The FAU Women’s Volleyball season got off to a rough start this past weekend, as the Owls lost all three of their games in the Sunshine State Challenge.

The Owls first faced off against Florida Gulf Coast, whom they fell to in three straight sets. The Eagles closed out the back-and-forth first set strong, scoring four unanswered points in a 25-20 win. They followed that performance up with a pair of 26-24 wins to complete a sweep of the Owls. Middle blocker Cailea Gibbs had a career high 11 kills in FAU’s losing effort. Her teammate Libero Alex Cardona also had a strong showing, leading both teams with 13 digs.

FAU was sluggish at the start of its second game as well, losing the first two sets against Miami. They were able to avoid a sweep however, as they rattled off seven points in a row to win the third set after being down 22-18. Despite the comeback effort, FAU was unable to force a decisive game five. There were 10 ties and 20 lead changes in a competitive fourth set, but the Hurricanes eventually pulled out a 31-29 victory.

Six kills each from Massiel Matos and Sigourney Kame weren’t enough in FAU’s final game of the weekend. Their team was swept once again, this time to UCF.

The Owls host the FAU Invitational tournament this weekend, with their next chance to get in the win column being a matchup against the St. Peter’s Peacocks, game time set for Friday at noon.

Matt Brown is a staff writer with the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @mattyb407.