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FIU Has Georgia On Its Mind: Golden Panthers to Face Emory in Southeast Division Championship First Round
BRIDGEPORT, PA -- Florida International University wasted little time in putting its mark on the 2009 Southeast Division title race and setting up another match with an old foe as the Golden Panthers went 3-1 with wins over Emory University (7-6 W), University of Georgia (14-7 W) and the University of Miami (12-11 W OT) to take third place in the regular season division standings.
Florida International, which clinched the No. 3 seed for the Southeast Division Championship on April 18-19 at Emory University in Atlanta, will seek to make history by advancing to the program's first division title game with a shot of shattering the University of Florida's eight-year run as Southeast Division champion (2001-08).
However, the Panthers biggest challenge may be in the championship's host team, Emory.
One does not need a history degree to breakdown the past three years of meetings between FIU and Emory as the two teams have squared off four times in the past three Southeast Division title tournaments.
Starting in 2005 when FIU finished fifth in the regular season standings, the teams have met consistently with more than bragging rights on the line.
The 2005 meeting in the division third place game (a 9-4 Emory victory) started the rivalry which continued into 2006 when FIU stopped the Eagles 6-4 in the second round before repeating the feat in the fourth place game handing Emory another 6-4 loss to give the Golden Panthers a fourth place championship finish, the best in FIU's brief history.
The finish was one spot better than FIU's regular season standing of fifth, a good precedent entering a 2009 championship tournament in which a one place improvement would place the Panthers into the division title tilt for the first time.
Emory turned the tables on FIU last year caging the Panthers with a 12-4 victory in the opening round of the championship as Florida International went from a fourth place regular season finish to a sixth place mark at the division tournament.
This year, however, FIU will look for revenge for a second time following the team's 7-6 win over the Eagles in Miami over the weekend as the Eagles and Florida International will meet at 2:30 p.m. on April 18 in the championship tournament opening round.
An FIU victory places the Panthers into a second round game at 8:00 p.m. against either No. 2 seed Central Florida or No. 7 seed Miami, while a win over the UCF/Miami winner achieves the team's goal: the 2009 Southeast Division title game at 11:30 a.m. on April 19 in Emory's pool against either No. 1 seed Florida, No. 4 seed Florida State University or No. 5 Georgia.
The complete 2009 Southeast Division Championship tournament schedule and regular season standings are available here.
