Hurricanes Fall to Seminoles in Five Games
Nov. 15, 2005
CORAL GABLES, <?xml:namespace prefix=”st1″ ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags”?>Fla. – The University of Miami volleyball team dropped a hard fought match to rival Florida State, 3-2 (30-24, 29-31, 32-30, 32-34, 13-15) in Atlantic Coast Conference action Tuesday night at the Knight Sports Complex. <?xml:namespace prefix=”o” ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office”?>
With the loss, the Hurricanes fall to 13-13 and 8-10 in ACC play. The Seminoles, who won in Coral Gables for the first time in school history, improve to 10-16, 8-10 ACC.
“It was tight-fought match. It was point-for-point and a great battle between two teams who are making a turn-around at this point in the season,” said head coach Nicole Lantagne Welch.
“We had some great play out of Angelica [Ellis] again in the middle. Ciara [Michel] really started blocking some balls. Our passers really handled the load and gave us an opportunity to win. At the end of the match, we had problems stopping their outside hitters and they slowed us down a little. That was probably the difference.”
Senior Karla Johnson came to within three kills from becoming Miami’s all-time career leader. The outside hitter knocked down a match-high 23 kills to go along with 11 digs and four total blocks.
Ellis, a freshman, went 12-of-19 while only committing four errors for a .421 hitting percentage. Ellis’ kill total marked a career-high. Redshirt junior Francheska Savage also contributed 19 kills in the match.
Defensively for Miami, redshirt sophomore Ciara Michel set a new UM match record for total blocks with 12, including four solo blocks and eight block assists. Junior Ann Gallo tallied a match-high 22 digs as well as three service aces.
As a team, the Hurricanes out-blocked the Seminoles 21.0 to 16.5 but were out-hit .220 to .190.
Both teams exchanged points to open game one until a five point run put the Hurricanes up 11-6. Though the Seminoles closed the gap, the Hurricanes maintained a 12-8 lead. FloridaState got on top, however, notching four consecutive points to go up 16-14. After a timeout, the Hurricanes took the lead again, 17-16, thanks to an Ellis service ace, and pulled away for a 30-24 victory.
The Seminoles went up 6-1 in the second game but the Hurricanes fought back to tie the score at 10-all. FloridaState, however, went up 15-14 and maintained the lead there after. The Hurricanes could only get as close as two points until, after a timeout with FSU up 27-22, they strung together five-straight points to tie the score at 27-all. The Seminoles notched another two points to go ahead 29-27 but the Hurricanes knocked down back-to-back kills to tie the score 29-29. The Seminoles answered with two consecutive kills of their own to finally take a 31-29 win and tie the match at one-all.
Game three was the closest game thus far as evidenced by the 10 tied scores and eight lead changes. A point-for-point battle ensued for most of the game until, with the score tied 19-19, the Seminoles went on a 5-2 run to pull ahead 22-19. FloridaState maintained its lead but Miami fought back with kills by Johnson and Lauren Rinderknecht to tie the score at 29-all. The Seminoles tied the score again at 30 but the Hurricanes capitalized on consecutive errors by FSU to take a 32-30 victory.
Though game four began with both teams exchanging points, the Seminoles quickly pulled away taking a 20-12 lead into a Miami timeout. The Hurricanes regained their composure notching three-straight points to cut the Seminoles’ lead to five. FSU, however, continued to pull away to lead 23-18. Momentum then shifted in the Hurricanes favor after a kill by Johnson opened-up a six point run that gave Miami a 28-27 lead. Neither team would give in as the score got knotted up four times with both teams reaching game point on two occasions. The Seminoles eventually claimed the win, 34-32, to force a fifth and deciding game.
The Seminoles led the fifth game 3-1 before Savage scorched a kill to tie the score at four-all. Gallo then served up an ace to put Miami up 6-5 but the Seminoles answered with a 3-1 run that gave them a 9-7 lead heading into a Miami timeout. FloridaState extended its lead to 11-9 before Miami answered with three-straight points to pull to within one. The Hurricanes could not solve the Seminoles, however, as they scored three of the next five points to take the 15-13 win and the match victory.
The Hurricanes return to action against ACC foe North Carolina Friday, Nov. 18 at the Knight Sports Complex. Match time is set for 7:00 p.m.
