Owls Win A-Sun Championship

Saturday, November 19

Nashville, Tenn.

2:00 PM

Florida Atlantic

Belmont

11/19/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

Nov. 19, 2005

Final Stats

In Florida Atlantic University's last season in the Atlantic Sun Conference, the Owls captured the tournament championship with a 3-1 win over Belmont University. The team receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with the win.

Kelly Paiva was named the Tournament MVP after posting 31 kills in the championship match. It was the sixth time this season the senior has posted over 30 kills in a match. Freshman Katie Arvidson (Franklin, TN) added 14 kills in 26 attempts for a .500 hitting percentage and four blocks in her first conference tournament. She earned All-Tournament Team recognition for her efforts.

Casey LaRocca also earned tournament recognition by posting 61 assists and adding seven digs and three kills.

The two teams were evenly matched in game one with an 18-18 tie. FAU took the lead on a back row kill from Paiva, the Atlantic Sun Player of the Year and forced Belmont to call its first timeout of the match.

The two teams traded points with the match tied at 24. The Bruins went on a 6-3 run to close out the match on an FAU ball handling error to take an early 1-0 advantage.

"Belmont played great last night and played very well the first game today," said head coach Jody Brown. "We served a little soft to them and they were in system. "Whenever Belmont is in system they are very hard to stop. We told the girls that we were doing everything else very well we just needed to start serving toughter."

With game two tied at 22, Paiva provided the Owls a two point lead with a kill and a service ace. After a BU timeout, Janelle Sarauw then gave FAU the next two points on a kill and a block for the 26-23 lead. Sarauw added another kill in the run and Paiva closed out the game at 30-26 with a kill from the outside to tie the match at 1-1.

Aggressive serving and six service aces in game three provided FAU with a quick 30-17 game three win. FAU went on a nine-point run with Dimitra Samas serving. Samas finished with three service aces, one shy of LaRocca's match high four.

The Owls trailed early in game four before tying the score at six and taking the lead on a Paiva kill. FAU did not trail the rest of the game as the squad won the program's third tournament title, the first since 1999.

It was FAU's fourth trip to the championship match of the conference tournament and the Owls hold a 3-1 record when advancing to the final round.

Makra Condill finished with 19 digs for FAU, while BU's Ashley Collier posted 26 for the Bruins. All-Tournament Team selection Lindsay Cleveland led Belmont with 19 kills.

Belmont played in its second consecutive championship match and finished as the runner-up in as many trips.

On Nov. 27, FAU will find out its fate for the NCAA Tournament on the NCAA's selection show.