UNDER THE BANNER
What's Going On In and Around Black College Sports
LADY RATTLERS GET BIG WIN: The Florida A&M Lady Rattler volleyball team stunned second-
ranked Nebraska, 3-1
Friday en route to the championship of the First National
Bank/Arby's Classic at the Nebraska University Coliseum. Coach
Tony Trifonov's crew, disappointed at their 1-2 showing in the
Michigan State Invitational a week ago, after coming into the 2004
season ranked in the Top 40 nationally, swept their Saturday
match against Maryland, 3-0, and won 3-1 Sunday over Ball State.
In Friday's upset, the Lady Rattlers knocked off Nebraska, 30-25 led by
Andreina Ruiz's 15 kills and 16 digs. Adriana
Kostadinova had 14 kills and 23 digs, while senior setter
Mariela Portocarrero had 43 assists and 18 digs. Friday's win made FAMU the
first unranked team since Nebraska-Omaha in 1986 to
bounce the Huskers at home, and the first unranked
non-conference team to beat Nebraska since 1996. The win over
Nebraska was Florida A&M's first over a nationally-ranked
opponent since 2002, when they bounced Louisville, 3-2 in the
second round of the Georgia Tech Invitational. Last season,
the Lady Rattlers pushed nationally-ranked Stanford and
Colorado State to five games in a two-day span in the
CSU Invitational, then capped off the year with a
first-ever opening round NCAA tournament win (3-0 over
Winthrop (S.C.) University).
© 2004 Azeez Communications, Inc.