2006 Volleyball - Year In Review

2006 Volleyball - Year In Review

Coaching Staff
Todd Kress, Head Coach
Melissa Batie, Associate Head Coach
Mitch Sadowsky, Assistant Coach
Sarah Snyder, Strength and Conditioning

Click here for team picture

Click here to see individual mug shots
2006 Women's Volleyball

Makini Thompson, Sarah Griffin, Summer Weissing and Zrinka Tomic

2006 Florida State Signees/Newcomers

Nikki Baker, 5-10, S, Findlay, Ohio

Brianna Barry, 6-3, MB, Winter Springs

Caitlin Belvin, 5-7, S, Winter Park

Jackie BonSalle, 6-3, OH, Albuquerque, N.Mex.

Brittany Byrd, 5-4, DS, Orlando

Alex Plummer, 5-10, DS, Woodbury, Minn.

Malorie Wessel, 5-7, OH-DS, West Chester, Ohio

Lauren Young, 6-2, MB, Ben Wheeler, Tex.


2006 Roster - By Name

L
T                                             PY
R No Name                  Pos     Hgt   Cl   Ltr  Hometown (Prior School)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*  8 Nikki Baker           S       5-10  Fr        Findlay, Ohio (Findlay)
*  5 Brianna Barry         MB      6-3   Fr        Winter Springs (Winter Springs)
*  3 Caitlin Belvin        S       5-7   Fr        Winter Park (Winter Park)
*  2 Jackie BonSalle       OH      6-3   Fr        Albuquerque, N.Mex. (Saint Pius X)
*  4 Brittany Byrd         DS      5-4   Fr        Orlando (Lake Highland Prep)
*  6 Kim Crawford          DS      5-7   Sr   ***  Fort Myers (Fort Myers)
* 13 Sarah Griffin         MB      5-11  Sr   ***  Hereford, Tex. (Hereford)
*  9 Alex Plummer          DS      5-10  So        Woodbury, Minn. (Cretin-Derham Hall/Birmingham Southern)
* 14 Jessica Skower        OH-S    6-1   Sr   ***  Naples (Naples)
*  1 Makini Thompson       OH      6-0   Jr   *    Quincy, Mass. (North Quincy/Long Beach State)
*  7 Zrinka Tomic          S       5-11  Sr   *    Nustar, Croatia (Mutija Anton Relkadic/Garden City JC)
* 10 Lauren Walker         DS      5-7   Jr   **   Missouri City, Tex. (Hightower)
* 21 Summer Weissing       DS      5-9   Jr   **   Boca Raton (Olympic Heights)
* 15 Malorie Wessel        OH-DS   5-7   Fr        West Chester, Ohio (Mount Notre Dame)
* 23 Lauren Young          MB      6-2   Fr        Ben Wheeler, Tex. (Van)

2006 Roster - By Number

L
T                                             PY
R No Name                  Pos     Hgt   Cl   Ltr  Hometown (Prior School)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*  1 Makini Thompson       OH      6-0   Jr   *    Quincy, Mass. (North Quincy/Long Beach State)
*  2 Jackie BonSalle       OH      6-3   Fr        Albuquerque, N.Mex. (Saint Pius X)
*  3 Caitlin Belvin        S       5-7   Fr        Winter Park (Winter Park)
*  4 Brittany Byrd         DS      5-4   Fr        Orlando (Lake Highland Prep)
*  5 Brianna Barry         MB      6-3   Fr        Winter Springs (Winter Springs)
*  6 Kim Crawford          DS      5-7   Sr   ***  Fort Myers (Fort Myers)
*  7 Zrinka Tomic          S       5-11  Sr   *    Nustar, Croatia (Mutija Anton Relkadic/Garden City JC)
*  8 Nikki Baker           S       5-10  Fr        Findlay, Ohio (Findlay)
*  9 Alex Plummer          DS      5-10  So        Woodbury, Minn. (Cretin-Derham Hall/Birmingham Southern)
* 10 Lauren Walker         DS      5-7   Jr   **   Missouri City, Tex. (Hightower)
* 13 Sarah Griffin         MB      5-11  Sr   ***  Hereford, Tex. (Hereford)
* 14 Jessica Skower        OH-S    6-1   Sr   ***  Naples (Naples)
* 15 Malorie Wessel        OH-DS   5-7   Fr        West Chester, Ohio (Mount Notre Dame)
* 21 Summer Weissing       DS      5-9   Jr   **   Boca Raton (Olympic Heights)
* 23 Lauren Young          MB      6-2   Fr        Ben Wheeler, Tex. (Van)

2006 Conference Awards

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brianna Barry            Atlantic Coast Conference - All-Freshman

Makini Thompson          Atlantic Coast Conference - All-Conference - 1st Team

All-Conference -  2

2006 All-Americans

Name                     Organization
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Makini Thompson          American Volleyball Coaches Assoc - All-American - Honorable Mention

All-Americans -  1

2006 Schedule and Results

DATE
POST
GAME
BOX
SCORE
LOC
OPPONENT
SCORE
08/25
Postgame
Box
N
Miss Valley State
Tri Match, Macon, Ga.
W 3-0
08/25
Postgame
Box
A
Mercer
Tri Match
W 3-0
09/01
Postgame
Box
H
Stetson
FSU Invitational
W 3-0
09/02
Postgame
Box
H
South Alabama
FSU Invitational
W 3-0
09/02
Postgame
Box
H
Eastern Illinois
FSU Invitational
W 3-0
09/08
Postgame
Box
A
Southern California
Gamecock Invitational, Columbia, S.C.
L 0-3
09/08
Postgame
Box
N
Saint John's
Gamecock Invitational, Columbia, S.C.
L 1-3
09/09
Postgame
Box
A
South Carolina
Gamecock Invitational
W 3-2
09/12
Postgame
Box
H
Florida
L 1-3
09/19
Postgame
Box
A
Miami
W 3-2
09/22
Postgame
Box
H
Maryland
W 3-0
09/24
Postgame
Box
H
Boston College
W 3-1
09/29
Postgame
Box
A
Georgia Tech
W 3-2
09/30
Postgame
Box
A
Clemson
L 0-3
10/06
Postgame
Box
H
North Carolina
W 3-0
10/07
Postgame
Box
H
North Carolina State
W 3-0
10/13
Postgame
Box
A
Virginia Tech
W 3-1
10/14
Postgame
Box
A
Virginia
W 3-0
10/17
Postgame
Box
H
Miami
L 2-3
10/20
Postgame
Box
H
Wake Forest
W 3-0
10/22
Postgame
Box
H
Duke
L 0-3
10/27
Postgame
Box
A
Boston College
W 3-0
10/29
Postgame
Box
A
Maryland
L 2-3
11/03
Postgame
Box
H
Clemson
L 0-3
11/05
Postgame
Box
H
Georgia Tech
L 1-3
11/10
Postgame
Box
H
Virginia
L 2-3
11/12
Postgame
Box
H
Virginia Tech
W 3-0
11/16
Postgame
Box
A
North Carolina
L 0-3
11/17
Postgame
Box
A
North Carolina State
W 3-1
11/21
Postgame
Box
A
Wake Forest
W 3-0
11/22
Postgame
Box
A
Duke
L 0-3
EOY Stats Ref

                Overall   Home    Away   Neutral
------------------------------------------------
FSU record is   19-12     9- 6     9- 5     1- 1
vs ACC          13- 9     6- 5     7- 4     0- 0


2006 Atlantic Coast Conference Results
 1  Duke                 21- 1    29- 4 
 2  Virginia             16- 6    23- 8 
 3  Clemson              15- 7    20-10 
 4  Florida State        13- 9    19-12 
 5  Georgia Tech         12-10    20-12 
 6  Virginia Tech        11-11    17-14 
 7t Wake Forest          10-12    14-17 
 7t Boston College       10-12    12-19 
 9t Miami                 9-13    12-19 
 9t North Carolina        9-13    11-20 
11  Maryland              6-16    13-18 
12  North Carolina State  0-22     2-29 


2006 Season Statistics

|--------ATTACK----------| |-----SET-----| |--------SERVE--------| |---RECEPT---| |--DIG---| |------BLOCKING------| Name GP MP MS K K/G E TA Pct A A/G TA SA SA/G SE TA Pct RE TA Pct DIG D/G BS BA Tot B/G BE BHE Pts Pts/G ================================================================================================================================================================== Makini Thompson 107 30 29 422 3.94 132 1004 0.289 5 0.05 9 0.08 14 133 0.895 14 0.000 70 0.65 15 26 41.0 0.38 6 1 459.0 4.29 Sarah Griffin 111 31 31 287 2.59 93 694 0.280 47 0.42 44 0.40 58 521 0.889 61 0.000 236 2.13 7 100 107.0 0.96 15 6 388.0 3.50 Brianna Barry 111 31 16 280 2.52 102 547 0.325 17 0.15 0 0.00 0 0 0.000 0 0.000 32 0.29 11 98 109.0 0.98 21 2 340.0 3.06 Jessica Skower 108 31 26 244 2.26 83 575 0.280 84 0.78 30 0.28 45 412 0.891 35 0.000 125 1.16 10 84 94.0 0.87 13 8 326.0 3.02 Malorie Wessel 84 28 21 210 2.50 107 490 0.210 27 0.32 43 0.51 69 297 0.768 7 0.000 108 1.29 2 20 22.0 0.26 6 4 265.0 3.15 Zrinka Tomic 104 31 30 127 1.22 32 286 0.332 1201 11.55 39 0.38 27 494 0.945 0 0.000 242 2.33 3 52 55.0 0.53 8 53 195.0 1.88 Jackie BonSalle 65 26 14 157 2.42 81 451 0.169 1 0.02 9 0.14 14 84 0.833 0 0.000 30 0.46 3 18 21.0 0.32 2 0 178.0 2.74 Alex Plummer 107 31 15 0 0.00 6 40 -0.150 21 0.20 25 0.23 23 475 0.952 12 0.000 171 1.60 0 0 0.0 0.00 0 2 25.0 0.23 Summer Weissing 106 30 0 1 0.01 0 8 0.125 43 0.41 18 0.17 31 428 0.928 25 0.000 467 4.41 0 0 0.0 0.00 0 0 19.0 0.18 Nikki Baker 20 13 1 1 0.05 3 10 -0.200 124 6.20 6 0.30 8 54 0.852 0 0.000 13 0.65 1 3 4.0 0.20 2 6 9.5 0.48 Lauren Young 2 2 0 2 1.00 1 4 0.250 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0 0.000 0 0.000 0 0.00 0 1 1.0 0.50 0 0 2.5 1.25 Lauren Walker 13 9 0 1 0.08 0 1 1.000 3 0.23 1 0.08 1 12 0.917 4 0.000 16 1.23 0 0 0.0 0.00 0 2 2.0 0.15 Brittany Byrd 6 6 0 1 0.17 0 2 0.500 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 8 1.000 0 0.000 2 0.33 0 0 0.0 0.00 0 1 1.0 0.17 Caitlin Belvin 22 11 3 1 0.05 0 1 1.000 9 0.41 0 0.00 4 61 0.934 7 0.000 22 1.00 0 0 0.0 0.00 0 2 1.0 0.05 Kim Crawford 28 13 0 0 0.00 0 2 0.000 10 0.36 1 0.04 1 19 0.947 13 0.000 39 1.39 0 0 0.0 0.00 0 0 1.0 0.04 Team 18 2 0.0 ============================================================================================================================================== FSU 111 31 31 1734 15.62 640 4115 0.266 1592 14.34 0 225 2.03 295 2998 0.902 196 0 0.000 1573 14.17 52 402 454.0 4.09 75 87 2212.0 19.93 Opp 111 31 31 1412 12.72 692 3983 0.181 1310 11.80 198 1.78 229 2694 0.915 224 0.000 1475 13.29 67 334 401.0 3.61 55 85 1844.0 16.61

Florida State 3, Miss Valley State 0
08/25/2006, Tri Match, Macon, Ga.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Season Begins for FSU Volleyball With 3-0 Route of Mississippi Valley State

Seminoles win season opener for fourth-straight season.

MACON, GA - GAME SCORES: FSU 3, MVSU 0 (30-13, 30-10, 30-18)

With three weeks of seeing the same faces in the gym, the Florida State University volleyball team was ready to play an opponent in a different uniform. The Seminoles kicked off the 2006 campaign by taking a 3-0 decision (30-13, 30-10, 30-18) over Mississippi Valley State on Friday (August 25) at the University Center on the campus of Mercer University.

Florida State starts the season at 1-0 as it won its fourth-straight season-opening match. The Devilettes begin with an 0-1 mark.

"It was a good start, everyone got a chance to play and get their feet wet," FSU head coach Todd Kress said. "I thought it was an aggressive start. The ball handling was decent, we passed well, played some okay defense and we blocked well. There are a lot of things we need to work on, but it was a good start and I was glad we got everyone in there."

The Seminoles got out to a quick 4-1 lead in game one after kills from middle blocker Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) and outside hitter Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.). The senior Griffin extended FSU's lead to 8-1 as she served four-straight points. Another four-point run off the serve of Lauren Walker (Missouri City, Texas) extended the lead and an ace by Alex Plummer (Woodbury, Texas) gave FSU its first 10-point margin at 19-9.

The lead would get to as many as 16 points on two occasions off Griffin kills to give FSU 24-8 and 25-9 advantages. The Seminoles closed the game on a 5-2 run, thanks to a pair of kills by rookie outside hitter Malorie Wessel (West Chester, Ohio), to take the opener 30-13. Florida State hit .556 as a team - and limited MVSU to -.053 - with Skower topping all attackers with four kills while four other players added three.

Just like the opening frame, Florida State got out to a quick advantage thanks to a 5-0 run that featured a pair of Skower kills. The Devilettes crept back to 10-6, but Plummer rattled off four points on her serve to give FSU a 16-6 advantage then setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) came through with four more to push the lead to 21-7. During that stretch, Griffin was in on three blocks and had a pair of kills.

Weissing scored four points of her own and Griffin served out the match with four more points for the 30-10 win in game two. Florida State hit better and played better defense in game two with a .571 attack percentage while MVSU hit -.208. The Seminoles had five total blocks during the second stanza.

"Jess played well, she just needs to play with an aggressive mentality," Kress noted of Skower, who switched from setter to outside hitter this season." The more aggressive she is the better she is and that's what we need from her."

In a replay of the first two games, Florida State got out to a quick lead as Thompson rattled off five-straight points before Mississippi Valley State even got on the board. The Devilettes responded with a 7-4 run to get within a point at 9-8. However, the MVSU rally was short lived as Thompson recorded three-straight kills during a 5-0 run during Nikki Baker's (Findlay, Ohio) serve to make it 15-8.

"The first one is always the hardest one," Kress added. "Now we need to fine tune everything throughout the season leading up to the ACC. It's a good foundation to start and hopefully we'll be better tonight."

Four players tied - Griffin, Skower, Thompson and Wessel -- for the match high with nine kills. Griffin was also tops on the squad with six blocking assists. Middle blocker Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) was next with six kills during her collegiate debut while Thompson followed with 13 and Wessel chipped in with 12. debut while Thompson followed with 13 and Wessel chipped in with 12. Weissing and Tomic led the digging effort with seven each while Tomic added a team-high 25 assists.

"Brianna, Malorie and Nikki all played well in their first match," Kress added. "Malorie and Brianna are going to learn that at this level it's a lot harder to score so they are going to need to continue to raise their game. I couldn't be happier for our freshmen, getting out there and getting some things done for their first match."

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            3  9  0  13  0.692   0  1  1   0   1  1  1   0   0  11.5
 7 Zrinka Tomic               2  2  1   3  0.333  24  2  2   0   7  0  3   0   0   5.5
 9 Alex Plummer               3  0  1   1 -1.000   1  2  0   0   5  0  0   0   0   2.0
13 Sarah Griffin              3  9  2  19  0.368   1  2  1   0   3  0  6   0   0  14.0
14 Jessica Skower             3  9  3  19  0.316   1  1  0   1   3  0  3   0   0  11.5
15 Malorie Wessel             2  9  1  12  0.667   0  0  3   0   0  0  0   0   0   9.0
   ---Substitutes---
 2 Jackie BonSalle            1  2  2   7  0.000   0  0  0   0   1  0  0   0   0   2.0
 3 Caitlin Belvin             1  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
 4 Brittany Byrd              1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3  6  1  15  0.333   1  0  0   0   1  0  1   1   0   6.5
 8 Nikki Baker                1  1  0   1  1.000  10  3  1   0   3  0  0   0   0   4.0
10 Lauren Walker              1  0  0   0  0.000   1  1  1   0   0  0  0   0   0   1.0
21 Summer Weissing            3  0  0   0  0.000   2  1  3   0   7  0  0   0   0   1.0
   Team                                                                    2    
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 47 11  90  0.400  42 13 12   1  31  1 14   3   0  68.0
   Opp                        3 17 24  78 -0.090  14  1  5  13  27  2  4   0   0  22.0


  1 2 3
Florida State
30
30
30
Miss Valley State
13
10
18

Florida State 3, Mercer 0
08/25/2006, Tri Match, Macon, Ga.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Florida State Volleyball Completes Opening Day Sweep With 3-0 Win Over Mercer

Seminole swing momentum with game two comeback.

