Canes Volleyball to Host Exhibition Match vs. FIU
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CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami’s volleyball team returns to the Knight Sports Complex on Saturday at 3 p.m., as it welcomes FIU for its lone exhibition match of the 2018 season.
The Hurricanes will look to build on their successful 2017 season in which they posted a 22-6 overall record and reached the second round of the NCAA Volleyball Tournament. Head coach Jose “Keno” Gandara returns seven players from last season’s squad while adding eight, including seven freshmen. Gandara, who is entering his sixth season at the helm of the Canes, sits just one win away from his 100th victory as a head coach.
Haley Templeton enters her redshirt senior year as a four-time Preseason All-ACC selection and she is chasing history. The First Team All-ACC setter posted 1,172 total assists in 2017 – an average of 10.75 per set that tied for best in the ACC – while sitting out of only one the team’s 110 sets. With one season left with the Canes, Templeton sits third in program history for career assists with 3,583. She trails second-place Jill Robinson by 1,354 assists and program leader Katie Gallagher, who has an all-time best 5,173 assists, by 1,590.
Seniors Kolby Bird and Lucia Pampana join Templeton as the most experienced Canes on the roster, while juniors Sara Duque and Hannah Sorenson welcome transfer Bridget Wallenberger to their class after she spent the previous two seasons at Milwaukee.
Redshirt sophomore Elizaveta Lukianova is another Cane to watch after emerging as a weapon a year ago and fellow sophomore Cameron Dobbs can provide depth at the outside hitter position.
Taylor Burrell got a head start over her fellow freshmen, as she enrolled at Miami in January and was with the team in the spring semester. Chloe Brown, Emily Damon, Priscilla Hernandez, Maddie Naumann, Maya Sullivan and Sophie Walls arrived for this fall semester and are ready to make their mark on the court.
The Canes swept FIU, 3-0, in their last meeting in 2016. Templeton led Miami with six aces and 36 assists. FIU finished its 2017 season with a 6-16 overall record.
The Canes will open nonconference play on Aug. 24 – Aug. 25 hosting the 2018 Sunshine State Challenge. Miami will begin the two-day tournament against FAU on Friday, August 24 at 7 p.m., and will return Saturday to face FGCU at 11 a.m., and conclude the tournament against UCF at 7:30 p.m.
All Hurricanes volleyball home matches are played at the James L. Knight Sports Complex on the University of Miami campus. Admission is free.
The University of Miami – Coral Gables Campus has introduced an updated parking policy for the 2018-19 school year. Enforcement is now extended to seven days a week, 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. PayByPhone and additional pay stations are available across all campus parking lots and garages to facilitate visitor parking.
For a complete look at the Hurricanes’ 2018 schedule, click here.
For all the latest information on Miami Hurricanes volleyball, follow the official Twitter feed, @CanesVB, or “Like Us” on Facebook at facebook.com/UMVolleyball. The program is also on Instagram.
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