Florida Atlantic University Athletics
Florida Atlantic
16-9, 8-5
North Texas
16-12, 8-5
Volleyball Withstands North Texas Rally, Wins in Five
11/6/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
BOCA RATON, Fla. - The Florida Atlantic University volleyball team held off a furious rally to defeat North Texas in five sets (25-21, 25-17, 19-25, 20-25, 16-14) on Friday night. The win snapped a three-match losing streak for the Owls. The match was a defensive minded one with the two teams combining for 181 digs.
FAU (16-9, 8-5) won the fifth set by more than doubling up the Mean Green (16-12, 8-5) in the final set .207 to .100. Overall in the match, four Owls posted double-digit kills, led by 19 from Kristina Rankovic. Gabrielle Dixon had a .455 attack percentage thanks to a career high 11 kills and just one error on 22 attempts.
Genesis Viera posted a season-high 34 assists to set up a FAU offense that hit .217 overall in the match. The Owls held North Texas to a .186 attack percentage, thanks in large part to a match-high 23 digs from Nathalie Rosado.
Three other Owls also posted double-digit digs including Raveen Golston (18), Viera (15) and Rankovic who had a double-double with 18 digs. Brittney Brown led the way with five blocks for the Owls while Gabriela Martin, Dixon and Abbi Reid each had three.
The Owls started off strong defensively, holding North Texas to .178 and .043 hitting percentages in the first two sets, respectively. FAU got off to a slow start out of the intermission, falling behind 18-12 in the third set. The Owls managed to trim the deficit to three, but ultimately dropped the frame 25-19.
Set number four was tight throughout. The 10th and final tie of the set came at 20, before North Texas scored five straight points to force a fifth set. Trailing 8-6 in the fifth set, FAU rallied to take an 11-10 lead. The Mean Green scored the next three points to go ahead 13-11, but the Owls responded with a 3-0 run of their own to take a 14-13 lead. North Texas tied the match at 14, but a Brown kill and Mean Green attack error sealed the dramatic with for FAU.
The Owls host WKU at noon on Sunday in their final home match of the season. Sunday is Senior Day and FAU will recognize its seniors prior to the match. Live stats and live video of the match will be available at fausports.com. In-game updates will also be available at twitter.com/FAUVolleyball.