MACON, GA - GAME SCORES: Florida State 3, Mercer 0 (30-17, 30-28, 30-17)

Given the youth on this year's Florida State volleyball team, head coach Todd Kress is looking for his squad to make improvements every match. In Friday's (August 25) contest at Mercer the Seminoles got a lesson in how to fight back. Instead of letting the Bears come back to tie the match at one game a piece, FSU mounted a comeback to win game two and go on to the 3-0 sweep (30-17, 30-28, 30-17).

The win was the Seminoles' second of the day as they improved to 2-0 on the year. FSU beat Mississippi Valley State earlier in the day. Mercer starts the year at 0-1.

"That was the turning point of the match," Kress said of the game two come back. "To come back like that, on their home court, was huge for us. This time of the year you want to face adversity and still come out on the positive end and we got out of it exactly what we wanted to. Mercer made us work but we were able to come out and get that second game which was the turning point in the match."

The hosts got their only lead in game one on the first point then freshman Malorie Wessel (West Chester, Ohio) served eight-straight points to give FSU an 8-1 advantage. During the run, the rookie outside hitter had a trio of aces. Another 8-2 stretch by the Seminoles, which included kills by four different players, pushed the lead to 16-4.

Mercer would not get any closer than nine points with FSU building the lead to 13 on four occasions, including the final score 30-17. Leading the way with five kills and a .625 hitting percentage in game one was rookie middle blocker Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.). Wessel ended the game with four aces.

Game two was nearly the complete opposite as after FSU built a 6-4 lead, the Bears went on a 14-4 run to take an 18-10 lead that was helped by five Seminole errors. Three kills by outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.) helped FSU pull to within five (20-15) then FSU went on a 9-5 run to make it 24-25 on Wessel's fifth kill in seven points.

The two teams traded points, but with Mercer two points away from winning the game, setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) came up with a kill then followed with a service ace to tie the match at 28-28. Out of a Mercer timeout, middle blocker Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) and Thompson came through with back-to-back kills that completed a 15-8 run to give Florida State game two 30-28.

"We were very clean in game one for this time of the year, we played good defense and took them out of their offense," Kress noted. "Game two was just the opposite; we came out flat and we put ourselves in a hole."

Florida State made sure there would be no doubt about game three thanks to strong play at the net. Early in the game it was the play of Thompson as she recorded three kills to help FSU to a 7-4 lead. Griffin got into the act as she accounted for six of FSU's next 11 points as the Seminoles pushed the lead to 18-10.

Back-to-back blocks gave Florida State its first 10-point lead of the game (22-12). Three of the last eight points came from Barry kills then Alex Plummer (Woodbury, Minn.) came through with a pair of aces to end the match with final score of 30-17.

"This year it's a team," Kress commented. "We have a team this year that works together, they enjoy each other, there is good team chemistry and when they're out there fighting for each other a lot of good things are going to happen."

Three players reached double-digit kills with Wessel posting a match-high 12. Griffin notched the first double-double of the year with 10 kills and 11 digs. Barry tied Griffin with 10 winners. Tomic was tops on the squad with 37 assists and Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) led the way with 14 digs.

As a team, Florida State hit over .300 in games one and three with an overall rate of .296, compared to .141 by the Bears. The Seminoles also held a big advantage in blocks with a 10-4 margin.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            3  7  0  23  0.304   0  0  0   1   0  0  4   2   0   9.0
 3 Caitlin Belvin             3  1  0   1  1.000   1  0  0   0   4  0  0   0   0   1.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3  9  3  18  0.333   1  0  0   0   1  0  4   0   0  11.0
 7 Zrinka Tomic               3  6  0  11  0.545  38  1  0   0   7  0  2   0   0   8.0
13 Sarah Griffin              3 10  6  24  0.167   2  1  2   0  11  0  5   0   0  13.5
15 Malorie Wessel             3 12  6  28  0.214   0  5  5   0   1  0  1   0   0  17.5
   ---Substitutes---
 9 Alex Plummer               3  0  0   1  0.000   0  2  1   0   6  0  0   0   0   2.0
14 Jessica Skower             3  6  0  11  0.545   1  0  2   0   0  1  2   0   0   8.0
21 Summer Weissing            3  0  0   0  0.000   2  0  1   0  14  0  0   0   0   0.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 51 15 117  0.308  45  9 11   1  44  1 18   2   0  70.0
   Opp                        3 32 17 100  0.150  27  1  5   8  45  2  4   0   0  37.0


  1 2 3
Florida State
30
30
30
Mercer
18
28
17

Florida State 3, Stetson 0
09/01/2006, FSU Invitational, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

FSU Volleyball Remains Undefeated With 3-0 Sweep of Stetson to Open FSU Invitational

Seminoles come back Saturday with South Alabama at 10 a.m. & Eastern Illinois at 7 pm.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - With a pair of victories under its belt on the road, the Florida State University volleyball returned home with the same result. The host Seminoles began play in the FSU Invitational with a 3-0 (30-20, 30-14, 30-13) victory over Stetson on Friday (September 1) at Lucy McDaniel Court at Tully Gymnasium.

With the win, Florida State improved to 3-0 on the year. Stetson dropped to 0-4. Florida State has won all five home openers under Todd Kress.

"I liked that we only made eight hitting errors in a three-game match," Kress said. "We ran the offense efficiently and we dispersed the sets; we had five players with double-digit attacks. We still have a long ways to go, but there were a lot of positives. We're going to take it one step at a time."

Leading the Florida State attack was outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass) as she totaled a match-high 17 kills to go along with a .571 hitting percentage. Middle blocker Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) was next with 10 kills to go along with four aces, seven digs and four blocks. Florida State hit a season-high .511 with seven player hitting .500 or better.

"She put up huge numbers," Kress said of Thompson. "I would have liked to have seen us use her less to where we were getting our middles a little bit more involved. Probably the one thing we need to work on is getting our middles more involved so we don't have to use her so much." Rookie setter Nikki Baker (Findlay, Ohio) put up and early career-high 28 assists with libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) topped the match with 11 digs. Rookies Malorie Wessel (West Chester, Ohio) and Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) added seven and six kills, respectively.

Florida State wasted no time in jumping out to a quick lead in game one as Alex Plummer (Woodbury, Minn.) served five straight points to give Florida State a 9-1 lead. During the run, Thompson picked up three kills.

Stetson would fight back to get within seven points at 20-13, but FSU came back with Plummer and Caitlin Belvin (Winter Park, Fla.) serving up two points a piece to give the Seminoles a 28-17 cushion. Back-to-back kills by Thompson and Griffin closed out the game at 30-20.

The Seminoles hit .594 as a team with six player hitting .500 or better, led by Barry's .600 clip. Thompson led the way with seven kills while setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) had 10 assists and six digs.

"We were all really excited to play at home and we had a good crowd," Thompson said. "We had a lot more energy tonight because we were excited to play at home and we didn't have any of the first-game jitters."

Game two started with another flurry of Florida State points as Baker rattled off six-straight to give FSU a 6-0 lead. The two teams traded points until Belvin notched four points with the help of a pair of kills from Wessel. The lead stayed at 12 points for most of the game until FSU closed on a 6-2 run for the 30-14 victory.

FSU had another outstanding hitting game with a .467 clip. Thompson and Wessel led the way with five kills, while Griffin chipped four. Griffin also had three service aces while Weissing tallied four digs.

The third game was the closest of the three at the start, but the Seminoles pulled away midway through the set. Stetson would cut the margin to four points (9-5) before FSU got nine points off the serve of freshmen Belvin and Brittany Byrd (Orlando, Fla.) that push the margin back to 20-8 in FSU's favor. A 10-5 run by the Seminoles closed out the match 30-13.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            3 17  1  28  0.571   0  0  0   1   1  1  0   0   0  18.0
 3 Caitlin Belvin             3  0  0   0  0.000   3  0  1   0   2  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3  6  1  12  0.417   0  0  0   0   0  0  3   0   0   7.5
 7 Zrinka Tomic               1  2  0   2  1.000  10  0  0   0   6  0  1   0   0   2.5
13 Sarah Griffin              3 10  1  17  0.529   2  4  2   0   7  1  3   1   0  16.5
15 Malorie Wessel             2  7  1  11  0.545   0  0  2   0   3  0  1   0   0   7.5
   ---Substitutes---
 2 Jackie BonSalle            1  3  0   4  0.750   0  1  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   4.0
 4 Brittany Byrd              1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   2  0  0   0   1   0.0
 6 Kim Crawford               2  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   1   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
 8 Nikki Baker                3  0  2   2 -1.000  28  1  1   0   4  1  0   0   0   2.0
 9 Alex Plummer               2  0  0   0  0.000   2  2  2   0   1  0  0   0   0   2.0
10 Lauren Walker              1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   1  0  0   0   0   0.0
14 Jessica Skower             3  7  1  10  0.600   1  0  0   0   2  0  4   0   0   9.0
21 Summer Weissing            3  0  0   0  0.000   0  2  1   1  11  0  0   0   0   2.0
23 Lauren Young               1  1  1   2  0.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   1.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 53  8  88  0.511  46 10  9   3  40  3 12   1   1  72.0
   Opp                        3 21 22  88 -0.011  19  3  5  10  21  2  0   0   0  26.0


  1 2 3
Stetson
20
14
13
Florida State
30
30
30

Florida State 3, South Alabama 0
09/02/2006, FSU Invitational, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Weissing moves into 10th on Career Digs List as FSU Volleyball Beats South Alabama 3-0

Seminoles face Eastern Illinois at 7 p.m. for FSU Invitational title.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - In just over two years, Florida State University libero Summer Weissing has established herself among the best defensive players in Seminole volleyball history. On Saturday (Sept. 2) she solidified that spot as she moved into the FSU career digs list as the Seminoles defeated South Alabama 3-0 (30-18, 30-17, 30-13) during the second day of the FSU Invitational on Lucy McDaniel Court at Tully Gymnasium.

"It's an honor to be along side so many great players," Weissing said. "This is just as much a team honor as it is an individual one. My teammates and coaches have put me in a position to be successful. I try not to think about individual statistics, I just want to try to help the team win."

Florida State remained perfect on the year as it improved to 4-0. South Alabama dropped to 2-2. The Seminoles will take on Eastern Illinois at 7 p.m. with the winner claiming the tournament title.

Needing just five digs to surpass Alex Sevillano's total of 948, the junior Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) amassed a match-high 11 digs to give her 955 for her career. Up next on the list is Joan Morris with 985 digs.

"The expectations are so high for Summer that sometimes they are hard to live up to, but she's done a good job and she'll continue to get better and better," FSU head coach Todd Kress said. "She's still working on some things defensively and serve-receive. She does a great job for us and is the center of our defensive effort."

For the fourth match in a row, the Seminoles hit better than .300 with a .412 attacking percentage with three players topping .500, led by outside hitter Jessica Skower's .700 (7-of-10) clip. The senior added a match-high four blocks. Florida State's defensive effort limited South Alabama to a -.240 hitting percentage.

Notching a career-high 13 kills was rookie outside hitter Malorie Wessel (West Chester, Ohio). Also getting into double-digit kills was senior middle blocker Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas). Wessel was second on the team with a .550 hitting percentage while Griffin was close behind at .529. Chipping in with six kills apiece were rookies Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) and Jackie BonSalle (Albuquerque, N.M.).

"Our freshmen got a good deal of play this morning, Kress said. "At one point we had four or five of our freshmen on the court and they all played together. It was a solid serving effort; we took them out of what they wanted to do. There are a lot of areas that we need to improve, we talked about it and hopefully we'll put them in place for Eastern Illinois tonight."

Florida State wasted no time in establishing an early lead in game one, running out to an 8-1 advantage as Griffin ripped off five-straight points on her serve. The two teams would trade points before sophomore Alex Plummer (Woodbury, Minn.) served five consecutive points to build a 19-6 lead. During the run, Wessel had three of her game-high five kills.

The lead would grow to as many as 16 points (28-12) on a kill by Barry with an USA service error giving FSU the game at 30-18. Barry and Skower added four kills as FSU hit .353 for the game. Weissing had seven digs and setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) added ten assists.

The two teams went back and fourth at the start of game two with an attack error by Barry cutting the Seminoles' lead to 8-7. However, Florida State gave itself a big cushion as it went on an 8-2 run to establish a 17-9 lead. A pair of aces by Tomic and one from Wessel keyed the run and Griffin contributed a pair of kills. Tomic's serve would help the Seminoles close out the match as she recorded six straight points, including a pair of winner by Wessel as FSU prevailed.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 2 Jackie BonSalle            3  6  4  17  0.118   0  0  0   0   0  0  1   0   0   6.5
 7 Zrinka Tomic               2  3  1   6  0.333  23  5  0   0   3  0  0   0   1   8.0
 9 Alex Plummer               1  0  0   0  0.000   0  1  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   1.0
13 Sarah Griffin              3 11  2  17  0.529   1  0  0   1   5  0  0   0   0  11.0
14 Jessica Skower             3  7  0  10  0.700   2  0  2   0   0  0  1   3   0   7.5
15 Malorie Wessel             3 13  2  20  0.550   1  4  4   2   4  0  0   0   0  17.0
   ---Substitutes---
 3 Caitlin Belvin             1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   1  0  0   0   1   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3  6  3  13  0.231   0  0  0   0   1  0  1   0   0   6.5
 6 Kim Crawford               2  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  1   0   4  0  0   0   0   0.0
 8 Nikki Baker                1  0  0   0  0.000  10  1  0   0   2  0  0   0   1   1.0
10 Lauren Walker              1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   1   0.0
21 Summer Weissing            3  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  1   0  11  0  0   0   0   0.0
23 Lauren Young               1  1  0   2  0.500   0  0  0   0   0  0  1   0   0   1.5
   Team                                                      1                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 47 12  85  0.412  39 11  8   4  31  0  4   3   4  60.0
   Opp                        3 18 19  74 -0.014  14  4  5  11  21  0  4   3   5  24.0


  1 2 3
South Alabama
18
17
13
Florida State
30
30
30

Florida State 3, Eastern Illinois 0
09/02/2006, FSU Invitational, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Hosts Beat Eastern Illinois 3-0 to Take FSU Invitational, Seminoles Equal Best Start In Kress Era

Griffin named Tournament MVP. Skower and Wessel also on All-Tournament squad.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - Through the first two matches of the FSU Invitational, Florida State University head volleyball coach Todd Kress was rotating his newcomers into the line-up more than usual to gain them valuable experience, but with the title on the line it was back to the normal starting line-up. The regulars were running on all cylinders as FSU swept Eastern Illinois 3-0 (30-12, 30-23, 30-24) to win the championship on Saturday (Sept. 2) on Lucy McDaniel Court at Tully Gymnasium.

With the victory, Florida State improved to 5-0, equaling the start of Kress' 2004 Seminole squad. The Panthers were handed their first loss as they dropped to 3-1.

"We're serving very well, serving aggressively, we're keeping teams out of system and I think that's attributing to the low hitting percentage our opponents are having," Kress said. "There are still a lot of things we need to clean up, but it was a solid performance."

Leading FSU all weekend long was senior middle blocker Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) and she was rewarded for her efforts with tournament MVP honors. Also making it onto the all-tournament team was senior outside hitter Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.) and freshman outside hitter Malorie Wessel (West Chester, Ohio).

"She's our heart and soul," Kress said of Griffin. "She jump serves, she's playing middle for us this year, she's defending, she's hitting from the back row, she's doing it all for us. We look to her in crunch time and she continues to lead the way."

For the third match of the tournament, Griffin reached double figure kills as she tallied a match-high 12 while hitting .500 (12-of-20). She also had a team-best 14 points, three blocks as well as seven digs. Florida State hit .422 as a team, giving it a .300 hitting percentage or higher in all five matches, with five players at a .400 clip or better. Skower led the way with her .643 (9-of-14) rate.

Adding a double-digit kill night was Wessel with her 11 winners. Senior setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) had her first double-double of the year with 31 assists and 10 digs. After climbing into the career digs list in the morning match against South Alabama, libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) had 16 digs and tied Skower for the team-high with three aces. FSU had a season-best ten aces.

"I was really happy for the way Jess hit the ball all weekend, she found a way to score," Kress added. "This may have been her best weekend as a Florida State Seminole. I thought she did a great job."

As was the case all weekend, the Seminoles got out to a fast start as a pair of Skower aces gave FSU a quick 5-1 lead. FSU broke the game open with a 10-4 run that saw middle blocker Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.), Griffin and Wessel each record a pair of kills. The lead would continue to grow as Barry and Skower added two more kills as FSU took a 23-9 advantage. The Seminoles would close the match on a 7-0 run that including a pair of kills from Tomic for the 30-12 victory.

The rookie Barry had a game-high five kills, while Weissing picked up nine digs. Skower had four kills and a pair of blocks. Tomic added 11 assists. The Seminoles hit .538 as a team.

