Nov. 16, 2004

Florida Atlantic University's volleyball team heads into this weekend's Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament in Orlando holding the no. 1 seed. The Owls narrowly missed a perfect conference record by dropping the final A-Sun match of the year. The team could face Jacksonville University in the first round of the tournament.

Holding a 21-6, 9-1 A-Sun record, FAU earns the top seed for the second time in program history. JU handed the Owls their only conference loss on November 6 as FAU came back from two games down to force a fifth game. FAU will get another chance to defeat the Dolphins if JU wins its first match of the tournament at 11 am on Friday. The team would then take on FAU at 4:30 pm with the winner advancing to the championship match on Saturday at 1 pm.

Three teams in the tournament took the Owls to five games. The number two seed Belmont (20-7), advances to the tournament for the first time in program history. The Bruins fell to FAU in five games in Boca Raton. Senior middle blocker Cayse Kaveny had 22 kills, a .409 hitting percentage and a career-high nine blocks in the win.

In the regular season, FAU dropped the first two games to the no. 3 seed Georgia State (13-17) before taking the final three games for the win. Florida Atlantic posted its second highest hitting percentage of the season at .375. The Panthers have knocked FAU out of the tournament two out of the last four years.

No.4 JU (12-12) has closed out the last part of the season with a 12-4 record after getting off to a rough start. The Dolphins trail their opponents in every major statistical category except blocking where they average 2.0 blocks per game compared to their oppoenent's 1.8 blocks per game.

After starting conference play with a 5-0 record the no. 5 seed UCF (8-14) went on a slide to close out A-Sun play with five loses. The Golden Knights took game one from FAU on October 29 but the Owls rebounded to win the final three games in Orlando. UCF knocked Florida Atlantic out of the tournament last season 3-1 in the semi-final round.

Mercer (13-15) is the final team to make the tournament by way of a three-team tie break. The Bears dropped their final two conference games after defeating UCF on October 23 for the first time in program history. Mercer was one of 10 teams that the Owls swept this season.

The winner of the tournament receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. FAU won the tournament in 1998 and 1999 and was the first FAU team to advance to the NCAA Tournament.

The championship match will air tape-delayed on Sunshine Network on Saturday at 11 pm et.

Tournament Schedule
Friday
Match 1: #4 JUvs #5 UCF - 11 am
Match 2: #3 GWU vs #6 Mercer - 7 pm
Match 3: #1 FAU vs winner of match 1 - 4:30 pm
Match 4: #2 Belmont vs winner of match 2 - 7:00 pm

Saturday Championship Match
Winner of match 3 vs winner of match 4