No. 23 Volleyball Begins North Carolina Trip
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Riding a 10-match winningstreak, No. 23 Miami volleyball will spend the next two weekends in the stateof North Carolina, starting with matches at North Carolina (7 p.m.) and NCState (1 p.m.) on Friday and Sunday. Both will be broadcast on ESPN3.
“We knewthat we needed to do well this week in practice to prepare for the weekend,”head coach Nicole Lantagne Welch said. “We are going to embrace the challenge, knowingthat North Carolina and NC State are both very good teams. Each play well athome and we will need to play our best in order to win.”
TheHurricanes (20-3, 12-1) are currently tied in first place in the leaguestandings with Florida State. With seven regular season matches remaining, UM isthe only team to defeat all 11 opposing conference teams. Their 10 consecutiveACC wins are the most in program history.
Mostrecently, Miami swept Virginia Tech and Virginia to extend its home winningstreak to 16 dating back to last season. UM has swept its last three matchesand has won 10 straight sets.
One ofthe reasons for this season’s success has been because of the play of seniorsetter Nrithya Sundararaman. Last weekend, she became the fourth UM player toreach 2,000 assists, while also moving to third in the school record books(2,046).
“Nrithyahas been improving as the season has gone on,” Lantagne Welch said. “We havesuch a balance right now with our team and a lot of credit has to go to her formoving the ball around effectively to all of our hitters.”
NorthCarolina (19-4, 10-3) has won its last six matches since falling to Miami onOct. 7. The Tar Heels are third in the league standings and have been receivingvotes in the AVCA Coaches Poll. UNC is a perfect 10-0 at home this season.
NC State(19-5, 9-4) has also been tough at home, leading the country with 14 victoriesinside its own gym. The Wolfpack dropped two five-set matches on the road lastweekend, but are still in fourth place in the standings.
Single-game tickets tohome volleyball matches are available for as low as $3. Call 1-800-GO-CANES toorder your tickets today. For all the latest information on Miami Hurricanes volleyball, followthe official Twitter feed, @CanesVB, or “Like Us” on Facebook atfacebook.com/MiamiHurricanes.