The Seminoles tried to run away with game two as Weissing picked up three points on her serve from two Wessel kills to stake FSU a 13-6 lead. A kill by Skower would extend the lead to 16-8 but the Panther dug in and started to chip away at the Seminole lead. Caitlin Balsam served five-straight points then four consecutive FSU errors made it a 17-17 contest.

The two teams traded points then after a kill by outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.), sophomore Alex Plummer (Woodbury, Minn.) served three-straight points to give FSU a 22-18 margin. EIU got it back to one point (24-23) but the Seminoles forced Eastern Illinois into four errors down the stretch as they took the game 30-23.

Wessel had a great all-around game, notching a set-high six kills with a .714 hitting percentage to go along with four digs. Griffin and Skower had three kills a piece while FSU hit .367.

Game three was the tightest of the three bouts as neither team would mount more than a two-point advantage until a Griffin kill gave FSU a 16-13 margin. The senior captain showed why she was tournament MVP as she extended a two-point lead to five (21-16) by serving three-straights points to put the game and the match out of reach. The lead would grow to as many as seven (28-21) on an EIU attacking error and Griffin closed out the match with her 12th kill to give FSU the hardware with the 30-17 victory. Griffin was at her best in the third game, notching seven of her 12 kills while hitting .700 (7-of-10).

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            2  2  1   8  0.125   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   2.0
 7 Zrinka Tomic               3  4  1   6  0.500  31  0  1   0  10  0  1   1   0   4.5
 9 Alex Plummer               3  0  0   1  0.000   2  2  0   1   3  0  0   0   0   2.0
13 Sarah Griffin              3 12  2  20  0.500   3  1  2   1   7  0  2   1   0  14.0
14 Jessica Skower             3  9  0  14  0.643   3  3  2   1   3  1  1   0   1  13.5
15 Malorie Wessel             3 11  5  23  0.261   1  1  4   0   7  0  1   0   0  12.5
   ---Substitutes---
 2 Jackie BonSalle            1  3  0   7  0.429   0  0  0   0   1  0  0   0   0   3.0
 3 Caitlin Belvin             1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   1   2  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3  8  2  11  0.545   0  0  0   0   0  0  1   0   1   8.5
21 Summer Weissing            3  0  0   0  0.000   1  3  1   1  16  0  0   0   0   3.0
   Team                                                      1                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 49 11  90  0.422  41 10 10   6  49  1  6   2   2  63.0
   Opp                        3 29 20 108  0.083  24  6  9  10  27  0  0   2   1  35.0


  1 2 3
Eastern Illinois
12
23
24
Florida State
30
30
30

Southern California 3, Florida State 0
09/08/2006, Gamecock Invitational, Columbia, S.C.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

FSU Volleyball Opens Gamecock Invitational With 3-0 Loss to No. 10 Southern California

Rookie Brianna Barry leads the way with team-best 11 kills.

COLMUBIA, SC - GAME SCORES: No. 10 Southern California 3, Florida State 0 (22-30, 22-30, 26-30)

Florida State volleyball head coach Todd Kress is in the process of building his program into Top 25 squad and the young Seminoles got a taste of it takes to get to that level during the opening contest of the Gamecock Invitational. Florida State hung in with No. 10 Southern California, but in the end lost its first match of the season in a 3-0 defeat (22-30, 20-30, 26-30) on Friday (Sept. 8) at South Carolina's Volleyball Competition Facility.

Florida State dropped to 5-1 on the season, while the Women of Troy improved to 7-0.

"We came out of the gate really strong, we just need to sustain our effort," Kress said. "Obviously USC is a good team and they're going to make adjustments, but we need to better our ball control. We were out of system a lot and we didn't defend very well. If we're going to stay in a high-level match we need to handle the ball a lot better than that."

Notching her first double-digit kill performance of her career was rookie middle blocker Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) as she led the Seminoles will 11 kills. Topping the blocking effort was fellow middle Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) as she totaled four while Barry and outside hitter Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.) added three each.

"I thought she was fired up, she played well all match," Kress said of Barry. "A couple of times she got juked a bit on the block, but she transitioned well, she blocked better. For her, as a freshmen to be doing some of the things she did I thought she did a good job."

Skower and outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.) were next on the team with six kills with Skower hitting a team-best .333 (5-1-12). Setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) topped 30 assists for the third time this year with 35. Libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) had an FSU-best 12 digs.

The Seminoles stayed with USC for most of game one and took advantage of four Women of Troy errors to go a on a 5-0 run that gave FSU a 10-7 lead. Griffin was a big key to the early lead as recorded three kills and served four of the five points that got the Seminoles the lead. USC would go on a 5-0 run of its own to pull ahead but a pair of blocks by Thompson gave the advantage back to FSU at 15-14. Unfortunately that lead would be shorted lived as USC rattled off six-straight points for a 21-17 margin it would not relinquish as FSU dropped game one 30-22.

Griffin had a team-high five kills in game one while Barry was next with four and a .429 hitting percentage. Tomic had 12 assists and Weissing contributed six digs. Florida State had more total blocks (5) in game one against the number ten team in the country than it did in the entire matches versus Eastern Illinois (4) and South Alabama (2).

The first two points scored in game two came off kills from Barry but the Women of Troy had already built a 6-2 lead by that point. After USC upped its the lead to ten points (16-6), a kill by Tomic would spark a four-straight points off Weissing's serve to cut the margin to five (16-11). FSU would take advantage of USC errors and a kill by Jackie BonSalle (Albuquerque, N.M.) closed the gap to 21-19. USC would pull away down the stretch for the 30-22 victory. Barry tallied four kills for the game while Thompson added three.

Out of the intermission, the Seminoles came out firing as they built an early lead in game three. A pair of Skower kills and another from Barry made it a 6-3 advantage in Florida State's favor. The Women of Troy would come back with an 11-2 run for the 14-8 lead. FSU would rally behind back-to-back kills from Tomic and Barry to close the lead to 19-16, but USC went on a 7-3 run to get the margin back to 26-19. FSU fought until the end as it found itself down 29-21, but reeled off five-straight points, including a pair of kills from BonSalle before succumbing 30-26.

"Definitely good effort, good energy but it came down to ball control," Kress noted. "We have to serve and defend at a high level because that's where we want to be."

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            3  6  3  14  0.214   0  0  0   2   0  1  2   1   0   8.0
 2 Jackie BonSalle            3  7  5  26  0.077   1  0  1   0   4  0  0   0   0   7.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3 11  6  20  0.250   1  0  0   0   1  0  3   2   0  12.5
 7 Zrinka Tomic               3  5  2  13  0.231  35  0  1   0   5  0  2   0   0   6.0
13 Sarah Griffin              3  6  5  24  0.042   2  0  1   3   5  0  4   2   0   8.0
14 Jessica Skower             3  5  1  12  0.333   0  0  1   0   1  0  3   1   0   6.5
   ---Substitutes---
 6 Kim Crawford               3  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  0   0   2  0  0   0   0   0.0
 9 Alex Plummer               3  0  0   1  0.000   0  0  0   0   2  0  0   0   0   0.0
21 Summer Weissing            3  0  0   1  0.000   0  1  1   1  12  0  0   0   0   1.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 40 22 111  0.162  40  1  5   6  32  1 14   6   0  49.0
   Opp                        3 54 21 112  0.295  52  6  6   1  41  7  4   3   2  69.0


  1 2 3
Florida State
22
22
26
Southern California
30
30
30

Saint John's 3, Florida State 1
09/08/2006, Gamecock Invitational, Columbia, S.C.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Seminole Volleyball Can't Sustain Fast Start, Drops 3-1 Decision to St. John's

Summer Weissing moves into 9th on FSU career digs list.

COLMUBIA, SC - GAME SCORES: St. John's 3, Florida State 1 (30-25, 26-30, 23-30, 26-30)

After its game one victory over St. John's, it appeared the young Florida State University volleyball team was applying the lessons it learned in the loss to No. 10 USC earlier in the day. However, the Seminoles showed they still have some growing pains to go through as the Redstorm fought back to win the next three games and take the match 3-1 (30-25, 26-30, 23-30, 26-30) on Friday (Sept. 8) during the first day of the Gamecock Invitational at South Carolina's Volleyball Competition Facility.

The Seminoles dropped their second in a row as their ledger fell to 5-2. The Redstorm remained undefeated at 9-0.

Tying for the match high was junior outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.) and rookie middle blocker Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) as each totaled 15 kills. Senior middle Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) was next on the team with 12. The trio would be the lone offensive highlight for the Seminoles, who hit a season-low .192. The biggest difference came on defense where the Redstorm out-dug the FSU 71-48.

Libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) had a team-high 13 digs and combined with the 12 she amassed versus USC, she moved into ninth place in school history with 997 digs, passing Joan Morris (1983-86). Setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) set a career-high with 39 assists.

The Seminoles got off to a quick lead in game one as freshman Malorie Wessel (West Chester, Ohio) followed a kill with a service ace to give FSU its first six-point lead (9-3). The lead would fluctuate between three and four points until Alex Plummer (Woodbury, Minn.) sandwiched an ace in between Thompson kills to build an 18-12 FSU lead. Down the stretch six different players would record a kill as St. John's would not threaten the rest of the set. The Seminole lead expanded to as many as seven before the 30-24 victory.

Thompson exceeded her kill total from the entire USC match, tallying seven winners with a .438 hitting percentage. Florida State hit .326 as a team. Wessel notched four kills and Tomic added 16 assists.

In a complete reverse of game one, the second stanza started with St. John's jumping out to a 7-1 lead. The Seminoles would battle back to cut the margin to two (16-14) on a combined block by Wessel and Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.). FSU overcame several errors to get back within two at 28-26, but the Redstorm closed out the game 30-26.

Thompson had four kills on six swings to up her hitting percentage to .500 for the match. Griffin and Barry were next with three kills each.

The momentum shifted back and fourth at the start of game three as a pair of Barry kills would help FSU to a 5-3 lead, but SJU would answer with five in a row for an 8-5 advantage. The Seminoles would chip away until a kill by Griffin gave the Seminoles the lead back at 10-9. The two teams would battle the rest of the way with eight ties and seven lead changes until St. John's pulled ahead 21-19. FSU got it back to a two-point deficit (25-23) but the Redstorm block was too much as they went on to prevail 30-26.

Florida State was its own worst enemy in game three, hitting just .116 as a team. Barry topped the team with four kills. The Seminole had four total team blocks in the game.

FSU put itself in a hole early as it was behind 8-3, but the Seminoles inched their way back as an ace by Griffin tied the stanza at 9-9 then a SJU attack error gave them the lead at 10-9. A Wessel ace gave FSU a 15-11 lead that grew to six points (20-14) on back-to-back combined blocks by Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.) and Griffin. Unfortunately, St. John's used a 16-7 run to win the game 30-26 and take the match.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            4 15  4  44  0.250   0  0  0   0   1  1  2   0   0  17.0
 7 Zrinka Tomic               4  4  1   9  0.333  39  2  0   0   7  0  1   0   4   6.5
 9 Alex Plummer               3  0  0   1  0.000   0  0  2   0   4  0  0   0   0   0.0
13 Sarah Griffin              4 12  6  34  0.176   3  1  2   2   7  0  5   0   0  15.5
14 Jessica Skower             4  3  1  20  0.100   4  0  2   0   5  0  6   1   0   6.0
15 Malorie Wessel             4  5  5  22  0.000   0  4  2   0   7  0  3   0   1  10.5
   ---Substitutes---
 5 Brianna Barry              4 15  6  34  0.265   0  0  0   0   1  0  7   1   0  18.5
 6 Kim Crawford               4  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   1   3  0  0   0   0   0.0
 8 Nikki Baker                3  0  0   2  0.000   4  0  1   0   0  0  0   0   1   0.0
10 Lauren Walker              2  1  0   1  1.000   0  0  0   1   0  0  0   0   0   1.0
21 Summer Weissing            4  0  0   0  0.000   3  0  1   1  13  0  0   0   0   0.0
   Team                                                      1                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        4 55 23 167  0.192  53  7 10   6  48  1 24   2   6  75.0
   Opp                        4 69 30 168  0.232  67  6 10   7  71  1 10   7   2  81.0


  1 2 3 4
Florida State
30
26
23
26
Saint John's
25
30
30
30

Florida State 3, South Carolina 2
09/09/2006, Gamecock Invitational, Columbia, S.C.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

FSU Volleyball Team Fights Back To Defeat South Carolina, 3-2.

Seminoles earn sixth victory of season and stand at 6-2.

COLUMBIA, SC - After two tough losses to open the Gamecock Invitational, the Florida State volleyball team could have folded up the tents against the tournament host. Instead, the Seminoles showed the fight that was missing on Friday as they beat South Carolina 3-2 (30-28, 21-30, 30-17, 28-30, 15-13) on Saturday (Sept. 9) at UCS's Volleyball Competition Facility.

Florida State improved its record to 6-2 on the year. Last season FSU didn't record its sixth victory until October 28. The Gamecocks were winless in their own tournament as they fell to 7-4.

Driving the FSU offense was outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.) as she recorded a career-high 21 kills and a .409 hitting percentage on her way to all-tournament honors. Also setting a career-high was setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) as she contributed 56 assists. Joining Thompson with double digit kills were middle blockers Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) and Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) as they contributed 17 and 11, respectively.

Led by Barry, who had a match-high four total blocks, Florida State out-blocked USC 13-9 as five different players had four or more blocking assists. Griffin had nine digs and Tomic added eight.

A 5-1 run that included three kills from Thompson helped the Seminoles establish an early 10-5 lead. Also aiding Florida State was several USC errors as the lead remained at five (15-5) thanks to four Gamecock miscues. South Carolina would pull to within two (17-15) but a pair of USC serving errors and a combined block by Skower and Griffin gave FSU a six-point advantage (23-17) that it would increase to seven (27-20) on a Barry kill. South Carolina would use a late run to pull within one (29-28) but a Thompson kill would give Florida State the game 30-28.

Leading the FSU attack was Thompson as she hammered home five kills and hit .833 (5-0-6). The Seminoles hit .467 as a team. Griffin and Skower added four kills a piece and Tomic had 14 assists.

The beginning of game two consisted of several runs with the lead changing hands four times before USC used a 4-0 run to establish an 8-6 lead. A Thompson kill, followed by a block and Tomic ace would tie the game at 13-13 with the two teams trading points before the Gamecocks ran off three-straight to regain the 20-17. Florida State could not recover as USC went on a 10-2 run before closing the game out at 30-21.

Passing woes plagued the Seminoles as they were out-dug 13-3 by USC. As a result, Florida State hit just .031 during the game as Thompson (four kills) and freshman Jackie BonSalle (Albuquerque, N.M.) - two -- as the players with more than one kill.

Returning to how it opened the first game, FSU came out of the intermission and established a 5-1 lead that grew to 9-2 on a pair of kills by Thompson and Griffin. The Gamecocks pulled to within four (10-6), but the freshmen duo of Barry and BonSalle would account for six points as the lead grew to 11 (18-7) on a BonSalle kill. USC would not threaten the rest of the game as the lead only dipped to nine before FSU prevailed 30-17.

The passing problems of game two were reversed as FSU translated 18 digs - including five by Tomic -- into a .545 hitting percentage. Barry led the way with five kills while Thompson and Griffin added four to go along with three from BonSalle.

Game four started out as a back and fourth affair with nine ties and seven lead changes before USC established a 12-9 lead on a trio of FSU errors. Three times the Seminoles would close to within one point, including 14-13, but USC went on a 4-0 run to build a 15-13 lead. Florida State fought to get back in the match as Tomic rattled off five points on her serve with four kills from Thompson to tie it at 27, but the Seminoles couldn't complete the comeback, losing game four 30-28.

Service errors doomed FSU, including one at 27-27, as it committed seven service miscues. Griffin came through with six kills, while Thompson added five.

The fifth and final game started tight with six ties and three lead changes until the Gamecocks took an 8-6 lead on a pair of kills. Florida State battled back to take the next three points, including a block to regain the lead 9-8. An attack error by USC gave FSU a two-point cushion (10-8) that it would expand to 12-9 on a kill by Thompson. The match appeared to be over when FSU took a 14-10 lead on a Barry kill, but the hosts fought back to 14-13 before a Thompson kill ended the game and the match 15-13.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            5 21  3  44  0.409   1  1  4   2   6  0  3   1   0  23.5
 2 Jackie BonSalle            5  8  5  24  0.125   0  0  0   0   4  0  2   0   0   9.0
 3 Caitlin Belvin             5  0  0   0  0.000   4  0  3   2   6  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              5 11  4  19  0.368   0  0  0   0   1  0  8   1   0  15.0
 7 Zrinka Tomic               5  3  1  12  0.167  56  3  1   0   8  0  4   1   2   8.0
13 Sarah Griffin              5 17  5  33  0.364   0  2  2   5   9  0  5   0   1  21.5
   ---Substitutes---
 9 Alex Plummer               5  0  0   0  0.000   2  1  3   0   4  0  0   0   0   1.0
14 Jessica Skower             5  8  4  14  0.286   1  0  0   0   1  0  4   0   0  10.0
15 Malorie Wessel             2  0  1   2 -0.500   0  0  1   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
21 Summer Weissing            5  0  0   0  0.000   0  1  1   1   6  0  0   0   0   1.0
   Team                                                      1                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        5 68 23 148  0.304  64  8 15  11  45  0 26   3   3  89.0
   Opp                        5 63 33 154  0.195  60 11 10   8  45  3 12   1   3  83.0


  1 2 3 4 5
Florida State
30
21
30
28
15
South Carolina
28
30
17
30
13

Florida 3, Florida State 1
09/12/2006, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Seminole Volleyball Fights to the End But Drops 3-1 Decision To No. 6 Florida.

