Volleyball falls to WKU in SBC Championship semifinals

The women of volleyball end the season with an overall record of 20-11. The team has reached the 20-win plateau for seven-consecutive seasons now.

The Panthers end the 2011 campaign with a record of 20-10. Photo courtesy of Samuel Lewis/Richard Lewis

The Panthers fell 3-0 to Western Kentucky in the 2011 Sun Belt Conference Championship semifinals at U.S. Century Bank Arena on Nov. 18. As the tournament’s No. 4 seed, FIU defeated No. 5 seed Denver, 3-1, in the quarterfinals the previous evening. The tournament semifinal appearance marked the sixth-straight for FIU.

Senior Andrea Lakovic was named to the 2011 Sun Belt Conference Championship All-Tournament squad at the conclusion. Lakovic amassed 1,005 kills in her Panther career to rank fifth in FIU’s rally-scoring era record books. She is just the fifth player in program history to reach the 1,000-kill plateau.

Prior to conference play, junior Jovana Bjelica was named to the All-Sun Belt Conference First Team. The first-team honor marks the first of its kind for Bjelica. She was named to the All-SBC Second Team while being honored as SBC Freshman of the Year in 2009. A four-time SBC Player of the Week  and three-time CVU.com Top Performer of the Week in 2011, Bjelica owns a career kills-per-set mark of 4.08, which ranks third on the FIU rally-scoring era (2001-present) charts.