FIU (28-6) takes on No. 22 Colorado State (22-6) in the first round of the NCAA Volleyball Championships on Friday, Dec. 5 at 5 p.m. in Gainesville, Fla.
It is the second time FIU volleyball has made the NCAA’s. In 2001, the Golden Panthers went to Gainesville and beat UCF before losing to Florida. This year is set up similar with the No. 11 Florida and Florida A&M winner set to take on the winner of FIU and Colorado State.
“It’s a thrilling feeling because I feel like we earned the right to be selected among the 64 teams,” said FIU head coach Danijela Tomic on being selected.
Colorado State is making their 14th straight NCAA appearance and poses a threat in middle blocker Mekana Barnes who leads the Rams with 3.38 kills per set. CSU started off the season winning 16 of their first 17 matches including a sweep of Florida. However, the Rams have lost their last three matches and have a road record of 7-5 despite being undefeated at home (14-0).
“They are a very good team who’s been ranked in the top 25 the whole season and have an established program,” said Tomic. “I go into every match believing we can win. I told the team the same thing, we are not happy to just be in Gainesville, we are going there to win.”
FIU is coming off a sweep of South Florida for their 15th 3-0 match of the season. They have a record of 10-2 in road matches this season. Junior Yarimar Rosa broke the school record for most kills in a season (635) in the win over the Bulls and she continues to lead the nation in kills per set (5.20).
Even though this is Tomic’s first NCAA appearance as a head coach, it is not her first go-around at the NCAA’s. She appeared in the 1996 championships as a player with Arkansas-Little Rock and three times as an assistant with the Trojan program. One of her appearances was in Gainesville.
“It’s a fun atmosphere,” said Tomic. “They have a great volleyball fan base and the O’Connell Center is beautiful. They always do a great job of hosting the event. It’s a great experience for our players to be in that kind of atmosphere.”
Andrew Julian and Jonathan Alpert of Panther Sports Talk will broadcast the FIU matches live on FIUSM.com.
Live stats are available on NCAA.com.
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