After returning home from playing two straight weeks on the road, the Miami Hurricanes volleyball team took on rival Florida State. After losing to FSU earlier in the season, the Canes look to exact a little revenge, but they weren’t able to get going. They fell to the Seminoles 3-1. The Hurricanes drop to 9-12 on the season and 3-9 in a tough Atlantic Coast Conference.
“[The] bottom line is their serving got tough, and they had some great servers,” Head Coach Nicole Lantagne Welch said. “We allowed them to get too many runs. We have to pass better as well.”
Still having that bitter defeat of being swept in Tallahassee, Fla., Miami came into Tuesday night’s home match looking to get a little payback against Florida State.
Sophomore Genny Mayhew opened the game with a kill, but the tone did not carry over for Miami. Both teams were intense on defense, but the Canes fell behind early. Miami eventually tied game one at 12-12, but FSU went on a 6-point run to push the lead back up to 18-12.
After a Miami timeout, the Hurricanes responded with their own 6-2 run, but the Seminoles didn’t relinquish their lead, taking a close game one 30-28. Freshman Ariell Cooke led the Hurricanes with four kills, but the team couldn’t stop the Seminoles offense in key situations.
In game two, led by freshman Katie Gallagher, who recorded two serving aces, and Cooke’s two kills, the lady Canes took an early 7-1 lead.
The Noles slowly crept back, jumped on top and never looked back taking game two 30-24. Miami’s attack percentage decreased to .103, as Florida State’s increased to .342.
The Hurricanes had their opportunity to take the game, but were unable to do so.
“We had some chances in game two,” Lantagne Welch said. “Those are the types of ones, that if we get that game, then it’s a whole different story.”
Once again the lady Canes jumped out early on the Noles, building an 8-3 lead in game three. Little by little FSU tried to get back in the game, but the Hurricanes didn’t allow them to take game three, winning 30-25. Junior Bridget Bomhack wrapped the game with a serving ace and had four kills.
Both teams battled back and forth in a hard-hitting game four, until Florida State put together a successful stretch giving them a lead. The Seminoles capped the match with a kill defeating the Hurricanes 3-1.
Senior Ciara Michel led the team with 12 kills. Mayhew and Bomhack chipped in with 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Gallagher finished with 32 assists, five serving aces and led the team in digs with 11. Miami only had 47 kills, compared to Florida State’s 66.
Still Lantagne Welch feels that her team did a better job at home than at Florida State.
“We definitively competed a heck of a lot better than we did in Tallahassee,” Lantagne Welch said. “We had a lot of good things come out of it. Our blocking was much improved. Our offense looked decent when we were in system.”
Lelan LeDoux may be contacted at l.ledoux@umiami.edu.