Volleyball Takes a Pair at the Owls Classic

Friday, September 13

Boca Raton, Fla.

12:00 p.m.

Florida Atlantic

4-2

Southern Utah

5-2

SUU

FAU

Photo by: JC Ridley/Owlpix.com

9/13/2019 10:21:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

BOCA RATON, Fla. - The Florida Atlantic University volleyball team won both of its matches at the Owls Classic on Friday. FAU swept Southern Utah (25-21, 25-16, 25-18) and beat Boston College in four sets (21-25, 25-23, 25-22, 27-25). The Owls improved to 5-2 on the season and extended their home winning streak to 19.

Match 1 vs. Southern Utah
Key Plays
The score was tied 8-8 in the first set when the Owls went on a 6-2 rally to build a modest 14-10 lead. SUU fought back to within one at 22-21 but didn't get any closer as FAU won the last three points of the frame when Sigourney Kame, Cailea Gibbs and Jordan Yauch all tallied kills.

FAU got out to a fast start in set number two and maintained control the entire way, bolstered by four service aces by Massiel Matos to take the second set 25-16.

Set number three was competitive through the early going. Back-to-back tandem blocks by Zuri Smith and Jordan Yauch extended the FAU lead to 11-7. The margin grew to seven, and Smith's eighth kill of the afternoon ended the match.

Notables

Sydney Nemtuda led the Owls with 11 kills and added nine digs, falling just short of a double-double
Sigourney Kame finished with nine kills and hit .500 in the contest
Zuri Smith posted eight kills and five total blocks
FAU outhit the Thunderbirds .316 to .183

Match 2 vs. Boston College
Key Plays
BC got out to a 7-1 lead in the first set, and although FAU was able to pull to within two points, four straight Eagle points helped put to rest any hopes of any Owls' comeback, winning 25-21.

The second set was back-and-forth throughout the frame. BC had a 14-10 advantage, but a 6-2 FAU spurt evened the score at 16. There were four more ties in the frame, the last one at 20-20. Two Sigourney Kame kills and two Eagle errors helped the Owls take a 24-21 lead. BC fought off the first two set points, but a Jordan Yauch kill evened the match at one set each.

The third set was even more tightly contested, with neither team leading by more than two points until late in the frame. The two sides found themselves knotted at 22-22 before another Yauch kill and two more BC errors put the Owls up two sets to one with a 25-22 triumph.

Strong serving proved to be the story in the fourth set, as Camryn Vogler and Stephanie Young both had extended service runs that helped FAU build a 9-3 lead. The Owls were able to hold the Eagles off for most of the set, until a 6-0 BC rally put FAU behind 22-20. Massiel Matos then stepped up with back-to-back kills and served the Owls back to a 23-22 edge. The Eagles won the next two points and were one point away from forcing a fifth set, but another attack error made the score 24-24. After an exchange of errors, Matos' 16^th kill of the night and a block by Cailea Gibbs and Sydney Nemtuda sealed the win for FAU.

Notables

The match featured a grand total of 35 ties and 19 lead changes
Massiel Matos led FAU with 16 kills and added nine digs and two service aces
Jordan Yauch and Sigourney Kame each posted 13 kills. Kame added four block assists.
Sydney Nemtuda had eight kills to go along with a career-high 22 digs
Cailea Gibbs tallied nine kills and five total blocks, hitting .667 in the match
Nikki Lakman registered 29 assists and eight digs, while Stephanie Young finished with 24 assists and eight digs
Defense once again was the key for FAU, as the Owls outdug BC 64-60 and outblocked the Eagles 11-7

Quotable
Senior Jordan Yauch
"I thought (Boston College) was a huge win for us. We all played together as a team and fought really hard and came back in that fourth set and got the job done."

Upcoming
The Owls will host Bethune-Cookman in the final match of the tournament at noon on Saturday. Live stats and live video will be available at fausports.com and live updates will be available through the team's official Twitter account, @FAUVolleyball.