Volleyball Begins Spring Competition Saturday

Volleyball Begins Spring Competition Saturday

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami volleyball team hosts Florida Atlantic University at the James L. Knight Sports Complex Saturday to begin offseason competition.

The teams met in the Sunshine State Classic in Fort Myers, Fla., last season, where the Hurricanes came away with a close-fought 3-2 win in which three sets were decided by the minimal two-point margin.

The Hurricanes, who enjoyed a 22-6 campaign and a run to the NCAA Championship, return seven players from the 2017 roster, including All-ACC and AVCA All-East Coast setter Haley Templeton, who will play in her final season in the fall. Freshman outside hitter Taylor Burrell and junior Bridget Wallenberger, who enrolled in January, also joined the team in the spring.

“The expectation is the same for everybody,” Miami head coach Jose “Keno” Gandara said. “We want them to be very cognitive of their improvement and get internal about their approach, but there is a kind of a sense of urgency [by the returners] because they’ve been around and the fall is coming up before you know it.”

The other veterans on the team are outside hitters Kolby Bird, Elizaveta Lukianova and Cam Dobbs, middle blocker Lucia Pampana, setter Hannah Sorensen and defensive specialist Sara Duque. Dobbs, who averaged 2.38 kills in her rookie season – third-most on the team – was the only true freshman on the Canes’ roster in 2017.

“Even Cam, three months into her second semester, she’s a sophomore. She’s thinking like that,” Gandara said. “She was like, ‘man, I only have three more years, even though she hasn’t finished her freshman year. It’s really neat when they take ownership of their experience; then it’s easier to manage.”

The Canes started their 20-hour spring regime on Feb. 27 and have five weeks remaining before summer comes around. Gandara, who will go into his sixth season at the helm of the program, points out that his current group understands how important a successful spring is come July, when the team assembles for final preparations before the season kicks off in late August. Templeton, who is third on Miami’s all-time assists leaderboard, is the epitome of that understanding.

“She’s just working on different things, but the way she’s training right now is on a different level,” Gandara said. “Because of her mindset maturity, the situations she’s able to create for herself in the drills aren’t necessarily called for. She can challenge herself because she knows that the drills and what she does with her reps and her timing is not about the people around her. The way she’s working in there is really, really cool.”
 
A week from this Saturday, the Canes will pay the Owls a visit in Boca Raton, Fla., for another scrimmage. They will then wrap up spring play with a multi-team offseason tournament at Nova Southeastern University on April 14.
 
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