Miami Dominates Duke, 3-1

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami volleyball team defeated Duke, 3-1, for its first home ACC victory of the season Friday night.

Miami (9-4, 2-1 ACC) tallied 55 kills, 50 digs, 47 assists and 11 blocks to capture the win. Sophomore Flormarie Heredia Colon led the offense with 20 kills and 23 points, while sophomore Cianna Tejada led in blocks with 7.0 for a career-high.

The Canes started set one off with a bang, going up 6-1 to force Duke to take a timeout. Despite continuing the lead, the Blue Devils came back and cut the deficit to 12-10. Miami pulled away once again but the Blue Devils tied it at 18-all. Back-to-back assisted blocks from Tejada and redshirt senior Angela Grieve kept the Canes on top and led them to a 25-21 set-one win.

Miami set the tone for the second set with a 6-0 run full of kills and aces, making it 9-4. Graduate student Abby Casiano showed up big with two back-to-back blocks to push the lead to 19-15. Duke then snuck up from behind to claim its first lead of the match at 21-20. The teams traded points back-and-forth until Duke ultimately took the set 28-26.

Set three held in favor of the Canes, where they led 13-8 over the Blue Devils after two kills from junior Peyman Yardimci. Since then, Duke couldn’t cut the lead with Miami’s 15 kills on a .441 kill percentage, leading Miami to take the third set, 25-15.

Duke opened set four strong, taking an early 11-6 lead. The Canes then recorded an 8-1 run with help from Heredia Colon where she tallied two kills and ace to give Miami the 14-12 lead. With kills from Heredia Colon, Angela Grieve and Yardimci, the Canes cruised by and took set four, 25-21.

The Hurricanes will remain home to face UNC on Oct. 1.