Women's Volleyball Prepare to Take on Georgia Tech and Clemson
Nov. 2, 2006
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami women’s volleyball team will face two matches this homecoming weekend beginning with the Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech Friday at 4:00 p.m. On Sunday at 1:00 p.m., they will take on the Tigers of Clemson. Georgia Tech’s record is 13-10 overall, 5-8 in the league, while Clemson 14-7 overall, has a 9-4 ACC record.
After coming off of a 3-1 win over Boston College, the Hurricanes are eager to complete this weekend with another two wins.
Senior setter Jill Robinson has a season total of 913 assists, and is 87 assists shy of reaching the 1,000 mark. Adding in her total for the season, Robinson’s career total has reached well over 4,000 with 4,628 total career assists. She is 372 assists away of reaching the 5,000 career mark, making her the only Miami player in history to achieve this feat.
Frannie Savage is 145 kills shy of matching her season high of 483 kills tallied last season. She has a total of 338 averaging 3.80 per game.
Junior Ciara Michel finished with 209 kills last season, and has surpassed that number by 39 with a total of 248, while averaging 2.79 a game, sitting seventh in the ACC in attacks with a .317 percentage. As she leads the team in blocks, Michel is just 18 away of matching her season-high of 133 blocks from last season. After last weekend’s matches, Michel’s’ blocking performance moved her up two spots to fourth place in the ACC.
Freshman Cassie Loessberg led her team on the defensive end by posting a career high of 25 digs against Boston College. She places third on the UM roster with 220 total digs four the season, while averaging 3.55 digs per game against ACC conference opponents.
SCOUTING the OPPONENTS:
Georgia Tech will visit Coral Gables sitting two spots under Miami, ranked ninth in the ACC. However, Miami ranks two places below Georgia Tech in both kills and assists, sitting seventh, while the Yellow Jackets are on top in fifth place. Both teams are tied seventh in service aces, while Miami is in the lead in blocks and digs, ranked fifth and seventh respectively.
Talissa Kellogg leads the Yellow Jackets with a 3.54 kill percentage off of a 301 kill total, and is third on her team with 62 total blocks. While sophomore Allie Niekamp is well above the 1000 mark leading with 1046 assists and an 11.75 average. With those numbers, Niekemp sits fourth in the ACC rankings.
On the defensive end, Abby Showers, the Yellow Jackets’ only senior this season, has a total of 349 digs with a 3.92 average. Sophomore and this week’s ACC player of the week, Callie Miller has a total of 67 blocks stemming from 10 block solos and 57 block assists. Miller shined on offense over the weekend as Georgia Tech defeated 25 ranked Duke, where she registered 18 kills and tallied a total of five blocks.
As a team, the Yellow Jackets average 15 kills, 13 assists, 14 digs, and 2.5 blocks a game.
The Clemson Tigers are standing at the number four spot in the conference with two players, sophomores Danielle Hepburn and Jeannette Abbott dominating the league in four different categories.Hepburn sits in the number one spot in hitting percentage with 508 and a .317 attacks percentage, and leads the league with 132 total blocks and a 1.74 average.
Abbott leads the all ACC players in kills with 350 total and 4.61 per game. She is also the number one player in the points category with 395, registering 5.20 points per game.
Clemson is an underclassman infused squad with four freshman and four sophomores, long with five juniors and only two seniors filling the roster. Overall, the team ranks fourth in attacks (.240), assists (14.03), kills (15.39), and digs (16.79), fifth with a 1.64 service ace average, and first in blocks with 250 total and a 3.29 average.
Fans can follow both matches through gametracker, buy logging onto the www.hurricanesports.com.
