Miami volleyball was able to get back into the win column last Friday evening with a sweep at home against the Clemson Tigers. The win comes after back-to-back road losses against ranked ACC opponents (No. 10 SMU, 3-1; No. 1 Pittsburgh, 3-0).
The final scores of the match were 25-21, 25-22 and 25-22. The two leaders for the ‘Canes were the usual two suspects: junior Flormarie Heredia Colon, who was honored during the pregame for joining the 1000 career kills club at Miami and is now in the top ten in Miami history for career kills, notched 13 kills, eight digs, two service aces and a block, while sophomore Grace Lopez tallied 14 kills along with five digs.
Set one started off well for the Hurricanes as they held a 6-2 lead after a kill by junior Dalia Wilson. Miami maintained that four point advantage later after an ace by senior Paula Guersching made the score 9-5. While Clemson had a few runs throughout the set, they never managed to even tie the ‘Canes. The only time the Tigers led during set one was when the score was 1-0. The Hurricanes finished off the set off a kill by Heredia Colon to win the set 25-21.
Miami began set two in good form, coming out the gates with three straight points, which were back-to-back aces by redshirt freshman Ariana Rodriguez and a kill by Heredia Colon. The Hurricanes maintained their early lead until the middle parts of the set when Clemson tied it up at 13 off back-to-back kills by Tigers freshman Neea-Maria Joki. Clemson kept the score close for a few points, but the ‘Canes managed to pull away and get within a point of set victory, 24-19. Despite a late 3-0 run by the Tigers, the Hurricanes managed to win the set 25-22 off a kill by Lopez.
The third and final set started off in Clemson’s favor with the Tigers leading 4-2 after a kill by junior Mia McGrath. It did not take long for Miami to close the gap as they tied the score up at five shortly after. The set was relatively close for the rest of the way through with the Hurricanes only leading by one after a late 3-0 run by the Tigers to make the score 23-22. Nevertheless, the ‘Canes were able to finish it off with two straight points to give themselves the 25-22 set win as well as the 3-0 match victory.
With, the ‘Canes improve to 19-9 on the season with a record of 10-7 in the conference. As for Clemson, their rough season gets worse as they fall to an overall record of 10-18 with a conference record of 2-15. For their next match, the Hurricanes will stay in Coral Gables, as they face the No. 15 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (20-6, ACC 12-5) on Sunday, Nov. 24 at 1:00 pm. Miami will then head on the road to Raleigh, NC to face the North Carolina State Wolfpack (14-11, ACC 9-8) for the second time this season. The match will be the day before Thanksgiving, Wednesday, Nov. 27 at 2:00 pm.