After two consecutive ACC road victories, the University of Miami women’s volleyball team returned home to a packed crowd at the Knight Sports Complex.
Wake Forest came in and sent the spectators to an early exit.
The Demon Deacons (6-7, 3-1 ACC) controlled the match from the very first point, sweeping Miami (8-5, 2-2 ACC) 3-0 to spoil the Hurricanes’ ACC home-opener.
“It was disappointing to have an off-night with the atmosphere we had in here tonight,” Head Coach Nicole Lantagne Welch said. “It was a great environment, the crowd was loud and I just wished we would have shown them more out there.”
Wake Forest scored the first four points of the match and later jumped out to a 13-3 lead in game one. Miami cut the deficit to 20-14, but the Demon Deacons stayed poised and came away with a 30-18 victory.
The Hurricanes committed 10 unforced errors in game one, while the Demon Deacons had seven team blocks.
The two teams were in a tightly contested match early in game two, knotted up at 13-13.
The Demon Deacons then pulled away after taking a 19-17 lead, scoring three consecutive points.
The Hurricanes, who trailed by as many as seven points, cut the lead to four before the Demon Deacons ended the comeback with a 30-25 win.
Miami fought back in game three, but eventually dropped the final game 30-26.
Wake Forest had a 20-15 advantage, appearing to be on its way for an easy sweep.
The Hurricanes refused to go down quietly, going on a 5-0 run to even up the score.
The Demon Deacons came back with 5 consecutive points of their own, tying the game at 21-21 with three kills and two costly attack errors by the Hurricanes.
After Miami cut the lead to 28-25, Wake Forest would hang on with two kills to put away the Hurricanes for good.
“We had some nice runs and some nice stretches, but we just weren’t able to sustain it for an entire game,” Lantagne Welch said.
In the losing effort, sophomore Genny Mayhew and senior Ciara Michael combined to record 20 of the team’s 45 kills on the night, while Setter Katie Gallagher collected 31 assists.
Miami finished the match with just five team blocks to Wake Forest’s 12 blocks.
Miami committed 21 errors in the match, including nine service errors. Wake Forest had six less errors and five less service errors than the Hurricanes.
“Wake Forest came out tonight and competed,” Welch said. “We were back on our heels and were not sharp tonight. Everyone could have played a lot better.”
Alex Kushel may be contacted at a.kushel@umiami.edu