FSU first ACC team to take a game off a Top 10 team this year in front of biggest crowd in two seasons.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - GAME SCORES: No. 6 Florida 3, Florida State 1 (26-30, 30-27, 24-30, 24-30)

Every year under head coach Todd Kress, the Florida State volleyball team keeps getting closer and closer to its instate rival Florida. The Seminoles made another step in the right direction Tuesday (September 12), but couldn't pull off the upset as they fell 3-1 (26-30, 30-27, 24-30, 24-30) to the No. 6 Gators on Lucy McDaniel Court at Tully Gymnasium.

The Seminoles dropped to 6-3 while Florida improved to 7-1. The match was seen in front of 1,159 fans, the highest attendance for a Florida State home match since 1,215 fans came to the October 15, 2004 match with North Carolina.

Florida State has taken a game off the Gators in three of the four meetings during Kress' tenure, equaling the number of games the Seminoles had won against the Gators in the previous 10 years. FSU is the only team in the ACC to play a pair of top 10 teams - along with No. 10 USC - and is the only team in the league to take a game off a top 10 program.

"We played well in game two and we came out of the locker room with the momentum, but we missed too many opportunities," Kress said. "When you play against a team like Florida you have to take advantage of every opportunity you have and we just made too many mistakes."

Four different Seminoles registered double-digit kills, led by junior outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.) as she amassed 15. The best all-around game came from senior middle blocker Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) as she put up her second double-double of the year with 14 kills and 11 digs to go along with a team-best four blocks.

A pair of freshmen were next up as outside hitter Malorie Wessel (West Chester, Ohio) tallied 12 and middle blocker Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) added 10. Setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) had 49 assists and libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) contributed 16 digs.

Defense was the difference in the game as Florida had eight more total blocks (13-to-5) and five more digs. As a result, the Gators hit .336 as a team to the Seminoles' .194. Each team had ten aces, while Florida State committed 11 service errors to UF's seven.

By far the best game for the Seminoles was the second set as they ran out to a 9-3 lead on an ace by Weissing. Four of FSU's first nine points were aces as Tomic had a pair and Wessel contributed one, to go along with two kills from Griffin.

As to be expected, the Gators fought back and got their first lead at 15-14, which they expanded to 17-15. But a kill by Thompson triggered a four-point run that gave FSU the advantage back, 20-17, as Tomic's left-handed serve caused three UF errors. The Seminoles would hold the Gator at bay the rest of the match as they would not get closer than two points before a Thompson kill gave FSU the game, 30-27.

Wessel paced the way with five kills during the game as part of her .300 hitting percentage (5-2-10), while Barry, Thompson and Griffin chipped in three. FSU had a match-high .275 hitting percentage.

"They knew coming in that they are going to be a big part of our team and a lot of the time they play more like upperclassmen," Kress said of the freshmen. "If we play with this same kind of effort consistently during the ACC season we can have some success."

After a back and fourth start game one, Florida grabbed a 12-9 lead with three-straight points. Florida State fought back and with the help of two Griffin kills and a Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.) ace, the Seminoles tied the match at 12-12. The Gators regained their three-point advantage (18-15) and held it for the remainder of the match - with a peak at five points (27-22) -- as FSU could only get to within one (27-26) during a three-point run off Weissing's serve.

Game three was the only one that Florida had complete control of as it erased an 8-6 Florida State lead with an 8-0 run. The Seminoles would stay with the Gators the rest of the way, but could not get the margin any lower than five as they dropped the game 30-24.

The final set was on track to be a repeat of game three as the Gators held a 17-9 lead at one point, but with their backs against the wall, FSU got itself back in the match. Wessel started the comeback with a pair of winners during a four-point run on Griffin's serve. Three points later the rookie served up a pair of aces and Tomic added two kills to tie the match at 19-19. Florida responded by pushing its lead back to three (23-20) with Florida State only getting to within two (26-24) after a Griffin kill, but couldn't complete the comeback as it lost 30-24.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 2 Jackie BonSalle            1  1  1   7  0.000   0  0  0   0   1  0  0   0   0   1.0
 7 Zrinka Tomic               4  5  1  12  0.333  49  2  1   0   5  0  2   0   3   8.0
 9 Alex Plummer               4  0  0   3  0.000   2  1  1   0   9  0  0   0   0   1.0
13 Sarah Griffin              4 14  7  33  0.212   1  1  0   4  11  0  4   2   0  17.0
14 Jessica Skower             4  8  4  29  0.138   3  2  2   0   2  0  1   0   0  10.5
15 Malorie Wessel             4 12  6  25  0.240   3  3  4   0   6  0  0   0   0  15.0
   ---Substitutes---
 1 Makini Thompson            4 15  6  42  0.214   0  0  0   1   3  0  2   0   0  16.0
 3 Caitlin Belvin             3  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   3   3  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              4 10  6  22  0.182   1  0  0   0   4  0  1   0   0  10.5
10 Lauren Walker              1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   1   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
21 Summer Weissing            4  0  0   2  0.000   2  1  2   0  16  0  0   0   0   1.0
   Team                                                      1                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        4 65 31 175  0.194  61 10 10  10  60  0 10   2   3  80.0
   Opp                        4 61 13 143  0.336  57 10  7  10  65  5 16   2   5  84.0


  1 2 3 4
Florida
30
27
30
30
Florida State
26
30
24
24

Florida State 3, Miami 2
09/19/2006, Coral Gables, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

FSU Volleyball Fights Back to Win Last Two Games, Takes ACC Opener 3-2 at Miami.

Seminoles win conference opener for fifth time in 15 seasons and third time in five years under Kress.

CORAL GABLES, FL - GAME SCORES: Florida State 3, Miami 2 (27-30, 30-24, 22-30, 30-12, 15-12)

Perhaps more than any sport, volleyball is a game of momentum. The Florida State University volleyball team seized the energy in game four and road it to 3-2 (27-30, 30-24, 22-30, 30-12, 15-12) victory over Miami in its Atlantic Coast Conference opener on Tuesday (Sept. 19).

With the victory, Florida State improved to 7-3 overall, 1-0 in the ACC as FSU won in Miami for the second year in a row after getting its first victory ever here last season. Miami dropped to 3-7 and 0-1 in the conference. The Seminoles moved to 3-2 in ACC openers under Todd Kress after losing their last two.

"It's a huge in-state rival and to come down here, the first match in conference play and get a win, I couldn't be prouder of our kids right now," Kress said. "This is tough place to play. All in all it was a huge team effort across the board."

Four different players posted double-digit kills, led by a career-best 19 from rookie outside hitter Malorie Wessel (West Chester, Ohio). Notching her second double-double in a row was senior middle blocker Sara Griffin (Hereford, Texas) with 16 kills and 15 digs. Next was outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass) at 14 kills while freshman Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) was next with a dozen.

Exceeding her career-high by one assist was setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) with 57. Leading strong defensive attack with a season-high 18 digs was libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) as she moved passed Latoya Washington for eighth in school history at 1,036 digs. FSU had a season-high 71 digs with Griffin and Tomic adding 15 each.

"Sarah has so much heart and soul out there," Kress noted. "She went back and served the last four points with her jump serve and was aggressive with it. I thought Brianna turned the tide of the match, we were able to get the ball to her in the middle and she made some great plays."

The match began with sloppy play as 10 of the first 15 points came from errors. The Seminoles settled down and established their first lead, 9-8, on a combined block by Griffin and Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.), that would grow to as many as three (12-9). Both teams would take their turn in front as Miami had a three-point lead as late as 19-16, but the Seminoles rallied for five-straight points to take a 21-19 advantage.

FSU overcame three errors that gave Miami a 24-21 lead by scoring three of their own, including a pair of kills by Wessel, to tie it at 24. All square at 25, Miami took advantage of two scoring opportunities to build a 27-25 lead with Florida State getting no closer than a point before the Hurricanes went on to the 30-27 victory. Despite hitting .355 as a team, the Seminoles were outdone by Miami as the Hurricanes hit .410. Wessel was tops on the team with four kills and a .571 hitting percentage, while Griffin and Thompson had three kills a piece.

The Seminoles could not sustain any momentum in the early portion of game two as they would not score more than one point in a row until a Skower and Griffin block followed a Griffin kill to tie the match at 12-12. Wessel evened the match at 14 with a kill then a pair of winners by Barry gave FSU its first lead at 16-14.

Out of a Miami time out, Florida State would continue to go to Barry as she scored three points in an 8-3 run that gave FSU a 24-17 advantage. Miami would pull to within three (27-24) but Wessel would have a pair of kills and Barry and Tomic added a block for the 30-24 victory. The Seminoles did a better job of getting touches on the block, allowing them to dig more balls and drop Miami's hitting percentage by 231 points to .179 in game two while they hit .354. Rookies Wessel and Barry had five kills a piece in the set to go along with four from Griffin and Thompson.

As good as the Seminoles looked in latter half of game two, they started game three the complete opposite. Eight Florida State errors and several missed scoring opportunities allowed Miami to build a 15-7 margin. A pair of Barry kills during Griffin's serve got the Seminoles back to 22-17 and they would get to within four (20-24) but Miami fended off Florida State for the 30-22 victory.

Perhaps the biggest difference in the game was serving as Miami got nine points off Florida State service errors (four) and serve receive errors (five). Barry posted five kills for the second game in a row, while Thompson was the only other player on the team to record more than two with three.

"We weren't playing good volleyball the first three games," Kress added. "Serving is something we pride ourselves on and we had been serving the heck out of the ball, but we didn't serve well until games four and five. That's when we started to take them out and execute. Defensively the kids played with a lot of heart in games four and five."

The Florida State team that won game two reappeared in the fourth stanza. The Seminoles established an early 8-4 lead thanks to several Miami miscues but completely stole the momentum as Tomic served eight-points in a row to give the Seminoles a 17-4 lead. Keying the run was three-straight Thompson kills. The lead would never dip below 12 points and grew to as many as 18 as FSU went on for the 30-12 victory. The 12 points scored by Miami were the lowest by an FSU opponent in a non game five since NC State was held to seven on October 17, 2004.

Florida State hit .583 as a team with Wessel pacing the way at five kills. Thompson and Griffin chipped in three kills each. FSU picked up the defense with an 11-9 advantage in digs to go along with three blocks.

A Skower kill gave Florida State an early 4-1 lead, but the Hurricanes would answer with a 6-1 run to give the hosts a 7-5 advantage. The two teams would trade points until back-to-back kills by Thompson and Griffin tied the match at ten but Miami won a long rally that gave it a 12-10 lead. The senior Griffin answered with a kill and an ace that tipped off the net to even the game at 12-12. Back-to-back Hurricane attack errors pushed the lead to 14-12 before a kill by Wessel completed the 5-0 run and ended the match at 15-12.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            5 14  6  40  0.200   1  0  0   1   1  0  0   0   0  14.0
 5 Brianna Barry              5 12  5  19  0.368   2  0  0   0   2  0  4   1   0  14.0
 7 Zrinka Tomic               5  8  1  15  0.467  57  1  1   0  15  0  1   0   3   9.5
13 Sarah Griffin              5 16  2  33  0.424   3  2  3   1  15  1  3   1   0  20.5
14 Jessica Skower             5  6  1  16  0.313   6  0  2   4   4  0  5   0   0   8.5
15 Malorie Wessel             5 19  1  37  0.486   0  2  7   0   6  0  1   0   0  21.5
   ---Substitutes---
 3 Caitlin Belvin             1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   1  0  0   0   0   0.0
 4 Brittany Byrd              1  1  0   2  0.500   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   1.0
 9 Alex Plummer               5  0  0   1  0.000   1  1  1   1   9  0  0   0   0   1.0
21 Summer Weissing            5  0  0   0  0.000   1  1  1   3  18  0  0   0   0   1.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        5 76 16 163  0.368  71  7 15  10  71  1 14   2   3  91.0
   Opp                        5 63 24 175  0.223  61 10 13   7  62  2  6   3   3  78.0


  1 2 3 4 5
Florida State
27
30
22
30
15
Miami
30
24
30
12
12

Florida State 3, Maryland 0
09/22/2006, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Florida State Volleyball Stays Atop ACC Standings After 3-0 Sweep of Maryland.

Seminoles go 2-0 in ACC for first time since 2002.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - GAME SCORES: Florida State 3, Maryland 0 (30-12, 30-28, 30-24)

A little momentum is going a long way for the Florida State University volleyball team. Coming off a big road victory at Miami, the Seminoles rolled through their first Atlantic Coast Conference match at home as they defeated Maryland 3-0 (30-12, 30-28, 30-24) on Friday (September 22) at Lucy McDaniel Court at Tully Gymnasium.

Florida State improved to 2-0 in the ACC for the first time since 2002 - the first season under head coach Todd Kress - and 8-3 overall. Maryland dropped its conference opener and fell to 7-3 overall. The victory snapped a three-match losing streak to Maryland and was the first sweep of the Terps since 2000. The loss to the Seminoles is Maryland's first to a team ranked outside the top 25.

"First and foremost I know that Maryland wasn't at 100 percent tonight and any change in that and it's a different match," Kress said. "I still like our intensity throughout the entire match. I like how we played defensively. I said it was going to take our best defensive effort and tonight I thought was one of them."

For the second match in a row, four players had ten or more kills, led by 16 from outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.). Fellow outside Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.) was next at a career-high 12 kills, while rookie Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) and Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) added ten. Libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) had a season-high 20 digs and Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) added 49 assists.

Defense was the biggest key for the Seminoles as they out-dug Maryland 45-28 and held an 8-4 blocking advantage. Florida State was also dominate on the offensive side of the net, out-hitting the Terps .455 to .163 with a 63-31 advantage in kills. The .458 hitting percentage is the best for Florida State in a conference match since hitting .488 against NC State on October 14, 2004.

"We knew they were down, they weren't at 100 percent, so in our talk we said we have to come out and take it to them," Kress noted. "This was a solid win. We need to continue to cut down on errors at crunch town. Summer came out, lit it up defensively with probably her best defensive effort of the year. We need to continue to get better and better."

Picking up where she left off in game five against Miami, Griffin served the first four points as Florida State jumped out to a quick 10-3 lead. During the run five different players contributed a kill. The Seminoles would continue to keep the Terrapins out of system with the lead reaching double digits for the first time at 19-9 on a Tomic kill. The lead dipped to nine (20-11) but from there the Seminoles dominated the game with a 10-1 run that included three blocks and a pair of Thompson kills as FSU won the game 30-12.

Florida State hit an outstanding .583 (16-2-24) for the game while Maryland was held to -.030 (8-9-33). Thomson led the way with four kills while Tomic and Griffin added three with Griffin hitting a team-best .750. The Seminoles out-blocked the Terps 5-2 with a trio of solo blocks and out-dug UM to the tune of 11-5.

Both teams traded points to start game two with Maryland claiming an early 6-4 lead. The Seminoles responded with a 5-0 run, that was helped by a pair of Skower kills, to give FSU a 9-6 advantage. FSU got its first seven-point lead on a Wessel kill and would hold the lead at that margin until the Terrapins chipped it away to three (19-16).

Out of an FSU timeout, the host team got the margin back up to six 22-16, but Maryland nibbled away and got the deficit down to one (27-26). A Tomic kill and blocking error by the Terrapins kept the lead at two before a kill by Skower finished the game at 30-28. Thompson and Griffin led the way with a half-dozen kills each while Skower and Wessel had five apiece. Florida State hit .571 with Barry's .800 pacing led the way. Once again the FSU defense was key as it out-dug Maryland 16-9 and out-blocked UM 5-2.

"I thought in game two there were way too many errors on our part as far as service errors and reception errors to let them stay in the game," Kress noted. "That shouldn't happen; we can't let that happen if we're going to be a good team. We've got to take care of the ball better when we've got a team down."

Helping Florida State get off to a quick start in game three was Barry with a pair of kills and a solo block that staked FSU to a 7-2 advantage. Tomic kills pushed the lead to eight (12-4) and nine points (17-8) then back-to-back Thompson kills gave FSU a 20-11 advantage. Down 29-20, the Terrapins made a last-ditch effort and pulled to 29-24 before a Skower kill ended the game and the match 30-24.

