BOCA RATON, Fla. – (Nov. 21, 2019) – Florida Atlantic University senior middle blocker Zuri Smith has been named Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year. It is the second year in a row that the Owls player has won an individual superlative. Ivone Martinez was named C-USA Setter of the Year last year.
Smith averages 1.59 kills and 1.20 blocks per set while hitting .259 so far this year. She is the team leader in both solo blocks (24) and block assists (76), posted a career-high 10 total blocks against UAB, and has been named C-USA Defensive Player of the Week twice. Her 1.32 blocks per set in C-USA play is second in the league.
FAU will travel to Houston, Texas, for this weekend’s C-USA Tournament as the No. 5 seed and will play fourth-seeded Marshall at 3 p.m. Eastern on Friday, Nov. 22. The contest will air on ESPN+ and links to live stats will be available at fausports.com.
– 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.
