Can Notre Dame volleyball perform well on the road? That’s the next question facing Salima Rockwell and the upshot, 9-4 Irish this weekend, which will take them to No. 21 Florida State and Miami (Florida).
Notre Dame has not yet played an ACC road game this season after going 1-9 in away matches within the conference last year. The 2023 Irish took a set in less than half of those losses, struggling to compete away from Purcell Pavilion.
But this year’s team has already shown it might be on a new level. Since ACC play began, the Irish have taken a set from volleyball elite Stanford, taken ranked Georgia Tech within three points of an upset and cleaned out a Clemson team rated similarly to them in the preseason. Notre Dame is also 2-0 in straight road games and 4-0 if you consider Santa Clara and Mississippi State hosting their own tournaments playing at home.
None of those four wins, however, came against a team currently ranked or receiving votes. Both squads the Irish will face in the Sunshine State this weekend carry one of those two designations. At 2-2 in conference play thus far, Notre Dame comes in with quite the opportunity to prove itself.
Notre Dame will begin the weekend at 7 p.m. on Friday against Miami, a team that went to South Bend and handed the Irish a 3-1 loss last year. This year, the Hurricanes have been all over the place. In game five of their season, they upset No. 1 Texas in Austin, following that performance up with a 3-0 loss to unranked Ohio State. Miami would bounce back with impressive home sweeps of No. 25 Arkansas and Texas Tech and a competitive, 3-2 loss at Florida State. However, the Hurricanes most recently took a bad, 3-0 sweep at the hands of Virginia, a team projected nine spots below them in the ACC Preseason Coaches Poll.
Through all of that, Miami carries a 10-5 overall record and a 1-3 ACC mark into this weekend’s action. Despite the Virginia loss, the AVCA Rankings are still awarding the Hurricanes five votes for the top 25. They’ll take on Louisville on Sunday, so getting back on track against the Irish is imperative for the Hurricanes.
When the Hurricanes are at their best, they are clicking on offense. Miami doesn’t offer a ton defensively but ranks fourth in the ACC for assists per set (12.7), fifth for hitting percentage (.259) and kills per set (13.6) and sixth for service aces per set (1.7). Flormarie Heredia Colon, a major contributor since arriving at Miami as a freshman in 2022, is one of the conference’s top scorers with 241.5 points on the season. The Dominican outside hitter ranks third in the ACC with 4.06 kills per set, sitting behind only the outstanding Pittsburgh duo of Torrey Stafford and Olivia Babcock.
Florida State, meanwhile, is building off one of its best seasons in recent memory. Last year, the Seminoles won the ACC Championship for the first time since 2012, sharing the title with Pitt. They also won 23 games for the first time in seven years. This season, the Seminoles are 11-3 with a 3-1 ACC victory that includes two defeats of Miami. Florida State, however, also suffered a sweep loss at Virginia last weekend before rebounding to sweep Virginia Tech on the road.
Statistically, the Seminoles line up similarly to Miami on offense, ranking top-five in the ACC for hitting percentage (.284), assists per set (12.5) and kills per set (13.7). They do carry a bit more strength on defense, ranking fifth in the conference with 2.6 blocks per set.
Florida State’s top two players from the 2023 season have continued to lead the way in 2024. Audrey Koenig, the reigning ACC Co-Player of the Year, leads the team with 198 points and ranks top-10 in the conference on a per-set basis. Khori Louis has also maintained her improvement after becoming a First Team All-ACC selection last year. She ranked fourth in the nation with a .432 hitting percentage then and now leads the ACC at .480 and ranks ninth in the conference with 1.18 blocks per set.
The Irish and Seminoles will square off at 1 p.m. on Sunday after Florida State hosts Louisville on Friday.
