After a 21-10 (ACC 12-8) Miami volleyball was able to earn a NCAA tournament bid where they headed to Lincoln, NE to face the South Dakota State Jackrabbits on Friday evening. The match turned out to be simple for the ‘Canes as they swept the Jackrabbits, 3-0.
The final scores of the match were 25-17, 25-23 and 25-15. The stars of the match for the ‘Canes were their usual star duo: junior Flormarie Heredia Colon, who was named to the All-ACC 1st Team, notched 21 kills and 13 digs, while sophomore Grace Lopez, who was named to the All-ACC 2nd Team, tallied 12 kills along with 10 digs.
Set one started off well for the Hurricanes, as they held a 8-6 advantage after an ace by redshirt freshman Ariana Rodriguez. Miami maintained their momentum later in the set when they went on a 7-1 scoring run to make the score 19-10. SDSU had a late 3-0 run in the set, but they never came close to the ‘Canes in the end as Miami finished them off with a kill by Lopez to give themselves the 25-17 set victory.
The beginning of set two was probably the toughest part of the entire match for the Hurricanes, as a 6-0 run helped the Jackrabbits to start off with a dominating 11-3 lead. Things looked good for South Dakota State around the halfway point of the set as they maintained their lead at 15-7. However, the ‘Canes had different plans because right after that they went on a 7-0 run to put themselves within a point to the tie at 15-14. The rest of the set was neck and neck, but it ended up going in Miami’s favor with the ‘Canes finishing it off with a 3-0 run featuring two kills by Heredia Colon to give Miami the 25-23 set win.
After the big comeback in set two, things were smooth sailing for Miami in the third and final set. The Hurricanes had an early lead, 4-2, after a kill from Lopez. This small opening lead was greatly enlarged later when the ‘Canes went on a 6-0 run to make the score 18-7. The Jackrabbits managed to get a few points after that but the Miami lead was too much as the ‘Canes finished off the match with back-to-back kills by Lopez and Heredia Colon to obtain the 25-15 set win as well as the 3-0 match victory.
With the win, the ‘Canes move on to the second round to face the No. 3 (No. 1 seed) Nebraska Cornhuskers on Saturday, Dec. 7 at 8:00 pm. This will be the Hurricanes’ hardest test of the season yet as the Cornhuskers have only lost two matches the entire season.