Although their 5-8 overall record doesn’t show it, the Lady Owls are a talented team. The fact that they can present a challenge to a few of the better Div-I A volleyball teams is evidence of that.

For example, take weekend of Sept. 13 and 14 opponents Minnesota, Eastern Washington, Xavier, and Georgia Southern. The Lady Owls have to be more consistent and remember to play within their system. Their Head Coach, Jody Brown, talked about this after the Marriot Boca Bash Tournament, which took place at the FAU Gymnasium.

“Right now, we just have players that are playing in peaks and valleys and we’ve just got to get those players to play within the parameters of our system,” said Coach Brown. The Lady Owls also can’t get carried away with their emotions.

“You want that emotion to help push you through when you’re tired, but you don’t want that emotion to overcompensate for technique,” Coach Brown said.

Florida Atlantic still needs to remember to let emotion carry them when they’re tired though. In the Boca Bash Tournament they almost beat Georgia Southern. In the fourth game of that match,

The Owls were up two games to one and they had a great shot to win. They came out flat though, losing that game 30-18. They couldn’t come back in the fifth game and they lost the match.

Part of the problem is that the Lady Owls are a young team, especially when you consider that there are six freshmen on the team. A couple of them have been making an impact, however. Defensive specialist Lauren McHugh was actually named FAU’s MVP of the “Boca Bash.”

According to her head coach, “She passed wonderfully. [She played] great defense all weekend, [and she has a] great mentality.”

Freshmen, Iana Andonova and Makra Condill have also made an impact. Andonova, a middle blocker, is third on the team with 91 kills. Condill is a defensive specialist and she leads the team with 99 digs.

Junior outside hitter Abby Miner believes the freshmen on the team are coming along.

“The younger girls seem to be holding their own pretty well. They’re playing tough,” said Miner. She is also a freshman in a sense. She transferred down to Florida Atlantic this year from conference-rival Samford.

“When you have a junior that comes in, even though she’s a junior, she’s still a freshman to our system.” Coach Brown said making not that she has recorded hitting percentages in the .500’s and negative hitting percentages in some matches.

“I think once Abby finally gets her rhythm, she’s going to be really hard to stop,” said Coach Brown. Like he said, his players are going through peaks and valleys. They’ve competed with some good teams. Even though they lost several of those matches, Coach Brown isn’t worried.

“We’re a team that typically builds character very well from losing,” he said.

The Head Coach knows what he has to do to make his team better. “Once we get everything solidified with our offense, where we want to be and all that stuff, we’re going to be solid,” Brown said.

As we go to print, FAU lost the Boca Bash Tournament to Xavier. They went 2-2 in the tournament, beating Stetson and Bethune-Cookman, and posting two tough losses to Georgia Southern and Xavier.

There are a couple of Lady Owls who have done very well so far. Abby Miner leads the team with 150 kills and 3.66 kills per game.

Miner is also second on the team with a .225 hitting percentage, but the leader in hitting percentage is middle blocker Jessica Kahn, at .258.

Setter Jeana Boyle, who coach Brown says uses her emotions to be a better player, leads the team with 432 assists.

The Lady Owls will get a chance to see how they fare in their Atlantic Sun Conference, starting on Sept. 27, when they take on Samford.