Oct. 31, 2006

This week Florida Atlantic University's volleyball team will play its final non-conference match of the season on Wednesday before facing off against local rival Florida International on Friday night in Miami. The Owls are coming off of a big win last weekend with a sweep of Middle Tennessee, the no. 2 team in the Sun Belt Conference.

On Wednesday night, faculty and staff receive $1 admission with an Owl Card to watch FAU host UCF at 7 p.m. The Owls enter the week with an 8-16, 5-9 SBC record and are led by Justine Petry with a .290 hitting percentage and 1.12 blocks per game. The junior middle blocker has 208 kills on the year and has won Conference Player of the Week honors twice.

Casey LaRocca leads the team with 946 assists, while Nikki Hartman has tallied a team-leading 288 digs.

UCF enters the match on an 11-match losing streak. In their last seven matches the Golden Knights have been swept by Conference USA opponents. The team holds a .152 hitting percentage and is led by Maina Heming's .231 hitting percentage.

The team averages 2.01 services aces per game and has three players with over 20 aces, while the defense is well rounded with six players listed with over 100 digs.

On Friday night, FAU will travel to Florida International (19-7, 11-3 SBC) for the second meeting with the Golden Panthers this season. In a meeting on October 3, FIU took the match 3-1. The team had a big win over the weekend as it swept the no. 1 team in the conference, Western Kentucky, on Friday night.

Outside hitter Yarimar Rosa leads the conference with 5.34 kills per game as the team averages 16.40 kill per game to lead the Sun Belt. FIU also leads the league with a .269 hitting percentage and 15.07 assists per game.

Fan can follow live game action for Wednesday's night match by clicking on the All Access button at www.fausports.com