No. 24 Volleyball Concludes Home Schedule
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – After playing the last twoweekends on the road in the state of North Carolina, No. 24 Miami volleyballreturns home to complete its home regular season schedule against BostonCollege (Friday, 7 p.m.) and Maryland (Sunday, 1 p.m.). The Hurricanes are aperfect 11-0 at the Knight Sports Complex this year and will be looking tocomplete an unblemished home season for the first time under head coach NicoleLantagne Welch.
“Certainlyone of our goals this season was to take care of home court,” said LantagneWelch, who is in her 12th season at the helm of the program. “We arelooking forward to being home again and welcoming in Boston College andMaryland this weekend. We have respect for both of those programs and had toughroad matches against both earlier this season.”
Miami(23-4, 15-2) has won its last 16 at home dating back to last season, with 12 ofthe victories coming over ACC opponents. The only other team in program historyto win all its matches at home was the 1980 squad (5-0). UM is one of 17 teamsacross the nation undefeated at its gym this year.
Cominginto the weekend, the Canes are tied with Florida State atop the league standingswith three regular season matches remaining. Following the matches againstBoston College and Maryland, Miami will travel to face the Seminoles Nov. 23 onESPN3.
This weekendthe team will honor senior setter Nrithya Sundararaman with a ceremony prior tothe match Sunday. The lone senior on the roster, she has played in 89 matchesfor UM over four years. Primarily playing as a setter, Sundararaman ranks thirdin program history with 2,188 career assists and enters the weekend leading theACC with 10.63 assists per set this season. With postseason selections upcoming, she willbe looking to qualify for the NCAA Tournament four times, something no other UMsenior class has done.
In addition to her success on the court, Sundararaman hasexcelled even more in the classroom. Maintaining a 3.90 GPA as a neurobiologymajor, she was recently named to the Capital One Academic All-District Team.After graduation she plans to attend medical school and become a doctor.
“Nrithyahas had a great senior year,” Lantagne Welch said. “She has made a lot ofprogress in her career and has put in the hard work, overcoming obstacles alongthe way. To see someone flourishing in their senior year is exactly what youwant.”
Miami,who is No. 21 in the NCAA RPI, has won 13 of its last 14 matches, including asweep at Wake Forest and a five-set win over Duke most recently. Against the Blue Devils, theCanes trailed 14-12 in the final set, staring down two match points. However,junior Taylor Hollins slammed down a kill and classmate Alex Johnson laid in anace to even the set at 14. With the momentum reclaimed, Hollins recorded twomore kills to give UM its eighth road win of the season.
“We haveshown resiliency, confidence and calmness all season in pressure moments,”Lantagne Welch said. “However, we want to put ourselves in situations where wedon’t have to do that, but we know we can if our backs are against the wall. That’sa great thing to have in your team.”
BostonCollege (10-19, 4-13) has dropped its last 10 matches coming into the weekend.The Eagles took the Canes to five sets at Power Gym on Oct. 14, with Johnson (16kills, 17 digs) collecting a double-double to lead Miami. The Canes have takenthe last nine meetings against BC.
Maryland(16-13, 7-10), who is on a four-match winning streak, will take on FloridaState prior to facing Miami. The Terrapins are in the midst of aseason-ending five-match road trip, holding a record of 6-5 away from ComcastPavilion this year. UM has won the last nine over Maryland, including a sweepon Oct. 12. Sophomore Savanah Leaf had a match-high 13 kills in the contest, asMiami recorded a .325 team hitting percentage.
NCAA RESUME (courtesy ACC)
| RPI: 21 | Non-Conf. RPI: 41 |
| SOS: 56 | Non-Conf. SOS: 50 |
| Home: 11-0 | vs. Top 25 RPI: 2-2 |
| Away: 8-4 | vs. Top 50 RPI: 4-2 |
| Neutral: 4-0 | vs. Top 100 RPI: 13-4 |
| Last 10: 9-1 | vs. Top 150 RPI: 20-4 |
– 2011 second round participant Miami isranked No. 24 in the AVCA Poll and has been as high as No. 23. The Hurricaneshave received votes every week this season.
– The Hurricanes are currently tied withFlorida State for the top spot in the conference and hold the tiebreaker byvirtue of their 3-1 victory on Sept. 7.
– The Hurricanes have two wins over RPI Top25 and four over Top 50 opponents: (10) Florida State, (18) North Carolina, and(43) NC State twice.
– Good RPI losses include a 3-1 defeat at (5)Louisville and falling at (18) North Carolina.
– The Hurricanes have won nine of their last10 matches, are 8-2 against nonconference opponents, and have 10 sweeps thisseason.
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.
