First-Place Volleyball Heads Back to N.C.
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miamivolleyball team will return to the state of North Carolina this weekend to takeon Wake Forest and Duke in a pair of road matches. The Canes are tied for firstplace with Florida State in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings with fiveregular season contests remaining.
It willbe the first time UM has played on back-to-back days since Sept. 14-15, as thematch at Wake Forest will be on Friday at 6:30 p.m. and match at Duke onSaturday at 7 p.m. Links to live stats will be available atHurricaneSports.com.
“Wereally want to sharpen our play this weekend and show better organization ondefense,” head coach Nicole Lantagne Welch said. “We also want to improve our blockingand transition offense. Both opponents this week are playing a higher levelthan the first time we saw them so we will have to be ready for their best.”
Miami(21-4, 13-2) most recently defeated NC State in four sets last Sunday behind amatch-high 14 kills by sophomore Alexis Mourning and 20 digs by junior liberoRyan Shaffer. Junior right side Alex Johnson collected her seventhdouble-double of the season with 12 kills and 12 digs. It was the 11thwin in 12 matches for the Canes.
WakeForest (10-17, 4-11) took down Boston College on the road its last time out,led by a match-high 20 kills by Jazmen Russell. For the season, Andrea Beckleads the Deacons with 342 kills, while Megan Miller has 435 digs. The Canestook down WF in three sets on Sept. 30 to take an 11-3 advantage in theall-time series.
Duke(14-13, 5-10) is scheduled to take on Florida State on Thursday evening beforeplaying the Hurricanes. Coming into the weekend, the Blue Devils are led byChristina Gray and Emily Sklar with 265 kills each. Miami won the matchup inCoral Gables, 3-1, on Sept. 28, but Duke leads the all-time series, 9-6.
Followingthis trip, UM will close out its home schedule against Boston College andMaryland before traveling to Florida State for the regular season finale.
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.
