Miami Volleyball Too Much for N.C. State, 3-0
Oct. 17, 2008
Coral Gables, Fla. – Miami’s Lane Carico supplied 12 kills and Genny Mayhew added eight of her own to help lead the Hurricanes past visiting North Carolina State, 3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-17) in ACC volleyball action on Friday night at the James L. Knight Sports Complex in Coral Gables, Fla.
UM (18-2, 6-2 ACC) collected their 10th shutout of the year with the win tonight, now sitting just one shy of tying the 2004 team for the most shutouts in a season since joining the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).
“We are playing well right now, and our defense is what has helped us as we’ve really stepped that up over the last few matches,” expressed eighth-year head coach Nicole Lantagne Welch whose team collected their best win-total (18) since joining the ACC. “I think we did a great job against an N.C. State team that has really increased the level of play in that program, and we just played well tonight from a lot of areas, especially our serving.”
The Hurricanes collected a .265 hitting percentage (40-13-102) on the night while holding their 14th opponent of the campaign under a .200 clip [.168]. The record since joining the ACC is 16 set back in 2004. The visiting N.C. State Wolfpack (9-14, 3-5 ACC) collected 31 kills on 101 attempts with 14 errors.
With the Wolfpack concentrating on stopping Mayhew, setter Katie Gallagher looked towards Carico and redshirt senior Ashley Woods for offensive production tonight. Woods picked up seven kills on 14 attempts to notch a .357 attack percentage in the match.
“That’s what is so special about this team,” added Lantagne Welch when asked about the amount of depth on this year’s squad. “Whenever people want to focus on just Genny [Mayhew] or some other player, we’ve been fortunate enough to get solid play from a variety of other players. I think our depth really makes us that much better.”
One of those other players has been Carico, a freshman from Manhattan Beach, California that collected her 12th double-digit kills performance of the year.
N.C. State also seemed to struggle with the jump-serve of the Orange and Green as UM picked up double-digit service aces (10) for the second time this year. They registered a season-best 12 aces against Louisiana-Monroe back on Aug. 30 in San Marcos, Texas.
The Wolfpack was led on the night by Aiwane Iboaya with a team-best nine kills, while teammate Allyson Weissberg chipped in with seven kills. Kelly Wood added 14 digs and four assists.
UM was piloted by Carico’s 12 kills, while Mayhew’s eight kills and Woods’ seven added more offensive explosion for the `Canes. Also in the mix was Angelica Ellis with seven kills and three blocks (two solo). Gallagher set-up 29 assists and Cassie Loessberg pitched in with 22 digs.
Miami returns to the Knight Sports Complex on Saturday, Oct. 18 hosting the University of North Carolina at 6 p.m. Live stats will be available through Game Tracker at www.hurricanesports.com.