Thompson had six kills, while Skower was next at five. Barry had four winners and hit .667.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            3 16  4  30  0.400   0  0  0   0   2  1  0   0   0  17.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3 10  0  14  0.714   0  0  0   0   0  1  2   0   0  12.0
 7 Zrinka Tomic               3  6  2  12  0.333  49  1  1   0   2  1  2   0   2   9.0
13 Sarah Griffin              3 10  2  21  0.381   1  1  3   2   8  0  2   1   0  12.0
14 Jessica Skower             3 12  2  19  0.526   2  1  3   1   7  1  1   0   0  14.5
15 Malorie Wessel             3  9  2  16  0.438   1  0  3   0   3  0  1   0   0   9.5
   ---Substitutes---
 9 Alex Plummer               3  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  0   1   3  0  0   0   1   0.0
21 Summer Weissing            3  0  0   0  0.000   3  1  1   1  20  0  0   0   0   1.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 63 12 112  0.455  57  4 11   5  45  4  8   1   3  75.0
   Opp                        3 31 15  98  0.163  29  5  3   4  28  1  6   0   3  40.0


  1 2 3
Maryland
12
28
24
Florida State
30
30
30

Florida State 3, Boston College 1
09/24/2006, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Seminole Volleyball Off to Best ACC Start Since 1993 With 3-1 Win Over Boston College.

Massachusetts native Thompson has 16 kills, Griffin and Tomic record double-doubles.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - GAME SCORES: Florida State 3, Boston College 1 (30-24, 20-30, 30-21, 30-22)

Thirteen years ago, Todd Kress was in his second season as an assistant at Thomas More College. Fast forward to 2006 and he's got his Florida State University volleyball team off to its best start in the Atlantic Coast Conference since he was in his sophomore coaching campaign. The Seminoles stayed undefeated in the ACC with a 3-1 (30-24, 20-30, 30-21, 30-22) victory over Boston College on Sunday (Sept. 24) at Lucy McDaniel Court.

The victory improved Florida State's record to 9-3 overall, 3-0 in the ACC. It's the best start for the Seminoles in the ACC since 1993 when they won five in a row to start the league schedule. Boston College dropped to 3-8, 1-1 in the conference. FSU is a perfect 4-0 against the Eagles.

"I'm not surprised to be 3-0 and nothing this team does is going to surprise me based on the work ethic I see in the gym everyday," Kress said. "If we continue to focus night in and night out and we prepare properly we can do good things, but we have to show up every single match. You can't let down in the ACC."

After a monster game four, junior outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.) had a match-high 16 kills. Resetting her career-high for the second match in a row was senior outside Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.) with 15 winners. Rookie middle blocker Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) chipped in 10 kills.

Senior middle blocker Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) recorded her fourth double-double of the season with 13 kills and a team-best 13 digs. Also getting a double-double was senior setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) with 53 assists - her third 50-plus assist match in the last four contests - and 12 digs. Libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) added 12 digs as she surpassed Deanna Bosschaert for seventh in school history at 1,068 career digs. Barry was tops with four blocks, while Tomic was next with a trio of stuff.

"We had a tough week with three matches in six days so we had very little preparation time for each match so I'm proud of them for getting three wins," Kress added. "It was a huge boost to win three matches during a tough week with very little preparation, but if we want to continue to win matches in the ACC we need to pick it up."

Even though Florida State built a 7-3 lead to start game one, the Seminoles kept the Eagles in the match as all of BC's first three points came off FSU errors. Neither team could grab the momentum as they traded points until the Eagles crept to within 14-12. From there a Barry kill triggered an 8-2 run that helped FSU to its biggest lead of the game, 22-15. BC would get the margin back to four (28-24), but a block and a BC ball-handling error gave Florida State the 30-24 victory.

Florida State's offense was the difference as it out-hit the Eagles .485 (18-2-33) to .138 (11-7-29). Ten of Boston College's 24 points came off Florida State errors. Griffin led the way with five kills and a .625 hitting percentage. Barry and Thompson were next at four kills, while Skower added three. Tomic had 14 assists and four digs.

After trading points to open game two, the Eagles seized the momentum as they went on a 6-1 run to mount a 10-4 lead that grew to 12-5 thanks to four FSU errors. The Seminoles could not get the lead below seven and BC's margin grew to as large as 11 before it went on to the 30-20 victory.

The solid passing that was there for the Seminoles in game one disappeared in the second stanza and contributed to FSU's -.023 hitting percentage (11-12-43) while the Eagles hit .182 (12-6-33). Griffin was the only player more than two kills in the game as she recorded four. Boston College got 18 of its points off FSU miscues.

The Seminole team that won game one came back to start game three as FSU ran out to a 7-2 lead on a Malorie Wessel (West Chester, Ohio) kill. Boston College fought back to within two points (10-8), but four BC errors and a Skower kill gave FSU its first six-point margin (15-9). The Eagles would work the FSU lead down to three as late as 21-18, but Florida State sealed the game with a 7-1 run for a comfortable 28-19 advantage before a Barry kill gave FSU the 30-21 victory.

FSU bounced back to hit .295 (17-4-44) while Boston College dipped to a match-low .114 (13-8-44). The Seminoles benefited from 15 Eagle errors. Pacing Florida State was Skower as she totaled five kills with Griffin one back.

"We came out flat and we weren't decisive in any of the points," Kress said of games one and two. "Boston College played its tails off defensively and they took it to us in game two. In games three and four we served better and kept them out of system."

Thompson nearly turned the tide of game four single-handily. After Boston College pulled to within two points (8-6), the junior rattled off five kills to go along with a pair of Tomic aces to build the Seminoles a 15-6 margin. The FSU lead would fluctuate between six and seven points with the Eagles cutting it to five (22-17) but they would not threaten the rest of the way as FSU took the match with the 30-22 game-four victory.

Nearly half of FSU's kills in game four (10-of-21) came from Thompson as she amassed ten to go along with a .471 hitting percentage. Skower followed with four while Wessel contributed three. The Seminoles out-hit Boston College .312 (21-6-48) to .182 (10-4-33) to overcome a 20-18 deficit in digs and 4-1 for blocks.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            4 16  6  44  0.227   0  0  0   0   2  0  0   0   1  16.0
 7 Zrinka Tomic               4  2  2  10  0.000  53  3  1   0  12  1  2   0   3   7.0
 9 Alex Plummer               4  0  0   5  0.000   1  0  0   2   5  0  0   0   0   0.0
13 Sarah Griffin              4 13  5  34  0.235   0  0  3   2  13  0  2   2   1  14.0
14 Jessica Skower             4 15  2  26  0.500   4  2  1   2   3  0  2   0   0  18.0
15 Malorie Wessel             4 10  4  18  0.333   0  1  2   0   8  0  1   0   0  11.5
   ---Substitutes---
 2 Jackie BonSalle            1  1  2   6 -0.167   0  1  2   0   0  0  0   0   0   2.0
 3 Caitlin Belvin             1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   1   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              4  9  3  23  0.261   0  0  0   0   0  0  4   2   0  11.0
 8 Nikki Baker                1  0  0   1  0.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  1   0   0   0.5
10 Lauren Walker              2  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   6  0  0   0   0   0.0
21 Summer Weissing            4  1  0   1  1.000   4  0  2   0  12  0  0   0   0   1.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        4 67 24 168  0.256  62  7 11   7  61  1 12   4   5  81.0
   Opp                        4 46 25 139  0.151  46  9  3   7  73  4 10   2   5  64.0


  1 2 3 4
Boston College
24
30
21
22
Florida State
30
20
30
30

Florida State 3, Georgia Tech 2
09/29/2006, Atlanta, Ga.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

FSU Volleyball Remains Perfect in the ACC With 3-2 Victory at Georgia Tech.

Seminoles one league win away from equaling best conference start in school history.

ATLANTA, GA - GAME SCORES: Florida State 3, Georgia Tech 2 (30-23, 32-30, 15-30, 27-30, 15-9).

Down 7-4 in game five, the Florida State University volleyball team was on the brink of losing at Georgia Tech after winning the first two games. However, this year's Seminole squad has the heart and determination that teams in the past didn't and they closed out the match with an 11-2 run that gave FSU the 3-2 victory (30-23, 32-30, 15-30, 27-30, 15-9) on Friday (September 29) at O'Keefe Gym.

Florida State moved a game closer to matching its best start in ACC at 4-0 to go along with a 10-3 mark overall. The victory marked the first time the Seminoles have won back-to-back match at Georgia Tech and is only FSU's third win here. The Yellow Jackets are still winless in the ACC at 0-3, 8-5 overall.

"We were down 7-4, I didn't want to take an early time out," FSU head coach Todd Kress said of game five. "In years past I may have taken an earlier timeout, but this team has continued to find ways to get it done, fight through adversity and tonight down 7-4 to make the switch up 8-7 I thought was a huge turning point in game five then we rode it out from there. We served aggressively, kept them out of system and Jackie (BonSalle) did a great job offensively and really pulled us through."

Recording her seventh double-digit kill performance in a row was outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.) as she led all players with 18 kills. Four Seminoles were in double figures as Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.) was next at 12 while outside hitter Jackie BonSalle (Albuquerque, N.M.) had eight kills in the last two games for a personal-best 11 winners and middle blocker Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) added ten.

Tying her career-high with 57 assists was setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) while libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) had a team-best 14 digs and middle blocker Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) chipped in a dozen to go along with a team-best six blocks.

A slight defensive advantage was the difference for the Seminoles as they out-blocked Georgia Tech 13-10 and held a 52-49 margin in digs. GT held the edge .279 (65-22-154) to .250 (70-3-160) in hitting percentage.

Neither team would win back-to-back points to start game one until the Seminoles rattled off five in a row with a pair Wessel aces and a ball handling error giving FSU an 8-4 advantage. The Yellow Jackets would pull to within two (15-13), but the Seminoles went on a 5-1 run that was helped by a pair of GT errors for a 20-14 lead. The margin would grow to as many as eight points for the first time at 26-18 before FSU went on to the 30-2 win on a Yellow Jacket service error.

Pacing the way was Tomic and Barry as they each had four kills and a pair of blocks. Tomic hit .667 (4-0-6) while Barry added a .429 (4-1-7) rate. Skower was next with three winners. Florida State out-dug GT 8-5 and had a 3-1 advantage in blocks as well as a .286 (14-6-28) to .226 (12-5-31) edge in hitting percentage.

The sound execution from game one was absent at the start of game two as the Yellow Jackets got out to a 9-4 lead. Yellow Jackets would hold the lead at four for the majority of the match until Florida State made a late run. Back-to-back kills by Thompson tied the match at 27-27, but a kill and block gave GT a 29-27 lead. The junior responded with three more kills to tie it back up at 29-29 and 30-30. Florida State got its first lead (31-30) on a block by Griffin and Skower then the senior duo added another stuff to give FSU the 32-30 victory.

Four of Thompson's game-high six kills came in the last nine points while Barry had five more. Wessel and Griffin had three each. Florida State's defense late in the game was the difference as the out-blocked GT 5-2 in the second game with a .348 (22-6-41) to .282 (18-7-39) advantage in hitting as the Yellow Jackets got 12 of their points from FSU errors.

"Huge emotional swings in this match, Kress added. "We're down big in game two and we come back to win 32-30. I think going into the locker room our kids couldn't sustain their emotions. We talk about emotional management and we couldn't sustain it. We came out flat in game three and that was to be expected. We can talk all we want as coaches and tell them there needs to be a sense of urgency when we're up 2-0 because you give Georgia Tech any sort of life they're going to take advantage of it. This team proved a lot to me tonight about how much heart and how resilient they truly are."

In almost an instant replay of game two, the Seminoles allowed Georgia Tech to get out to a hot start in the third stanza. A Thompson kill cut the lead to 9-6, but the Yellow Jackets went on an 8-2 run that gave them a 17-8 advantage that would grow to as many as 15 as Georgia Tech went on to win 30-15. Thompson was the only Seminole will more than one kill as she had a trio of winners. Florida State hit -.111 (6-10-36) and was out-dug 18-11 while giving GT 18 of its 30 points.

Game four was a back and fourth contests with Georgia Tech keeping FSU in the match thanks to five serving errors. Back-to-back kills by Thompson gave FSU a 12-9 advantage then a block by Skower and Griffin opened up a 14-11 lead. The Yellow Jackets battled back and used three consecutive aces to take a 19-17 advantage. The rest of the way the Seminoles could only win more than one point in a row as the Yellow Jackets hung on for the 30-27 victory. Thompson had five more kills while freshman Jackie BonSalle (Albuquerque, N.M.) chipped in with five as well.

The Seminoles grabbed a quick 2-1 lead to start game five, but the Yellow Jackets stormed back with three in a row for a 4-2 margin. Down 7-4 Florida State went on a 6-0 run to claim a 10-7 advantage. After a pair of Georgia Tech errors, Thompson had a kill then Griffin and Skower added a block for an 8-7 FSU lead. Skower came back with a kill then Thompson followed with one for the 10-7 lead. The Seminoles ran off three-straight points on back-to-back Griffin kills and another by Skower for the 13-8 edge. BonSalle sandwiched a pair of kills around one by the Yellow Jackets, including the game winner as FSU prevailed 15-9.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            5 18  7  41  0.268   1  0  1   3   4  1  0   0   0  19.0
 7 Zrinka Tomic               5  7  1  14  0.429  57  0  2   0   8  0  2   0   2   8.0
 9 Alex Plummer               5  0  0   1  0.000   0  0  1   0   6  0  0   0   0   0.0
13 Sarah Griffin              5  9  7  30  0.067   1  0  2   3  12  0  6   0   0  12.0
14 Jessica Skower             5 12  7  30  0.167   2  0  1   3   6  1  4   0   0  15.0
15 Malorie Wessel             2  3  2   5  0.200   1  2  3   0   2  0  2   0   0   6.0
   ---Substitutes---
 2 Jackie BonSalle            4 11  2  21  0.429   0  0  0   0   0  0  2   0   0  12.0
 5 Brianna Barry              5 10  3  17  0.412   0  0  0   0   0  1  4   1   0  13.0
 8 Nikki Baker                1  0  1   1 -1.000   1  0  0   0   0  0  0   1   0   0.0
21 Summer Weissing            5  0  0   0  0.000   3  0  6   0  14  0  0   0   0   0.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        5 70 30 160  0.250  66  2 16   9  52  3 20   2   2  85.0
   Opp                        5 65 22 154  0.279  58  9 18   2  49  3 14   0   6  84.0


  1 2 3 4 5
Florida State
30
32
15
27
15
Georgia Tech
23
30
30
30
9

Clemson 3, Florida State 0
09/30/2006, Clemson, S.C.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Seminole Volleyball Can Not Complete Road Sweep, Losing 3-0 at Clemson.

Weissing moves into fifth place in school history with 1,105 digs.

CLEMSON, SC - GAME SCORES: Clemson 3 Florida State 0, (30-32, 27-30, 30-32)

Playing on the road in the Atlantic Coast Conference is a difficult as it comes and the strains of playing three road games in the first two weeks of the conference season finally caught up to the Florida State University volleyball team. After a thrilling 3-2 victory at Georgia Tech the night before, the Seminoles dropped a 3-0 (30-32, 27-30, 30-32) decision at Clemson on Saturday (September 30).

The loss was the Seminoles' first in the ACC as they dropped to 4-1 and 10-4 overall. Only the 1993 squad got off to a better start in the league at 5-0. Clemson snapped a two-match losing streak at home to the Seminoles as it improved to 8-4 overall, 3-1 in the league.

With a season-high 23 digs, libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) climbed passed Jennifer Werrick and Deanne Kaleta into fifth place in school history with 1,105.

Topping Florida State for the second night in a row was outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.) as she provided 18 kills. Up next were middle blockers Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) and Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) with 11 and nine, respectively.

Setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) had a double-double with 45 assists and 12 digs, while Griffin chipped in 11 digs and a team-best five blocks. Tomic added four blocks and Barry had a trio of stuffs.

Florida State had the advantage in hitting percentage - .205 (59-25-166) to .191 (49-19-157) but hit below .200 in the final two games. The Seminoles out-dug the Tigers 79-73, while Clemson held a 9-8 advantage in blocks. Miscues were the biggest difference in the close match as FSU had 23 errors from serving, serve receive, blocking and ball handling, compared to nine by the Tigers.

A 3-0 run at the beginning of game one gave Florida State an early lead it expanded to four (10-6), but Clemson answered with a 7-1 run, that included a pair blocks and two FSU attack errors to gain, a 13-11 lead. Down two (21-19), the Seminoles rallied for a pair of points then got their first lead since 11-10 on a Tomic kill. Clemson appeared to gain control with a kill that made it 25-23, but a Thompson kill and a CU attack error knotting the game at 26-26. Clemson pulled ahead 28-26, but the Seminoles battled back to tie the match as late as 30-30 but a ball handling error and an ace gave the Tigers game one, 32-30.

Picking up where she left off Friday night, Thompson had a six kills, while Griffin chipped in five. Barry was next at four. The Seminoles out-hit Clemson .296 (22-6-54) to .212 (17-6-52) but four Clemson aces and a pair of FSU ball handling errors were the difference.

The teams traded points to start game two before Clemson used a pair of blocks to get a 9-7 margin. Another rejection gave CU a 13-10 lead, but Griffin combined with Tomic for one block and Thompson for another to swing the lead in FSU's favor, 14-13. The Seminoles had a 17-15 lead that was erased by a 3-0 Clemson run and from there the two teams traded points with five ties before a kill and an ace gave the Tigers a 24-22 margin they would hold the rest of the way until the 30-26 victory.

