Women's Volleyball Prepare for Second Showdown Against North Carolina and N.C. State
Nov. 16, 2006
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami women’s volleyball team will travel to the state of North Carolina to face two ACC opponents this weekend. First stop will be Chapel Hill where the Hurricanes will take on North Carolina at the Carmichael Auditorium Friday evening at 8:00 p.m. Miami will head to Raleigh on Saturday to face N.C. State in an evening match set to begin at 6:00 p.m. at the Reynolds Coliseum.
The Hurricanes (10-17, 7-11 ACC) return to action after coming off a 1-1 weekend sweeping Virginia Tech (15-12, 9-9 ACC) 3-0 before falling to Virginia (21-6, 14-4 ACC) 1-3, wrapping up this season’s home matches. Miami finished out the weekend ranked ninth in the league.
In the Virginia Tech match, the Hurricanes were led by senior Frannie Savage with 12 kills. She dished out six digs, and posted three blocks including one block solo.
Junior Ciara Michel dropped in 10 kills, two block solos and three block assists for a total of 132 blocks on the season. Sophomore Ashley Woods chimed in an impressive 10 blocks of her own with a .474 hitting percentage.
Jill Robinson posted 37 of Miami’s 44 assists, with six kills out of only 10 attempts, and five blocks.
On Defense, sophomore middle blocker Angelica Ellis stepped up to lead all players with seven total blocks. She dished out two block solos and five block assists.
Freshman Cassie Loessberg led all players with 10 digs. The libero also stepped up on the offensive end dishing out a match-high four kills.
Miami led the match in six categories beginning with 49 kills over the Hokies’ 44. The Hurricanes’ attack percentage overpowered their opponents, as they posted a .350 hitting percentage and Virginia Tech could only come up with .196. UM also came away with 44 assists, 40 digs, and 22 total blocks.
In the Virginia match, Frannie Savage played her final match in front of an excited Hurricane crowed leading with 11 kills, four digs and one assist. The outside hitter is 11 kills away of 400 on the season, and is just 94 kills away from matching last year’s season high of 483 total kills. She leads Miami with a total of 389 kills on the season.
Jill Robinson led the Hurricanes with 42 assists and posted 10 digs, totaling her thirteenth double-double. Robinson was just three kills shy of a triple-double as she registered seven kills. She now has 1,084 assists on the season. Leading in defense, Ann Gallo led all players with 19 digs. The senior leads the Hurricanes with 271 digs on the season.
Freshman libero, Cassie Loessberg, shined on the offensive end for Miami as she posted a season high 10 kills and chimed in 10 digs registering her first double-double for the season.
Ashley Woods contributed on offense as well by putting up 11 kills, while sophomore Angelica Ellis posted eight kills.
Ciara Michel’s defense of six blocks put her in the lead of all players. She also registered seven kills.
Against Virginia, the Hurricanes posted 56 total kills, a .252 hitting percentage, 53 assists and six service aces. On defense, Miami registered 56 digs and 15 total blocks.
Scouting the Opponents:
NC State sits 2-25 overall and 0-18 in the ACC. The Wolfpack are led by Chrissy Zirpolo with a 2.80 kills per game average.
Allison Davis currently averages 9.07 assists, while Kelley Blakewood has posted 25 service aces on the season.
On defense, Andrea Bentley contributes 2.72 digs per set, while Aiwane Iboaya adds 1.01 blocks per game.
The Tar Heels sit 8-12 overall and 6-12 in the conference. Amy Beaver leads North Carolina with 269 kills and a 2.69 average. Beaver also leads UNC blocks with 166 total from 22 solos and 94 block assists.
Stephanie Jansma post 1,005 total assists and an 11.39 average. She is also second on the Tar Heel’s roster with 265 total digs on the season.
Ashley Board and Megan Eckert currently have 25 service aces apiece, while Brianna Eskola has a total of 492 defensive digs.
In the current league ranking, North Carolina sit tenth, while N.C. State places twelfth.
