Miami Volleyball Releases 2012 Schedule
June 21, 2012
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CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Under the leadership of head coach Nicole Lantagne Welch, now entering her 12th year at the helm in Coral Gables, the University of Miami volleyball program released its 2012 schedule Thursday. The slate features 13 home matches and nine contests against teams that made the NCAA Tournament a season ago. “We are looking forward to both the challenges and opportunities that our 2012 schedule presents,” said Lantagne Welch, who has been the head coach since the program was restarted for the 2001 season. “You would certainly consider our team to be young after losing four impactful seniors, but we are returning an extremely committed group of players who made some great strides this spring and adding to that an excellent freshman class. We welcome the challenges of bringing this group together as one strong unit for the upcoming season.” Miami is coming off one of the best seasons in program history with a 26-5 overall record that included a 16-4 mark and second-place finish in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Hurricanes, who earned their third straight berth to the NCAA Tournament, went 10-1 against non-conference opponents last season with three weekend tournament victories. The Canes will return 10 players and four starters from last year’s roster, including juniors Taylor Hollins (234 digs), Alex Johnson (290 kills) and Ryan Shaffer (484 digs) and sophomore Emani Sims (215 kills). The program will also welcome five newcomers to the team in what was ranked the 27th-best recruiting class in the nation according to PrepVolleyball.com. |
2012 Miami Volleyball Schedule
* – ACC Match # – Hurricane Invitational |
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After playing the annual Alumni Match in an exhibition on Aug. 17, Miami will start the regular season with the Hurricane Invitational from Aug. 24-25 at the James L. Knight Sports Complex. UM will take on Wofford and Mississippi on the opening day, before wrapping up the event with contests against Rutgers and Samford, the defending Southern Conference Champions. Each of the other four teams will play three matches in the tournament. Following tradition, the Canes will open and close ACC play against rival Florida State, a qualifier to the NCAA Final Four. The teams will meet on Sept. 8 inside the Knight Complex and on Nov. 23 at the Tully Gym in Tallahassee, Fla. UM and FSU split the season in 2011, with each team defending their home court. The third and final non-conference tournament that UM will participate in will be at Louisville from Sept. 14-15. Also a two-day, three-match event, Miami will open with UNLV of the Mountain West Conference on Friday and finish with a pair of matches against NCAA qualifiers on Saturday. The Canes will go up against Middle Tennessee State, an at-large selection, and the BIG EAST Regular Season Champions, Louisville, at the KFC Yum! Center to wrap up the non-conference portion of the slate. UofL has made the championship field in each of the last 13 seasons, while MTSU has earned a bid the last six years. From there, the Hurricanes will focus on ACC matches the rest of the way, with nine consecutive weekends with two conference contests and the finale at FSU on Nov. 23. UM will play a home-and-home with eight teams and take on Clemson and Georgia Tech solely on the road. In addition to UM and FSU, Duke and North Carolina also represented the ACC in postseason play last year. Information on the 2012 NCAA Championship will be announced at a later date. Match Breakdown Non-conference Breakdown Follow Miami volleyball on twitter (@CanesVB) for the latest news and information on the program. |
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