In what has been a great season for Volleyball in the South Florida Area, FIU and UM have treated the community with an extremely high level of Volleyball. Chances are if you missed FIU's match versus Western Kentucky and UM's match vs. Wake Forest you NEVER saw your home team loose.
The stage is now being set Nationally as the SFVR is projecting that both FIU and UM receive invitations to the NCAA Tournament. The FIU decision is more obvious in that they are the regular season champion and No. 1 seed of the Sun Belt Conference. The team is lead by All-American Yarimar Rosa (pictured), Isadora Rangel and Natalia Valentin.
Despite the Golden Panther’s 14th sweep of the season, Coach Tomic knows next weekend’s conference tournament will be a test for her squad. “We’ll have to step up for the tournament,” said Tomic. “We are peaking at the right time. Our goal every year is to play our best volleyball in November and that’s what is happening. I think we’ll play better on Thursday and Friday and hopefully on Saturday in the finals.”
Just as impressive is the Play of the University of Miami with a 24-5 overall record, who earlier started the year with a 12 game win streak and was only beaten at home by Wake Forest. The `Canes have now eclipsed their best ACC win total with 12, and have produced the most wins in a season since their Sweet 16 run in the NCAA Tournament back in 2002 (27). Three key players to watch: Genny Mayhew (pictured), Lane Carico and Katie Gallagher.
Miami now has a chance to stake claim as a leader in the ACC standings next weekend with a huge showdown with the University of North Carolina on the road in Chapel Hill on Thursday, Nov. 20. After that, they travel to N.C. State on Nov. 21.
As we have had the pleasure of seeing both FIU and UM play incredible volleyball in South Florida. It is now time for the rest of the country to get aquainted with these teams seeing that their stars are young and they plan on being on the national stage for some time.
3 comments:
It's nice to see both Miami-based programs doing so well this year. I am wondering how many NCAA bids the Sunbelt will get this year. The ACC seems very tightly packed at the top and they have no conference tournament, it'll be interesting to see how that impacts their bids.
Great update. FIU is hosting the conferance tournament this weekend. It would be great to see a big turnout. Sunday's Miami Herald had a great article on Miami Dade College and their quest for the National Championship this weekend as well.
SFVR - Thanks for the Miami Dade - update. We apologise for not following stronger the Junior colleges in South Florida. We'll do a better job next year.
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