Thompson and Barry were the only two players with more than two kills in game two as Thompson recorded five with Barry one back. Thompson also had a pair of blocks, while Griffin led the way with three and Weissing contributed ten digs. Clemson held the .226 (18-6-53) to .196 (17-7-51) margin in hitting percentage and was helped by three FSU ball handling errors.

Florida State came out of the locker room with the momentum in game three and ran out to a 6-2 lead thanks to the play of freshmen Barry and Jackie BonSalle (Albuquerque, N.M.) as Barry had a trio of kills and BonSalle served a pair of points and added a kill as part of a 6-2 FSU lead. Unfortunately, Clemson went on an 11-4 run, that was helped by four FSU errors, to take a 14-10 lead.

The Seminoles fought back with a 5-1 run of their own and got the lead 17-16 on kill and ace by BonSalle. Florida State got a two-point lead, 21-19, after a BonSalle and Griffin block, but a trio of miscues allowed the Tigers to go on a 6-2 run and seize the lead at 25-23. Florida State fought back from down 29-25 thanks to a pair of Thompson kills to tie the game at 29-29 but a block and a service ace closed out the match 32-30.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            3 18  5  48  0.271   0  0  1   1   6  0  2   0   0  19.0
 7 Zrinka Tomic               3  4  0  14  0.286  45  1  1   0  12  0  4   1   4   7.0
 9 Alex Plummer               3  0  0   1  0.000   0  0  0   1   6  0  0   0   0   0.0
13 Sarah Griffin              3  9  3  24  0.250   1  1  2   2  11  0  5   0   0  12.5
14 Jessica Skower             3  5  3  19  0.105   1  0  1   1   4  0  1   0   0   5.5
15 Malorie Wessel             3  5  7  18 -0.111   0  0  2   0   6  0  0   1   0   5.0
   ---Substitutes---
 2 Jackie BonSalle            2  7  3  17  0.235   0  1  0   0   3  0  1   0   0   8.5
 4 Brittany Byrd              1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3 11  4  25  0.280   2  0  0   0   1  0  3   1   0  12.5
10 Lauren Walker              3  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  0   0   7  0  0   0   1   0.0
21 Summer Weissing            3  0  0   0  0.000   2  0  0   3  23  0  0   0   0   0.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 59 25 166  0.205  52  3  7   8  79  0 16   3   5  70.0
   Opp                        3 49 19 157  0.191  43  8  4   3  73  0 18   1   1  66.0


  1 2 3
Florida State
30
27
30
Clemson
32
30
32

Florida State 3, North Carolina 0
10/06/2006, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Florida State Volleyball Pushes Through For 3-0 Victory Over North Carolina.

Seminoles improve to 5-1 in the ACC.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - GAME SCORES: Florida Sate 3, North Carolina 0 (30-23, 30-27, 30-21).

A sign of a good team is that it can win when it's not at its best. Despite not playing its best match of the season, the Florida State volleyball team pulled through in crucial times late in each game to sweep North Carolina 3-0 (30-23, 30-27, 30-21) on Friday (October 6) at Tully McDaniel Court.

With the victory, Florida State improved to 11-4 overall, 5-1 in the ACC. Florida State has won all five home matches against North Carolina under Todd Kress. The Tar Heels dropped to 3-12, 1-5 in the league.

"We need to continue to improve in a number of different facets and we were a little flat tonight, but it's always nice when you can win and not play your best and I thought that was tonight," Kress said. "I thought Makini (Thompson) played well in critical situations and Jess (Skower) did good things.

Topping the team for the third match in a row was outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.) with a match-high 14 kills and a .565 hitting percentage. Up next was fellow outside Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.) at 11 while rookie Jackie BonSalle (Albuquerque, N.M.) added nine and middle blocker Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) chipped in with eight.

Florida State out-dug North Carolina 40-36 with more than half of them coming from libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) had 18 and defensive specialist Alex Plummer (Woodbury, Minn.) had a season-best 10. Setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) had 38 assists. FSU held a .300 (51-18-11) to .137 (33-19-102) advantage in hitting percentage.

"Alex Plummer played perhaps her best match as a Seminole, no doubt about it," Kress noted. "She passed well, defended, we worked a lot with defensively at middle back this week and she did a great job."

Four errors by the Seminoles allowed UNC to establish a 6-1 lead in game one, but the Tar Heels committed four errors of their own to allow FSU back in the match. A Griffin kill tied the match at seven then the senior gave FSU its first lead at 10-9 with an ace, but four-straight UNC aces gave it the lead back at 15-11.

UNC held a four-point advantage until 17-13 when Tomic served seven-straight points to swing the lead back to FSU's favor 21-17. During the run, both Thompson and Griffin had a pair of kills. The Tar Heels would tie the match up at 22-22, but Skower had a trio of kills and a trio of aces to close out the game, 30-23. Griffin led the way with five kills, while Skower had four. FSU hit .367 (15-4-30) to UNC's .033 (7-6-30), but North Carolina stayed in the match thanks to six aces.

A Tomic ace gave FSU it's first lead in game two at 5-4, but after a BonSalle kill made it 8-7, a pair of errors and an UNC kill gave the visitors the lead back, 10-8. Florida State would forge ties at 15, 17 and 19 all, but each time the Seminoles would commit a costly error that let the Tar Heels regain the lead. FSU tied the match at 22 and finally took over the lead, 23-22, thanks to a Tar Heel attacking error. Following a Thompson kill, another UNC attack miscue gave the Seminoles a two-point lead (25-23) they would expand to four (28-24) on a block by Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) and Skower. UNC would pull to within one (28-27), but BonSalle finished the match with a pair of kills to give FSU the 30-27 victory.

Thompson and BonSalle were the only two Seminoles to record more than two kills in the match as Thompson recorded a game-high seven winners, while BonSalle was next at five. FSU held the hitting advantage again .227 (18-8-44) to .167 (13-7-36), but errors in the service game hurt FSU as it committed five service miscues. UNC also held a 5-2 advantage in blocks.

"We have to get production out of a couple of our freshmen so if one is having a bad night, we're going to get the other one out there," Kress added. "It's kind of been left side by committee this year and either Malorie (Wessel) or Jackie pick it up. Tonight it was Jackie's night and hopefully we can get production out of at least one of them."

Out of the locker room, Florida State used a 7-2 run that turned a one-point game into a 12-6 advantage on a Thompson ace. During the run, the junior added a pair of kills. UNC strung together a trio of kills to pull within two (14-12), but the Tar Heels were their own worst enemy as they committed two-straight errors to push the margin back to five (17-12). The lead would grow to as many as 12 (29-17) on an UNC attack error before the Seminoles closed out the match 30-21 on a Skower kill.

Thompson and Skower tied for the lead at five kills while BonSalle contributed four. Tomic had 10 kills and Weissing added six digs. FSU out-hit the Tar Heels .333 (18-6-36) to .171 (12-6-35) and the Seminoles limited their service errors to just one.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            3 14  1  23  0.565   0  1  1   0   3  0  0   0   0  15.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3  3  4   9 -0.111   0  0  0   0   0  1  1   1   0   4.5
 7 Zrinka Tomic               3  5  2   9  0.333  38  6  1   0   1  0  0   0   1  11.0
13 Sarah Griffin              3  8  1  18  0.389   3  2  3   3   4  0  1   0   0  10.5
14 Jessica Skower             3 11  3  21  0.381   4  3  2   1   4  0  2   0   1  15.0
15 Malorie Wessel             1  1  2   5 -0.200   0  0  1   0   0  0  0   0   0   1.0
   ---Substitutes---
 2 Jackie BonSalle            3  9  5  24  0.167   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   9.0
 4 Brittany Byrd              1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
 8 Nikki Baker                1  0  0   0  0.000   2  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
 9 Alex Plummer               3  0  0   0  0.000   0  1  0   0  10  0  0   0   0   1.0
10 Lauren Walker              1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   2   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
21 Summer Weissing            3  0  0   1  0.000   2  0  0   1  18  0  0   0   0   0.0
   Team                                                      1                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 51 18 110  0.300  49 13  8   8  40  1  4   1   2  67.0
   Opp                        3 33 19 102  0.137  32  8  6  13  36  3 16   1   1  52.0


  1 2 3
North Carolina
23
27
21
Florida State
30
30
30

Florida State 3, North Carolina State 0
10/07/2006, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

FSU Volleyball Remains Undefeated at Home in the ACC With 3-0 Win over NC State.

Seminoles get to six ACC wins faster than any team in school history.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - GAME SCORES: Florida Sate 3, NC State 0 (30-5, 30-20, 30-21).

With a pair of tough ACC road matches on the horizon, it was important that the Florida State University volleyball team regained the momentum it had at the start of the conference season. After sweeping their second match in as many nights, the Seminoles appear to have found that energy as they beat NC State 3-0 (30-5, 30-20, 30-21) on Saturday (October 7) at Lucy McDaniel Court. The five points scored by the Wolfpack in game is the lowest by an FSU opponent since rally scoring was introduced in 2001.

Florida State remained undefeated at home during league action (4-0) while improving to 12-4 overall, 6-1 in the conference as it moved up to second place. It's the earliest FSU has been to six ACC wins ever and last year FSU's 12th win of the season didn't come until November 20.

"Tonight was a reversal of last night," FSU head coach Todd Kress said. "We came out of the gate very strong, we were serving well, we were passing well and we defended well in game one. We played a very clean game; we didn't make too many errors. All in all it was a good team effort and everyone contributed to the win."

Topping the Seminoles with a dozen kills was freshman middle blocker Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.). Junior outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.) was the only other player in double figures with 10 while middle blocker Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) was next at eight and outside hitter Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.) was one back of her.

"Bri (Barry) played very well," Kress added. "She hit the shots she needed to hit and she was very aggressive tonight in her approach. She played on a sprained ankle so I really appreciate her effort that she suited up and was out there the entire weekend."

Libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) produced 17 digs to up her career total to 1,140, putting her just ten back of Nancy Gaspadarek for fourth in school history. Setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) came through with 32 assists.

For the sixth time this season, Florida State hit over .400 as it held a .472 (50-8-89) to -.011 (21-22-89) advantage over the Wolfpack. Paced by Weissing, the Seminoles out-dug NC State 41-29. Freshman Malorie Wessel (West Chester, Ohio) had four of FSU's 12 aces as the Seminoles fell one short of their season high.

"We've told Summer to take half the court on defense so she's not as restrictive where as in the past she thought she was restricted," Kress said. "She basically freelances back there and anything on half the court is her's so we've given her a lot more room to play defense and she's gone at it with a more aggressive mindset and I think that's helped her."

The Seminoles wasted no time in taking control of game one as they ran out to a 9-2 lead before the Wolfpack called a time out. Barry had a trio of kills during the run while Wessl added a pair of aces. NC State's only two points came off FSU errors. The lead reach double digits for the first time at 13-3 on a Tomic kill and got to 20 as Alex Plummer (Woodbury, Minn.) served 11 points in a row as part of an 18-1 run. FSU closed out the game on a 6-1 run for the 30-5 victory.

Leading the way with four kills was Thompson and Griffin, while Barry and Skower were one back. Tomic had nine assists and Weissing added six digs. Florida State hit an astronomical .714 (16-1-21) to the Wolfpack's -227 (2-7-22). The Seminoles also held a 12-3 lead in digs.

Florida State kept NC State in the early part of game two as the visitors got six of their first eight points off FSU errors, but the Seminoles still held a 10-8 advantage. The Seminoles opened a 14-10 lead but let NC State hang around with a trio of errors until a 9-2 run, keyed by seven points off Wessel and Plummer's serve, provided a 26-16 margin before the 30-20 final.

Tying Thompson for the game-high with four kills was Wessel to go along with a trio from Barry and Tomic. Skower had half of FSU's six service aces and FSU held a 13-9 advantage in digs. The Seminoles bettered the Wolfpack .412 (19-5-34) to .111 (7-4-27) in hitting percentage.

"In games two and three I was a little disappointed with the number of unforced errors," Kress noted. "NC State, when they are playing their best, is an aggressive team and they are going to force you into some errors, but I thought we made too many unforced errors. I was a little disappointed in the way we finished the match after the way we started."

Griffin assured FSU of a fast start to game three as she served six-straight points to stake FSU to a 6-0 lead that was aided by three NC State attacking errors. Just like game two, the Seminole kept NC State in the set as three-straight errors allowed the Wolfpack to tie the match up at 7-7 and they would take the lead 10-9. Back-to-back aces gave NC State a two-point advantage (14-12) it would hold until 19-17. From there, Florida State went on a 5-0 run to nab a 22-19 lead that was helped by a trio of Wolfpack errors. The lead would grow to six (27-21) on a Barry kill before the Seminoles closed out the match 30-21.

Nearly half of Barry's kills came in game three as she hit a perfect 5-for-5 while fellow rookie Jackie BonSalle (Albuquerque, N.M.) was the only other player with more than two as she chipped in three. The game came down to hitting percentage as FSU hit .382 (15-2-34), but the Seminoles got 11 points off NC State attack errors as it hit .025 (12-11-40).

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            3 10  2  22  0.364   0  0  0   0   1  0  0   0   0  10.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3 12  2  15  0.667   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   1   0  12.0
 7 Zrinka Tomic               3  6  0   6  1.000  32  1  1   0   5  0  2   0   2   8.0
13 Sarah Griffin              3  8  0  13  0.615   1  2  2   0   3  0  3   0   0  11.5
14 Jessica Skower             3  7  0  11  0.636   3  3  2   0   2  0  1   1   0  10.5
15 Malorie Wessel             2  4  2   8  0.250   2  4  2   0   5  0  0   0   0   8.0
   ---Substitutes---
 2 Jackie BonSalle            1  3  1  11  0.182   0  0  1   0   0  0  0   2   0   3.0
 6 Kim Crawford               3  0  0   0  0.000   3  0  0   2   3  0  0   0   0   0.0
 9 Alex Plummer               3  0  1   3 -0.333   0  2  0   1   5  0  0   0   1   2.0
21 Summer Weissing            3  0  0   0  0.000   2  0  0   1  17  0  0   0   0   0.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 50  8  89  0.472  43 12  8   4  41  0  6   4   3  65.0
   Opp                        3 21 22  89 -0.011  21  4  4  12  29  1  0   0   2  26.0


  1 2 3
North Carolina State
5
20
21
Florida State
30
30
30

Florida State 3, Virginia Tech 1
10/13/2006, Blacksburg, Va.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Florida State Volleyball Matches 2005 Win Total With 3-1 Triumph at Virginia Tech.

Seminoles continue best start in the ACC with 7-1 record.

BLACKSBURG, VA - How things can change in only a year. Through the middle of last October, the Florida State volleyball team was at a low point with a 5-12 record. One year later, the Seminoles have matched their entire win total from the 2005 campaign after defeating Virginia Tech 3-1 (30-25, 30-26, 26-30, 31-29) on Friday (October 13) at Cassell Coliseum.

The Seminoles continued their best start in ACC as they improved to 7-1, 13-4 overall. The win also upped Florida State to 17-1 against the Hokies. Virginia Tech dropped to 10-8 overall, 4-5 in the league.

"It's a credit to our kids," Kress said of reaching 13 wins. "They were very unhappy with the first half of last season and they were determined to turn it around. We made a conscious effort to turn things around and it started with the second half of last season. That erased the bad memories of the first half of 2005 and catapulted us into what I think is a very solid team right now."

Putting together a career night was junior outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.) as she produced a personal-best 23 kills with a .367 (23-5-49) hitting percentage. Rookies Malorie Wessel (West Chester, Ohio) and Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) were next with 15 and 13 kills respectively.

The Seminoles held a slight 60-57 advantage in digs thanks to 22 from junior libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) as well as 12 from Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) and 11 by Alex Plummer (Woodbury, Minn.). Florida State had a season-high 14 blocks as Griffin contributed a team-best seven stuffs while fellow senior Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.) came in with a half dozen blocks. Setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) was two short of her career-high with 55 assists.

Florida State also had a season-high with 71 kills as part of its .244 (71-30-168) to .192 (57-27-156) hitting advantage.

"It was a breakout night for her," Kress said of Thompson. "I told her after the match that that was one her best, if not her best, match at Florida State. She had some big time swings and was our go to player tonight and that's important in the maturation of our team. We have a pretty balanced team, but you still have to have a go to player and tonight she was that player; she provided some critical swings in big situations."

After a back and fourth start to the match, the Seminoles found themselves in a 21-18 hole midway through game one. Out of a Florida State timeout, a Thompson kill, Griffin block and Wessel kill tied the match at 21-21. Florida State got the lead back, 23-22, on a Griffin ace before establishing a two-point lead (25-23) on a Hokie attacking error. A kill by Tomic opened a three-point margin (28-25) that FSU would extended to 29-25 on a Thompson winner before an attacking error gave FSU game one 30-25.

