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HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – FIU held UTSA volleyball to its third-lowest hitting percentage to post a three-set win (19-25, 16-25, 21-25) over the Roadrunners in the Conference USA Quarterfinals, hosted by Marshall on Friday night at the Cam Henderson Center.
UTSA (19-8) fell behind early in the first set and allowed a middle-set run in the second to FIU (18-11), as the Panthers took a commanding lead. The Roadrunners hit .114 in the first set and .125 in the second, finishing the match with a .129 hitting percentage, its third-lowest figure of the year.
Hannah Lopez led the UTSA offense with her 15th match of 2018 with double-figure kills, hitting .375 with 12 kills in 25 swings. UTSA also got seven kills from Hannah Froeschl and six from Brianna McCulloch. Kara Teal added five kills and three aces. Amanda Gonzales, a native of New Braunfels, Texas, led the team with 26 assists. Shelby Williams, a senior libero out of New Braunfels, Texas, had a team-high 12 digs.
FIU advanced to the C-USA Semifinals on Saturday, facing Southern Miss at 1:30 p.m. CT in the semifinals of the C-USA Championships. USM took down WKU in five sets in the quarterfinals.
FIU opened the match with the first three points before UTSA roared back to cut the lead to 9-6 after a Roadrunner timeout. UTSA then notched an ace from Teal and a kill from Lopez to cut the lead to 10-9. After a Froeschl kill cut the lead to 11-10, FIU took five straight points for a 16-10 lead. A pair of strong services from Williams cut the lead to 17-12 and forced the first timeout of the match from the Panthers. After the timeout, UTSA saw FIU take a 22-15 lead before kills from McCulloch and a pair of Lopez cut the lead to 23-18. FIU was able to finish off the win, 25-19.
After FIU opened the scoring the teams traded the first eight points before UTSA took its first lead of the day at 5-4. The teams kept swapping points, with UTSA getting big swings from Lopez, Froeschl and Teal to take an 8-7 lead. Lopez gave UTSA its largest lead with her fifth kill to make it 11-9 but FIU took two straight to even it at 11. The next two points came via kills from Froeschl, including a monster smash to even it at 13. After FIU was the first to 15, McCulloch's fourth termination evened it up. FIU notched three consecutive points to take an 18-15 lead and force the first timeout of the match from Coach Laura Neugebauer-Groff. FIU was able to notch seven of the next eight points to earn the 25-16 win.
FIU opened the set with five straight points, all on errors. Froeschl then got UTSA on the board after a timeout and Kenedi Rutherford and Teal teamed up for a block. Rutherford struck again for her first kill to cut the lead to 6-3. FIU built a lead and a 4-0 lead forced a UTSA timeout, trailing 12-4. UTSA notched the next three points, including an ace from Teal and a middle of the net smash from Froeschl. Lopez's sixth kill snapped a 2-0 skid and put the Runners down six. Lopez and Froeschl then teamed on a block to cut the lead to 14-9. Lopez cut it to 15-10 with her seventh termination and Emily Ramirez followed by painting an ace inside the line. FIU was able to build its lead to 21-13. The Runners rallied to cut the lead to 22-18 and were able to narrow it to 24-21 before falling to the Panthers.
- UTSA -
