Volleyball Returns Home
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – After playing eight of the lastnine matches on the road, the University of Miami volleyball team will returnhome to face Duke on Friday at 7 p.m. and Wake Forest on Sunday at 1 p.m.
TheHurricanes have won their last 10 matches at the Knight Sports Complex and 21of the last 22.
It isFamily Weekend on campus, as any student with a valid Cane Card will receive twoadditional free tickets to Friday’s contest and have the opportunity to take afamily portrait with Sebastian the Ibis. In addition, the first 300 fans willreceive a UM drawstring bag and there will a raffle for fans of at least 18years old for four free tickets to the football game on Saturday.
Sundayis Community Day as groups can receive complimentary admission via a pass listif they R.S.V.P. 24 hours in advance or if any fans brings a ticket stub fromSaturday’s football game. Free ice cream will be available while supplies lastat the match.
A livepremium stream of Friday’s match will be provided at Canes All Access, whileESPN3 will broadcast the Sunday contest online with Jared Schwartz onplay-by-play and Natasha Schaefer offering commentary. WVUM will call bothmatches at 88.7-FM, online at wvum.org and on the official iPhone application.
“Everyteam is great in the ACC and we are expecting a challenge this weekend,” headcoach Nicole Lantagne Welch said. “We have played well at home and thrive offthe energy and atmosphere of the crowd, but will have to be focused and playwell in order to win.”
TheCanes (10-3, 2-1 ACC) split a pair of road conference matches last weekend.Behind a balanced attack, UM swept Virginia, 3-0, with freshman setter CaitilinDonahoe putting up 27 assists and six kills on seven attempts in her firstcareer start. Junior outside hitter Taylor Hollins also registered her 11thdouble-double of the year (12 kills, 10 digs). At Virginia Tech, junior rightside Alex Johnson notched a match-high 12 kills, but the Hokies took the match,3-0.
In theleague statistical rankings, UM is first in kills (14.75/set), digs (17.79/set)and assists (13.81/set), while being second in blocks (2.85/set). Senior setterNrithya Sundararaman and junior libero Ryan Shaffer are second individually inthe league with 10.84 assists/set and 4.77 digs/set, respectively.
Duke(9-5, 0-2 ACC), a participant in the 2011 NCAA Tournament, dropped its firsttwo league matches against North Carolina and NC State last weekend. JemeObeime leads the Blue Devils with 162 kills, while Ali McCurdy has totaled 288digs to pace the defense. Miami took both matches in the series last season.
WakeForest (6-8, 0-2 ACC) also suffered defeats to the Tar Heels and Wolfpack lastweekend to start the league slate. Andrea Beck has picked up 190 kills thisyear, with Danae Rosendall registering 492 assists to lead the offense. TheCanes have won the last five versus the Demon Deacons.
Links tolive stats will be available for both matches at hurricanesports.com.
The UMTicket Office is pleased to offer season tickets for both volleyball and soccerfor just $50. Season tickets to the home volleyball schedule at the KnightComplex can be purchased for $35, with single match tickets available for aslow as $3. Call 1-800-GO-CANES to order your tickets today.
For all the latest information on MiamiHurricanes volleyball, follow the official Twitter feed, @CanesVB, or “Like Us”on Facebook at facebook.com/MiamiHurricanes.
