The University of Miami RedHawks will come to the Stroh Center to take on the Falcon volleyball team Thursday night at 7 p.m.
This is a must win game for the Falcons to keep up with Mid-American Conference leaders Ohio University. OU is 8-2 in the MAC and are in first place in the MAC east division.
After falling to Toledo this past Saturday in a four set loss, the Falcons are 7-3 in the MAC and hold an 11-11 win-loss record for the season.
Against Ball State last Friday, the Falcons handed the Cardinals their first home loss of the season in a four set victory.
Head coach Danijela Tomic said the win came with a price.
“The win was bittersweet because yes we won, but we lost our player and they had players out too,” she said.
Erica Fullenkamp, the Falcon’s starting setter sprained her ankle in the first set against BSU. Tomic said the team does not know when she will be cleared to play again, but the team is hoping she will be back in two weeks to play in the MAC tournament.
Back up setter Laura Avila is expected to play in place of Fullenkamp against Miami. She set the past two games and had 88 assists this past weekend.
Miami opened the season by winning eight of its first nine matches, but since MAC play began, the RedHawks have struggled. They are in fifth place in the East Division with a 2-8 record.
Coach Tomic said Miami’s record does not mean this will be an easy win for the Falcons.
“We haven’t been a consistent team, and I expect a tough match,” Tomic said.
Libby Dachenhaus said the team spent time this week going back to fundamentals in practice after serving errors cost the Falcons the win against Toledo.
“[Fundamentals] are how you beat a team like Miami,” she said. “They are very fundamentally sound so we’ve been going back to what we were doing at the beginning of the year and really focused on what we have lost; slowing everything down a bit.”
Miami’s offensive leaders this season are middle, Jenny Ingle, and outside hitter, Meg Riley. The two RedHawks have combined 452 kills and have attacking percentages of .367 and .247 respectively.
“Ingle is difficult to defend because of the angles of her shots and her unorthodox style of play,” Tomic said.
Falcon middle Kaitlyn Skinner said because she is tall and hits the ball high, the team will look to get touches on her attack attempts rather than straight blocks.
“We will have to take a tweak to our timing because she is not a very patterned player,” Skinner said. “She hits a lot of off speed shots and she hits different spots on the court.”
The key to keeping Ingle away from hitting the ball is by keeping the RedHawks out of their playing system. Tomic said when they are out of their system, Ingle cannot get the ball to hit.
The Falcons played Miami on Sept. 26 and beat them in five sets after losing the first two sets.
“Fortunately we are at home,” Dachenhaus said. “We are going to come out more confident and introduce ourselves as the team we want to be and hit the ground running when we get out there.”
