Volleyball Sweeps Away Miners

Friday, October 12

El Paso, Texas

8:00 p.m. ET

Florida Atlantic

15-4, 5-1

UTEP

3-15, 0-6

Florida Atlantic

UTEP

Photo by: JC Ridley/Owlpix.com

10/12/2018 10:31:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

EL PASO, Texas - Five different Owls registered at least six kills with Massiel Matos recording a match-high 13 as the Florida Atlantic University volleyball team took down UTEP in straight sets (25-21, 25-7, 25-23) on Friday night. With the win, FAU improved to 15-4 overall and 5-1 in Conference USA action. UTEP dropped to 3-15 and 0-6 on the year with the loss.

Key Plays
Abbi Reid helped the Owls build a 5-1 first set lead with her strong serving. The Miners steadily crept their way back into the game, eventually tying the score at 9-9. FAU responded with three straight points and from there, the set fell into a pattern of the Owls building a modest lead, followed by UTEP narrowing the gap. A FAU setting error allowed the Miners to get to within a point at 21-20, but the Owls closed on a 4-1 run to take the win.

FAU maintained that momentum at the start of the second set, going up 11-1 behind another impressive Reid serving run. The lead never fell below eight and the Owls once again finished with a flourish, scoring 12 of the final 14 points to go up two sets to none.

UTEP had its strongest start of the night in set number three, and FAU trailed the hosts by a 14-6 score. After an exchange of 3-0 runs, the Owls found themselves down 17-9. At that point, FAU strung together 10 unanswered points to take a 19-17 advantage. The Miners refused to go quietly, pulling to within a point on five different occasions, before a Reid kill ended the set and the match.

Notables

Massiel Matos recorded her team high eighth double-double of the season with 13 kills and 13 digs, to lead all players in both categories.
Ivone Martinez came up just shy of a double-double herself with 35 assists and eight digs.
Martinez also added a career high six block assists.
Those 35 assists allowed Martinez to pass Heather Chandler for third place on the FAU career list, Martinez has 3,020 helper as an Owl.
Abbi Reid had eight kills, three digs, two block assists and a service ace. Reid is now seventh in school history with 221 career block assists, passing Gracie Heim.
Sigourney Kame notched eight kills and three total blocks of her own.
Cailea Gibbs collected seven kills and seven total blocks.
Sydney Nemtuda chipped in six kills and four digs.

Up Next
The Owls will face UTSA on Sunday in a meeting of the two teams currently tied for second place in the conference. Match time is set for 2 p.m. Eastern. Live stats and live video will be available at FAUSports.com.