Volleyball Collects Two Wins on Opening Day of Tournament
Aug. 29, 2008
Miami 3, Sacramento State 0
Miami 3, Texas State 1
San Marcos, Texas – Preseason All-ACC selection Genny Mayhew and freshman Lane Carico each registered double-doubles on Friday to help lead the University of Miami Hurricanes volleyball squad to a 2-0 start at the Century Tel Premier Tournament hosted by Texas State University.
After sweeping the first match, the Hurricanes (2-0) were forced to play incredible defense and use that to build offense against last year’s defending Southland Conference champs, Texas State (1-1). The `Canes hit .237 in the match, and swallowed up 65 digs to limit the Bobcats to just a .196 hitting performance in the match.
Texas State took the opening set, 25-13 as they rolled off an 11-2 run sparked by seven (7) Hurricanes miscues. During the run, the Bobcats collected just four kills while attack and setting errors aided the Bobcats along the way.
Miami rallied in the second set, never trailing en route to the 25-20 decision. In the third, Texas State led 21-17 before Mayhew collected three of the team’s last four kills to help the `Canes to a 25-23 victory, jumping their advantage to 2-1 in the match.
“We really turned things around after the first game, and we showed major confidence and composure after having it handed to us at first,” stated UM head coach Nicole Lantagne Welch.
In the final set, Carico posted five kills and Angelica Ellis added two service aces to help their team cruise to a 25-15 win and end the match.
“Genny was hitting hard, and Katie [Gallagher] did a nice job of running the offense for us,” added Lantagne Welch. “Ashley Woods came off the bench and played well, as well as Maria Andersson showing some good things for us.”
Carico had a match-high tying 15 kills and 11 digs for her first double-double of the year, while teammate Mayhew added her second double-double of the day with an equally impressive 15 kills and 13 digs. Junior libero Cassie Loessberg led the defensive charge with a match-high 20 digs. That allowed Loessberg to move past Anna Gallo (2003-06) into fourth place all-time at UM in digs with 909 total through her junior season.
The Bobcats of Texas State were led by the play of two players in double-figures for kills, most notably Lawrencia Brown with 14 kills and seven digs. Right beside her was Emily Jones Wilkes with 10 kills and six blocks (five assists).
In the first match of the day, Miami took on a strong Sacramento State team that advanced to the second round of last year’s NCAA Division I Volleyball Tournament. The Hornets led the all-time series against the `Canes by a count of 1-0 entering today taking the last match, 3-0 back on Sept. 16, 2005 in the Orange and Green Challenge hosted by UM.
UM did not hit the ball extremely well in their season-opener against the Hornets, but they did hold their opposition to just .058 hitting altogether. The `Canes used 32 assists from Gallagher to lead the offensive sets, while Carico blasted 12 kills and hauled in nine digs. Mayhew posted 10 kills and 14 digs in the process.
The Hornets of Sacramento State went up 20-17 late in the opening set before Gallagher collected one of her six kills in the match, and Carico put away back-to-back kills to knot the score four times in the last five points. UM would earn the 25-23 win with an attack error by the Hornets (1-1).
“I thought our freshman played extremely well today,” stated Lantagne Welch. “Lane [Carico] came up big for us in the first match, and it was good to get a win over Sacramento State in the opener. It says a lot about or program when we can beat a team that advanced past the first round of last year’s NCAA Tournament.”
The `Canes never trailed by more than two points at any point during the final two sets of the match.
Sacramento State used the play of Maddison Thivierge and Eryn Kirby to lead the way with seven kills apiece, respectively. Melissa Melcher added 10 digs on defense while Katie Van Der Wende had 16 digs of her own.
“Our defense was good today, and I thought we hit better in the second match than we did in the first,” continued Lantagne Welch. “Cassie was just tremendous as she really frustrated the offense for our opponents today and her passing set-up Katie very well to maneuver the offense into what we wanted to do.”
Play continues in the Century Tel Premier Tournament on Saturday as the `Canes take on Texas-Pan American (10 a.m.) and Louisiana-Monroe (2 p.m.) to finish out their four matches in this year’s annual event.
The first home match for the `Canes will be Sept. 4-6 when they host the annual Hurricane Invitational at the Knight Sports Complex. Season and individual match tickets are on sale and available by calling (800) G0-CANES.
