Ines Medved each play their final matches at FIU’s home venue.
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