CHARLOTTE, N.C. – (Nov. 16, 2019)–A dramatic rally propelled the Florida Atlantic University volleyball team to a five-set win (25-20, 25-27, 25-21, 25-18, 15-13) over Charlotte on Saturday. The Owls finish the regular season 15-10 and 9-5 in Conference USA.
Key Plays
The first set went back and forth, featuring 11 ties. The final one came at 17-17 after a Cailea Gibbs kill. That began a 9-3 FAU run, capped off by a pair of Massiel Matos kills, that clinched a 25-20 Owls victory.
Charlotte took a 9-5 lead early in set number two before FAU rallied to take a 16-14 advantage. The 49ers fought back to even the score at 18. There were five more ties in the frame before a Matos kill put the Owls a point away from a two sets to none lead. However, Charlotte won the next three points to take the set and even the match.
FAU fell behind early in set three, but took a 10-9 lead off of two Sydney Nemtuda kills. The 49ers answered with an 8-2 run and kept control the rest of the way to go up two sets to one.
Nikki Lakman served FAU out to a 4-0 lead in the fourth set. Charlotte narrowed the lead to two at 9-7, but four different Owls contributed kills during a 9-3 spurt that seized control of the action. FAU eventually won the set 25-18.
The fifth set was even at five, when Charlotte reeled off five unanswered points to take a 10-5 lead. From there, the Owls responded with a massive rally, beginning with a Zuri Smith kill and including three kills and a block assist from Kennedy Muckleroy, that lifted them to an incredible come from behind 15-13 win to take the match
Notables
- Massiel Matos had her first ever 20-20 double-double, collecting a season high 22 kills and career-high 24 digs
- Sydney Nemtuda just missed a 20-20 double-double of her own, with 19 kills and a career best 22 digs
- Nikki Lakman also notched a double-double, setting career highs in both assists (75) and digs (19)
- Zuri Smith’s 13 kills were her most in an FAU uniform and she added five block assists
- Cailea Gibbs posted 13 kills and a solo block
- FAU had lost five five-set matches in a row prior to Saturday’s match.
What’s Next
FAU will head to the Conference USA Tournament as the No. 5 seed and will play fourth-seeded Marshall at 3 p.m. Eastern on Friday, Nov. 22. The match will be streamed on ESPN+.
– FAUSports.com –
Florida Atlantic University Athletics:
FAU Athletics is comprised of 21 intercollegiate teams involving 450 student-athletes that compete in baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor and outdoor track, volleyball, beach volleyball, cheer and dance. The Owls are a NCAA Division I-A (FBS) institution and compete in Conference USA and the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA) (beach volleyball, men’s swimming). The Owls have been playing football since 2001 and are a perfect 3-0 in bowl games, the most recent being a 50-3 victory over Akron in the 2017 Cheribundi Tart Cherry Boca Raton Bowl. The dance team finished its 2014 season No. 8, nationally. FAU cheer won a national championship in 2016.
About Florida Atlantic University:
Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University, with an annual economic impact of $6.3 billion, serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students at sites throughout its six county service region in southeast Florida. FAU’s world-class teaching and research faculty serves students through 10 colleges: the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, the College of Business, the College for Design and Social Inquiry, the College of Education, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the Graduate College, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. FAU is ranked as a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The University is placing special focus on the rapid development of critical areas that form the basis of its strategic plan: Healthy aging, biotech, coastal and marine issues, neuroscience, regenerative medicine, informatics, lifespan and the environment. These areas provide opportunities for faculty and students to build upon FAU’s existing strengths in research and scholarship. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.