The rookie Wessel was tops on the team with seven kills while Thompson was one back with six winners. The biggest difference in the game was the Seminoles' blocking as they held a 5-0 margin at the net with Griffin contributing a solo block and a pair of blocking assists. Florida State held a .286 (20-8-42) to .150 (13-7-40) advantage in hitting percentage.

Mirroring game one, the second stanza was another see-saw battle with a VT kill tying the game at 21-21. Back-to-back attacking errors opened a 23-21 advantage for the Seminoles that they expanded to four (26-22) on back-to-back kills by Skower and Thompson. The Hokies closed to within two 27-25, but an attacking error slowed VT's momentum long enough for Wessel and Tomic to record kills that gave FSU the 30-26 decision.

Matching her game one total was Thompson as she had a team-best six kills, while Skower had four and Wessel chipped in three more. Weissing added a half dozen digs. The Seminoles eliminated many of the mistakes they made in game one for a game-high .412 (17-3-34) to .364 (17-5-33) lead in hitting percentage.

Out of the intermission, the Seminoles appeared to be their way to a 3-0 sweep as they held an 18-15 lead in game three. Unfortunately, the Hokies went on a 6-0 run that gave the hosts a 21-18 lead they would extend to 24-20. Florida State would get the deficit down to one as late as 27-26 on a Barry kill but VT closed the game out with a kill and a block in between an FSU blocking error for the 30-26 win.

Barry was the go-to player in game five as she notched five kills, while Thompson was one back as the only other player with more than two kills. Virginia Tech held the .189 (15-8-37) to .125 (15-10-40) advantage in hitting.

The match appeared to be going the distance as the Hokies got out to a quick start that they parlayed into a 14-9 advantage. A 5-0 run by FSU tied the match at 14-14, but Virginia Tech regained the momentum as it took a 20-16 lead. A 5-2 run capped by a Skower ace drew the Seminoles within one (22-21), but VT grouped at 25-21 before the Seminoles started their march toward victory.

A Hokie service error led to a four-point run off the serve of rookie Jackie BonSalle (Albuquerque, N.M.) that included kills by Barry and Thompson as FSU opened a 27-25 lead on Thompson's 23rd kill of the night. Florida State had a pair of chances to close out the match but Virginia Tech tied the bout at 29-29 on an attack error. The Seminoles got the lead permanently on another VT service error then seniors Skower and Griffin end the match with a block for the 31-29 victory.

The Thompson-Barry combination was big in game four as Thompson notched a match-high seven kills in the fourth stanza while the rookie middle blocker was one back. Griffin had nine of her 12 digs in game four and Weissing contributed seven.

"We definitely did not want to go five in that gym," Kress noted. "Virginia Tech played its best in game four and the first three-quarters of game four so we did not want to go to five. When we took the time out we talked about finishing it off in four. They had all the momentum in the world, but the girls fought and made the plays they needed to make.

"Sarah had some key digs, Jackie served well and Makini had some critical swings. A lot of things happened in game four, but it all started with defense and that was a big reason for the turnaround. We had a match up that we like with Bri (Barry) but we weren't getting her the ball enough. Even though she's a freshman teams are still game planning for her."

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            4 23  5  49  0.367   0  0  0   0   1  2  1   0   0  25.5
 7 Zrinka Tomic               4  5  4  19  0.053  55  1  0   0   5  0  2   1   3   7.0
 9 Alex Plummer               4  0  0   1  0.000   1  1  1   0  11  0  0   0   0   1.0
13 Sarah Griffin              4  6  7  29 -0.034   3  1  4   1  12  1  6   0   1  11.0
14 Jessica Skower             4  9  0  18  0.500   3  2  1   2   6  2  4   0   0  15.0
15 Malorie Wessel             4 15 10  29  0.172   1  3  5   0   2  1  1   2   0  19.5
   ---Substitutes---
 2 Jackie BonSalle            2  0  0   1  0.000   0  1  0   0   1  0  0   0   0   1.0
 5 Brianna Barry              4 13  4  22  0.409   2  0  0   0   0  0  2   0   0  14.0
 6 Kim Crawford               1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
21 Summer Weissing            4  0  0   0  0.000   2  0  0   3  22  0  0   0   0   0.0
   Team                                                      1                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        4 71 30 168  0.244  67  9 11   7  60  6 16   3   4  94.0
   Opp                        4 57 27 156  0.192  52  7  5   9  57  3 14   5   5  74.0


  1 2 3 4
Florida State
30
30
26
31
Virginia Tech
25
26
30
29

Florida State 3, Virginia 0
10/14/2006, Charlottesville, Va.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Florida State Volleyball Stays Hot, Sweeping Road Trip With 3-0 Blanking of Virginia.

Rookies Barry and BonSalle lead the way with 13 kills each.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - GAME SCORES: Florida Sate 3, Virginia 0 (30-26, 30-27, 32-30)

One night after matching its win total from a year ago, the Florida State University volleyball team firmly supplanted itself as a contender in the race for the Atlantic Coast Conference title. The Seminoles showed tremendous poise in critical times late in the all three games as they came away with a 3-0 sweep (30-26, 30-27, 32-30) of Virginia on Saturday (October 14).

Florida State ran its winning streak to four matches - and won for the eighth time in nine matches -- as it improved to 14-4 overall and continued the school's best ACC start with an 8-1 mark. The win was FSU's first at Virginia since 2002 and its first sweep in Charlottesville since 1993. The Cavaliers dropped to 13-6 overall, 6-4 in the league as they lost at home for the first time in 2006.

"Our team played with so much heart tonight," FSU head coach Todd Kress said. "I told them their heart and desire came through when it was tight in games one, two and three. It's so much fun to see that and see how hungry they are. It was really exciting down the stretch in all three games, but their execution, heart and desire down the stretch was the difference.

"I don't care what conference you're in, it's so tough to win on the road because you have so many factors going against you. I think it's even harder to win the second night because the first night both teams are pretty even, but on the second night with all the traveling you have to do to and from, I'm so proud of the way our kids executed tonight."

Tying for the team lead were rookies Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) and Jackie BonSalle (Albuquerque, N.M.) with 13 kills each. Junior outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.) was next at 11 winners, while senior middle blocker Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) followed with 10. Setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) added 47 assists.

Leading an FSU defensive charge that out-dug Virginia 47-34 was junior libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) with a baker's dozen. Weissing is only 11 digs away from taking over third place in school history. Barry led the way with four blocks, while senior Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.) had three blocks and nine digs.

Florida State out-hit Virginia .378 (56-11-111) to .316 (60-17-136) thanks to three players hitting .400 or better. Leading the way was Griffin at .692 (10-1-13), while Barry was close behind at .688 (13-2-16). Serving was another key to the match as UVA committed 11 service errors to go along with six FSU aces. Leading the way was Thompson as she had a career-high five after coming into the match with a career total of four.

"Jackie was a game-time decision, versus Virginia we wanted to get a little bit bigger block out there on the right side and slow them down on the slide because they can almost score at will back there," Kress noted. "Jackie had a big match, she had some critical swings and Bri (Barry) has some big swings and came up with some big blocks.

"The thing I like about our freshmen is that they play almost unconscious. They don't think about the importance of the match or anything like that, they just do their job and execute. We wouldn't be here without everyone contributing, but we've got a ton of contribution out of the freshmen."

After a kill knotted game one at 9-9, the Seminoles took a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the game. Back-to-back kills by Skower made it 12-9 in FSU's favor and the Seminoles opened their first four-point margin, 14-10, on a block by Barry and BonSalle. The Cavaliers pulled even at 20-20, but Florida State got the margin it needed on kills by Griffin and Barry then opened a 27-24 lead on a BonSalle kill. UVA rallied to get within a point (27-26), but Barry sandwiched a pair of kills around a winner by Tomic to give Florida State the 30-26 victory.

The rookie BonSalle was tops on the team with five kills, while Thompson and Barry were just one back. Weissing added five digs. Florida State held a .386 (20-3-44) to .227 (19-6-47) advantage in hitting percentage. Barry, Griffin and Skower had two blocks each as FSU out-blocked UVA 4-0.

Early in game two both teams took their turns with three-point leads with Virginia going on a 4-1 run to erase FSU's 7-4 advantage. From that point there would be 11 ties with the last coming at 22-22 on a UVA kill. Griffin broke the deadlock with a kill then Thompson came through with an ace to give FSU a two-point cushion (24-22). The margin would remain at deuce until out of Virginia timeout, a Tomic killed followed by a Virginia attacking error opened a four-point (28-24) FSU lead. Barry made it 29-25 with a kill then Thompson ended the game with a winner for the 30-27 decision.

BonSalle and Griffin were the only two players with more than a pair of kills as they tied for the team lead at four. The Seminoles got ten points off their aces and UVA service errors. Florida State won the game despite being out-hit by the Cavaliers .405 (21-4-42) to .323 (15-5-31). BonSalle led the way with four kills.

The host had an early edge at the start of game three, but it would short lived as the Seminoles tied the match at 10-10 to start the third see-saw battle of the night. After an 11-11 tie, it looked like the Cavaliers were going to take a game thanks to FSU miscues. Four Seminole errors gave Virginia a 16-13 lead it would hold as late as 25-24 until UVA gave one back with an attack error that followed a Barry kill to give FSU its first lead since 1-0 at 26-25. From there, the two teams waited to see who would be the first to flinch as they traded four kills each. Tied at 30-30, the Cavaliers committed a service error then Barry came through with a kill to hand FSU the match 32-30.

More than half of Barry's kills came in the final stanza as she produced a game-high seven kills. Thompson was next at five, while BonSalle chipped in four more winners. Weissing was strong defensively with a half dozen digs. Florida State had its best attacking game of the night with a .417 (21-6-36) to .227 (20-7-47) edge in hitting percentage.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            3 11  4  32  0.219   0  5  0   0   2  0  2   0   0  17.0
 2 Jackie BonSalle            3 13  3  25  0.400   0  0  0   0   2  0  1   0   0  13.5
 7 Zrinka Tomic               3  3  1   9  0.222  47  1  1   0   6  0  1   0   1   4.5
 9 Alex Plummer               3  0  1   2 -0.500   2  0  1   0   7  0  0   0   0   0.0
13 Sarah Griffin              3 10  1  13  0.692   2  0  0   0   6  0  3   2   0  11.5
14 Jessica Skower             3  6  2  14  0.286   5  0  2   3   9  0  3   1   0   7.5
   ---Substitutes---
 5 Brianna Barry              3 13  2  16  0.688   0  0  0   0   2  0  4   1   0  15.0
21 Summer Weissing            3  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0  13  0  0   0   0   0.0
   Team                                                      1                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 56 14 111  0.378  56  6  4   4  47  0 14   4   1  69.0
   Opp                        3 60 17 136  0.316  58  4 11   6  34  0 10   0   1  69.0


  1 2 3
Florida State
30
30
32
Virginia
26
27
30

Miami 3, Florida State 2
10/17/2006, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Florida State Volleyball Can't Hold Onto the Lead, Drops 3-2 Decision to Miami.

Junior outside hitter Makini Thompson leads the way with 21 kills.

GAME SCORES: Miami 3, Florida Sate 2 (30-27, 30-16, 22-30, 28-30, 9-15).

TALLAHASSEE, FL - Anytime Florida State and Miami meet, whether it's volleyball, football or jacks, the match isn't over until the final point is scored. The Seminole volleyball team found that out the hard way as they squandered a 2-0 lead to the Hurricanes as the visitors prevailed 3-2 (30-27, 30-16, 22-30, 28-30, 9-15) on Tuesday (October 17) at Lucy McDaniel Court.

Florida State had its four-match winning streak snapped as it dropped to 14-5 overall, 8-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Hurricanes improved to 7-12, 4-6 in the conference. The visitor has won the last five matches in the series, including a victory by FSU in Coral Gables earlier in the year.

Leading all hitters was junior outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.) as she posted 21 kills while hitting .417. Rookie outside hitter Malorie Wessel (West Chester, Ohio) was the only other Seminole with double-digit kills as she registered 16. Setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) had 48 assists.

Florida State out blocked the Hurricanes, 15-13, with rookie middle blocker Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) leading the way with seven while seniors Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) and Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.) were next at six each. Junior libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) had 10 digs, while Tomic, Griffin and Alex Plummer (Woodbury, Minn.) had nine each.

Despite not hitting over .200 in the final three games, the Seminoles still held at .213 (67-33-160) to .206 (63-31-155) in hitting percentage. The Hurricanes did have a 51-45 lead in digs.

The Seminoles found themselves in a five-point hole twice during the early stages of game one including 10-5. A 6-1 run fueled by a pair of Barry kills and two Miami errors tied the match at 11-11. A kill by Griffin gave FSU its first lead (17-16), then back-to-back kills by Wessel opened up a two-point FSU advantage (19-17). The lead would grow to as many as five (28-23) but Miami pulled to within 29-28 before Wessel ended the match with a kill for 30-28.

Leading the way with five kills each was Thompson and Wessel while Barry was two back with three. Miami got more than half of its points (18-of-27) off Florida State miscues. The Hurricanes held a .154 (10-6-26) to .135 (17-12-37) advantage in hitting percentage and 5-4 in blocks while the Seminoles were ahead 9-7 for digs.

Riding the momentum from game one, the Seminoles ran out to a 10-3 lead thanks to a trio of Thompson kills and a pair from Wessel. The Hurricanes closed to four points (11-7) on back-to-back FSU errors, but Florida State would put the game away with a 16-2 run that made it 26-9. During the run, Barry contributed seven points with four kills and three blocks. Miami fought back to 27-16 but Thompson had a kill and a solo block to help close out the game 30-16.

For the second game in a row Thompson and Wessel tied for the game high with five winners and Barry was one back at four. The Seminoles erased the attacking errors from game one as they out-hit Miami .485 (19-3-33) to .088 (11-8-34). Florida State held a 5-1 advantage in blocks and 11-10 for digs.

Similar to game one, Florida State gave Miami the majority of its points in game three. Despite seven errors, Florida State was only down 15-14 on a kill by Wessel. Unfortunately, two more FSU miscues and a pair of Miami kills gave the visitors a 19-15 lead that it would not relinquish as the Hurricanes won game three 30-22.

Wessel and Griffin were the only players with more than two kills at four and three winners, respectively. Florida State hit just .147 (12-7-34) while the Hurricanes hit .333 (17-5-36). The Seminoles did benefit from five Miami service errors.

Mirroring the middle of game three, Florida State got within a point (8-7) of Miami in game four, but three costly errors allowed the Hurricanes to build a 12-7 lead it would expand to 15-7 on an attack error. The Seminoles clawed their way back, using two blocks and a Miami error to pull within two (20-18) but once again a pair of miscues and a UM kill pushed the lead back to 24-19. Florida State would get to within one as late as 28-29 on a Thompson kill but an attack error gave the Hurricanes game four 30-28.

Thompson was the only Seminole with more than two kills as she topped all hitters with seven. Miami out-dug FSU 15-9 and had a trio of service aces. The two teams tied with a .200 hitting percentage.

Game five started as a back-and-fourth battle between two of the best of hitters in the conference. Thompson and Miami's Frannie Savage scored the first three points for their teams then a Wessel ace gave FSU a 4-3 lead. Unfortunately, the Hurricanes responded with three-straight kills then a pair of Seminole errors gave Miami an 8-4 lead. The Seminoles fought back to tie the match at 8-8 on combined blocks by Skower and Barry, but the Hurricanes responded with a 7-1 run to end the game and the match 15-9.

Thompson and Skower were the only two FSU players to post a kill in game five as FSU hit .000 (4-4-16) to the Hurricanes' .263 (9-4-19).

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            5 21  6  36  0.417   0  0  1   0   0  1  1   0   0  22.5
 5 Brianna Barry              5  7  6  20  0.050   2  0  0   0   0  2  5   1   0  11.5
 7 Zrinka Tomic               5  7  2  13  0.385  48  0  2   0   9  0  2   0   2   8.0
13 Sarah Griffin              5  7  0  21  0.333   3  1  1   1   9  0  6   0   1  11.0
14 Jessica Skower             5  8  2  22  0.273   3  2  2   0   7  0  6   1   0  13.0
15 Malorie Wessel             5 16 12  35  0.114   1  1  1   0   1  1  2   1   0  19.0
   ---Substitutes---
 2 Jackie BonSalle            2  1  4   9 -0.333   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   1.0
 9 Alex Plummer               5  0  1   3 -0.333   1  0  3   2   9  0  0   0   0   0.0
21 Summer Weissing            5  0  0   1  0.000   0  1  0   3  10  0  0   0   0   1.0
   Team                                                      1                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        5 67 33 160  0.213  58  5 10   7  45  4 22   3   3  87.0
   Opp                        5 63 31 155  0.206  57  7 14   5  51  5 16   0   2  83.0


  1 2 3 4 5
Miami
27
16
30
30
15
Florida State
30
30
22
28
9

Florida State 3, Wake Forest 0
10/20/2006, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Florida State Volleyball Bounces Back With 3-0 Sweep of Wake Forest.

Seminoles move back into second place in ACC standings.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - GAME SCORES: Florida Sate 3, Wake Forest 0 (30-21, 30-20, 30-24).

