MIAMI - Riding their longest winning streak of the season, NM State has their eyes on the No. 2 seed in next week's CUSA Tournament. With some assistance from WKU, the Aggies can land the second-best seed in the conference tournament that begins on Friday, Nov. 17 in Lynchburg, Va. If the Hilltoppers win both of their contests against Middle Tennessee, and the Aggies take care of both matches against FIU, Mike Jordan will lead his squad into their first postseason in CUSA with the second-best mark in the league.
NM State is coming off a 2-0 weekend as part of a 3-0 week. After taking down Chicago State in a Monday sweep, they stayed at home to battle with Sam Houston. The Bearkats put up a fight in both matches, but ultimately fell in five sets each time. NM State is now riding their second four-match winning streak of 2023, sitting at 9-5 in CUSA and 17-9 overall. They now turn to FIU, who is right on their heels in the CUSA standings. The Panthers most recently dropped all six sets against top-seeded WKU, falling to 8-6 in CUSA play and 12-16 on the season.
Match 1 - Friday, Nov. 10 at 4:00 PM MT (6:00 PM ET)
Match 2 - Saturday, Nov. 11 at 11:00 AM MT (1:00 PM ET)
Scouting the Panthers
FIU is under the direction of Head Coach Cristina Robertson in her second season. The team finished with an 8-21 record a year ago, placing seventh in CUSA with a 5-9 record. Robertson has a combined record of 20-37 in her two seasons with FIU, and a 64-88 career record as head coach.
Jade Sadeiko leads the Panthers in nearly every offensive statistic. The Estonian senior has started all 28 matches and 100 sets, pacing the team with 303 kills, 3.03 kills per set, 714 attacks, and 354.5 points and 3.55 points per set.
The offense is nearly exclusively captained by Savannah Cook. In her first season with the Panthers, Cook has easily taken command. Averaging 9.55 assists per set, the sophomore has posted 707 on the season, exactly 500 more than the next Panther on the list; Gianna Tagoa'i with 207.
Travel Morris provides solid production from the middle blocker position for FIU. The 6'2" senior has posted four or more total blocks in 14 matches this season, averaging 0.98 blocks per set. Morris rounds out her production with 1.55 kills per set and a hitting percentage of .245.
Among CUSA teams, FIU ranks sixth or seventh in nearly every major statistic. The Panthers are sixth in points per set, team hitting percentage, assists per set, kills per set, aces per set, opponent aces per set and digs per set. They also stack up as the seventh-best league team in opponent hitting percentage, opponent assists per set, opponent kills per set and opponent blocks per set.
NM State is poised for success, but will need to correct errors that nearly cost them against Sam Houston. The Bearkats, despite sitting at 1-15 in conference play, took the Aggies to a fifth set in both matches a week ago. In particular, 16 service errors in Saturday's match was the second most this season. The majority came in the first two sets, both of which went to the Bearkats, nearly putting the Aggies in a hole too deep to get out of.
The team overcame the errors with a sheer number of kills, posting 121 between the two matches, the most this season. They averaged a .267 hitting percentage for the weekend, and totaled 156 points.
How to Follow
Both matches will be streamed live on ESPN+, and available to follow live via StatBroadcast. Each of those links are attached to this page, and can be found at nmstatesports.com.
For complete coverage of NM State Volleyball, follow us on Twitter (@NMStateVBall), Instagram (@NMStateVBall) and like us on Facebook (NM State Volleyball). You can also follow along with Aggie Volleyball via NMStateSports.com.
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