After a heartbreaking loss to Miami earlier in the week, the Florida State volleyball team could have gone one of two ways. Fortunately, the Seminoles chose the high road as they rebounded with a 3-0 sweep of Wake Forest on Friday (Oct. 20) at Lucy McDaniel Court.

Florida State continued its trend of rebounding after a loss with a victory as it improve to 15-5 overall, 9-2 in the conference. FSU's win, coupled with a Clemson loss at Virginia, moved the Seminoles a half game ahead of Clemson for second place. The Seminoles have won nine or more conference matches in four of head coach Todd Kress' five seasons. The Demon Deacons dropped to 11-8, 7-3 in the ACC.

"It was a big match for us," Kress said. "You never know what's going to happen after a match like we had against Miami. Something like that, you can start questioning things, questioning your confidence and I thought it was important for us tonight to come out and, not necessarily dominate play, but just come out and make a statement to get back on track. I thought we did a nice job of that tonight."

With 15 digs, junior libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) moved into sole possession of third place in school history with 1,200 digs. Also moving up on the career charts was senior middle blocker Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) as her four aces slid her up to number seven with 121 aces for her career.

"Summer is just getting better and better in her role and she needs to solidify our defensive effort because we need to get better defensively," Kress noted.

Leading the offense was junior outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.) as she recorded 16 kills, while Griffin was next at nine winners. Posting a team-high five blocks was rookie middle blocker Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) with five stuffs. Senior setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) produced 42 assists and sophomore defensive specialist Alex Plummer (Woodbury, Minn.) had 10 digs.

Early in game one both teams took turns with two point leads with the Demon Deacons erasing an 8-6 FSU margin with a 3-0 run as the visitors regained the lead. Two Thompson kills and a Weissing ace keyed a 4-0 Florida State run as it took a 13-10 advantage. Out of a timeout, Wake Forest tied the match with a 3-0 run of their own. Thompson came through with a kill then served four-straight points to put FSU ahead 20-15. That would be as close as Wake Forest would get as the lead would grow to as many as 10 on a Barry kill before FSU closed out the game 30-21.

Leading all attackers was Thompson as she put down eight kills, while freshmen outside hitter Jackie BonSalle (Albuquerque, N.M.) followed at four and Griffin was one behind her. Florida State out-hit the Deacons .326 (19-5-243) to .216 (14-6-37) and held a 3-1 advantage in blocks while WFU was up 16-14 for digs.

Down 6-5 in game two, the rookie Barry gave the Seminoles the lead virtually by herself. She followed up a kill by combining with BonSalle for a block then recorded two-straight kills as part of a 4-0 run that gave FSU a 9-6 margin. Wake Forest got as close as 12-10 but Tomic picked up a kill then served six-straight points as the Seminoles took a 19-10 advantage with the help of four WFU miscues. The Demon Deacons could not get any closer than seven with lead swelling to 10 (28-18) prior to the 30-20 victory.

Thompson led the way in winners again in as she recorded five with Skower one behind at four as they were the only two Seminoles to record more than two kills. Weissing had eight digs and Griffin produced three blocks. Even though it dipped in hitting percentage, the Seminoles' defense helped it to a .231 (15-6-39) to .025 (11-10-40) margin. FSU also led 17-14 in digs and 4-3 for blocks.

"We have to serve well, that is a staple of what we have to do to win and we are a good serving team, it's part of who we are," Kress added. "We have to not necessarily score from the endline, but we have to keep teams out of system and I thought we did a good job of that tonight. We respect Wake a lot, they're really strong at the pins and we didn't want to defend both pins tonight so if we could keep them out of system, defend one or the other, we'd take our chances."

The Demon Deacons could have easily ran away with game three, but several miscues by the visitors kept FSU in the game at crucial times. Up 8-5, two WFU miscues and a Tomic kill made it 9-9. Even though Wake Forest mounted a 15-12 lead, two more errors kept the Seminoles in the game until Tomic came through with an ace followed by back-to-back kills by Thompson and Griffin to give FSU its first lead since 4-3 at 16-15.

Two attack errors and a Griffin ace increased FSU's lead to 21-18, but the Seminoles gave two points back to help Wake Forest tie the match at 23-23. The Demon Deacons returned the favor with an error then Griffin and Tomic followed with two kills as Florida State went ahead 26-23. Wake Forest would only score one more point the rest of the way as Griffin notched a pair of kills for the 30-24 triumph.

The two kills at the end propelled Griffin to the team lead with five winners. Thompson was next with a trio. The Demon Deacons led Florida State in virtually every category with a .225 (15-6-40) to .178 (15-7-45) advantage in hitting as well as digs (20-19) and blocks (3-1).

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            3 16  5  43  0.256   0  0  1   0   5  0  1   0   0  16.5
 2 Jackie BonSalle            3  8  2  18  0.333   0  0  0   0   2  0  1   0   0   8.5
 5 Brianna Barry              3  5  5  14  0.000   1  0  0   0   0  0  2   0   0   6.0
 7 Zrinka Tomic               3  4  2  10  0.200  42  2  0   0   9  0  1   1   2   6.5
13 Sarah Griffin              3  9  2  21  0.333   0  4  0   0   4  1  4   0   0  16.0
14 Jessica Skower             3  7  2  18  0.278   2  2  2   0   3  1  3   1   1  11.5
   ---Substitutes---
 6 Kim Crawford               1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   2  0  0   0   0   0.0
 9 Alex Plummer               3  0  0   2  0.000   2  0  0   0  10  0  0   0   0   0.0
21 Summer Weissing            3  0  0   1  0.000   1  1  1   0  15  0  0   0   0   1.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 49 18 127  0.244  48  9  4   0  50  2 12   2   3  66.0
   Opp                        3 40 22 117  0.154  38  0  6   9  50  3  8   0   3  47.0


  1 2 3
Wake Forest
21
20
24
Florida State
30
30
30

Duke 3, Florida State 0
10/22/2006, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Seminole Volleyball Can Not Pull Off the Upset, Drops 3-0 Decision To First-Place Duke.

Florida State in second place through first round of conference play.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - GAME SCORES: Duke 3, Florida Sate 0 (21-30, 20-30, 27-30)

As far as the Florida State volleyball team has come this season, the Seminoles found out how much farther they are going to have to come the rest of the year if they want to contend for the Atlantic Coast Conference title. FSU was swept for just the second time this season as it dropped a 3-0 decision (21-30, 20-30, 27-30) to league-leader Duke on Sunday (October 22) at Lucy McDaniel Court.

Florida State was handed just its third conference loss of the season as it dropped to 9-3 and 15-6 overall. Duke won its 11th match in a row as it improved to 18-2 overall, 11-0 in the ACC. The Blue Devils have won seven in a row over FSU and are the first team to sweep the Seminoles since they lost a 3-0 affair to No. 10 USC on September 8.

For the first time this season, the Seminoles did not have at least one player reach double digits in kills as junior outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.) was tops on the team with eight. Senior middle blocker Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) was next at six while rookie middle Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) and senior outside hitter Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.) added five each.

Florida State did out-block Duke (9-5) as Skower and Barry had four apiece and Griffin came through with three. Senior setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) had 22 assists and junior libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) had a match-high 11 digs. FSU had 37 digs as a team as part of the "Dig for the Cure" campaign with the proceeds going to the local branch of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

Duke limited the Seminoles to a season-low .110 (33-22-100) hitting percentage while hitting .318 (51-16-110). The Blue Devils were limited to six digs below their league-leading 19.7 digs per game average, but still held a 39-37 advantage over Florida State. FSU also committed a season-high 11 serve receive errors.

The Seminoles got out to a quick start to game one as they held a 7-5 advantage on a Barry kill. Unfortunately, Florida State committed three straight errors - including a pair of serve receive miscues - that allowed Duke to take a 9-7 lead. A kill by freshman outside hitter Jackie BonSalle (Albuquerque, N.M.) and a Duke hitting error pulled FSU to win one at 15-14, but two FSU errors and four Duke kills made it 21-14. The Seminoles would get within five (25-20) on a solo block by Thomson before Duke went on for the 30-21 victory.

Tying for the team lead with four kills a piece were middle blockers Barry and Griffin with Griffin hitting 1.000 (4-0-4) and Barry hitting .500 (4-1-6). Thompson was next at three kills. Florida State out-dug Duke 16-15 as Tomic and Weissing had five digs each. Duke held a .297 (15-4-37) to .176 (12-6-34) advantage in hitting percentage and benefited from four aces.

Game two was tight throughout the early stages until Duke forced the Seminoles into several errors as part of a 10-1 run by the visitors that gave the Blue Devils a 17-9 advantage. Five of Duke's first six points during that stretch came from Florida State miscues. Florida State got the lead down to six (24-18) before the Blue Devils went on to the 30-20 victory.

No Seminoles would have more than a pair of kills in game two as Thompson, Griffin and Skower all had a pair. Duke held a .483 (17-3-29) to .074 (10-8-27) in hitting percentage and 3-1 for blocks with FSU committing five serve receive errors. The two teams tied with 18 digs each.

Similar to game one, Florida State had an early lead 6-3, but allowed the Blue Devils to go on a 6-0 run that gave the visitors a 9-6 lead. Barry combined with fellow rookie Malorie Wessel (West Chester, Ohio) and Tomic for blocks to get FSU back within two (12-10) then a Thompson kill made it a one-point game (13-12), but Duke went on a 5-0 run to open a six-point lead (18-12). The Seminoles got the margin down to two as late as 24-22 before the Blue Devils went on to win the match 30-27.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            3  8  8  27  0.000   0  0  1   0   3  2  0   0   0  10.0
 2 Jackie BonSalle            2  2  3  11 -0.091   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   2.0
 7 Zrinka Tomic               3  2  0   3  0.667  22  1  0   0   9  0  2   0   0   4.0
 9 Alex Plummer               3  0  0   1  0.000   0  1  0   0   5  0  0   0   0   1.0
13 Sarah Griffin              3  6  2  14  0.286   0  1  0   5   2  0  3   0   0   8.5
14 Jessica Skower             3  5  3  20  0.100   5  0  1   2   3  0  4   1   0   7.0
   ---Substitutes---
 5 Brianna Barry              3  5  4  10  0.100   1  0  0   0   1  0  4   0   0   7.0
 6 Kim Crawford               2  0  0   1  0.000   1  0  0   3   2  0  0   0   0   0.0
 8 Nikki Baker                1  0  0   1  0.000   1     1   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
15 Malorie Wessel             2  5  2  12  0.250   0  2  1   0   1  0  1   0   0   7.5
21 Summer Weissing            3  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  0   0  11  0  0   0   0   0.0
   Team                                                      1                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 33 22 100  0.110  31  5  4  11  37  2 14   1   0  47.0
   Opp                        3 51 16 110  0.318  48 11  9   5  39  2  6   3   4  67.0


  1 2 3
Duke
30
30
30
Florida State
21
20
27

Florida State 3, Boston College 0
10/27/2006, Chestnut Hill, Mass.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Florida State Volleyball Continues Strong Road Play With 3-0 Sweep At Boston College.

Skower leads the way with 14 kills.

CHESTNUT HILL, MA - GAME SCORES: Florida State 3, Boston College 0 (30-21, 30-27, 30-15).

Going on the road has been anything but a hinder for the Florida State volleyball team. The Seminoles have only been beaten once on an opponent's home court in 2006 and that pattern stayed true Friday (October 27) as Florida State swept Boston College 3-0 (30-21, 30-27, 30-15).

Florida State bounced back from its loss to Duke on Sunday as it improved to 16-6 overall, 10-3 in the ACC. It's the third time in five seasons under Todd Kress that Florida State has won at least 10 ACC matches. The loss dropped Boston College to 7-14, 5-7 in the conference.

"It was a very important win," Kress said. "On the road it's obviously that much tougher. I thought we started off a little bit on our heels in game one, a little flat, Boston College was serving the heck out of the ball and it took us a while to respond. I credit our kids; they did a great job of responding, fighting back, getting into the flow of the match, taking Boston College's best punch and then playing our best volleyball down the stretch."

Topping the team with a match-high 14 kills was senior outside hitter Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.) as she posted 14 winners. Rookie Malorie Wessel (West Chester, Ohio) was next at eight while fellow freshman Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) and Boston-area product Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.) followed with seven each.

Leading the Seminoles' defensive charge was junior libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) with 15 digs while senior middle blocker Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) added 11 digs. Barry led the way with four blocks. Florida State out-hit Boston College .197 (40-15-127) to .055 (33-26-128). BC had a 62-to-59 advantage in digs while the two teams tied with seven blocks.

"She played a great match," Kress said of Skower. "It's all about match-ups. It's all about game planning and match ups and we thought it was something we could be successful at and fortunately for us we were."

Each team took its turn with runs throughout the start of the match with Florida State claming leads each time, only to see the Eagles fight back to tie the game. A pair of BC miscues allowed FSU to open a 17-14 margin, but the hosts answer with a 3-0 run to tie the game at 17-17. Skower broke the deadlock with a kill then picked up a pair of points on her serve thanks to two BC errors. Two more Eagle miscues and an ace by Wessel opened a 24-18 advantage. The Eagles got it back to 26-21, but the Seminoles closed out the game on a 4-0 run that was capped off by a solo block and a kill by Thompson.

Leading the FSU offense was Skower as she posted five kills, while Barry was two back. Florida State held a .219 (13-6-32) to .114 (12-8-35) advantage in hitting percentage and led 13-10 for digs. Boston College was ahead 3-2 in blocks but gave the Seminoles 19 points through errors.

The Seminoles spotted Boston College a 4-1 lead before going on a 10-4 spurt to take an 11-7 lead on a BC attack error. Just like game one, the Eagle helped Florida State's cause with errors. Two BC miscues gave FSU its first five-point lead (18-13) then the lead climbed to six (22-16) on back-to-back Wessel kills. Two more Eagle errors, sandwiched around a Barry and Tomic block, built the lead to eight (25-17). Boston College mounted a 5-0 run to get it to 25-22, but once again committed an error to kill the rally. The Eagles would pull to within two as late as 29-27 but Skower finished off the game with a kill for the 30-27 victory.

Once again Skower was the Seminoles offensive catalyst, topping the team with five kills and the rookie Wessel had three as they were the only two players with more than a pair of kills. The two teams put on a stellar defensive show with the Eagles holding a 36-29 advantage in digs that led to low hitting numbers where Florida State was up .119 (13-6-59) to .048 (16-13-62). FSU topped BC 4-2 for blocks.

Florida State closed out the match with its best performance by far in game three. The hosts made it a one-point game (6-5) but from there it was all Florida State as it went on a 15-3 run to open a 21-8 advantage. The Eagles made a slight run, cutting the lead to 11 (23-12) but Florida State put down the accelerator on its way the 30-15 to sweep the match.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            3  7  3  29  0.138   0  0  0   0   3  1  0   0   0   8.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3  7  4  18  0.167   1  0  0   0   5  0  4   0   1   9.0
 7 Zrinka Tomic               3  3  1  12  0.167  30  1  1   0   7  0  2   0   2   5.0
13 Sarah Griffin              3  1  3  16 -0.125   1  3  2   0  11  0  2   0   1   5.0
14 Jessica Skower             3 14  1  23  0.565   1  0  3   0   8  0  3   1   0  15.5
15 Malorie Wessel             3  8  3  28  0.179   1  3  2   0   6  0  1   1   0  11.5
   ---Substitutes---
 8 Nikki Baker                1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  1   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
 9 Alex Plummer               3  0  0   1  0.000   0  0  1   0   4  0  0   0   0   0.0
21 Summer Weissing            3  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  0   0  15  0  0   0   0   0.0
   Team                                                      1                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 40 15 127  0.197  35  7 10   1  59  1 12   2   4  54.0
   Opp                        3 33 26 128  0.055  31  1  8   7  62  1 12   2   5  41.0


  1 2 3
Florida State
30
30
30
Boston College
21
27
15

Maryland 3, Florida State 2
10/29/2006, College Park, Md.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Seminole Volleyball Drops Tough 3-2 Decision At Maryland.

Four players post double digit kills, Thompson leads the way with 19.

COLLEGE PARK, MD - GAME SCORES: Maryland 3, Florida State 2 (28-30, 30-23, 30-24, 19-30, 13-15).

Anytime you've got the home team on its heels, its best to deliver the knock-out punch as quickly as possible. The Florida State volleyball team had Maryland on the ropes several times, but couldn't put the Terrapins away as the hosts won the last two games for the 3-2 victory (28-30, 30-23, 30-24, 19-30, 13-15) on Sunday (October 29).

Florida State was dealt just its second road loss of the year as it dropped to 16-7 overall, 10-4 in the league. The Terrapins improved to 11-11, 4-9 in the ACC.

The Seminoles had four players with double digit kills, led by junior outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.) at 19. Senior outside hitter Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.) was next at 14, followed by senior middle blocker Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) with 13 and rookie middle Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) had 12.

Topping the FSU defensive effort was junior libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) with 20 digs. Senior setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) had a double-double with 10 digs and 57 assists to tie her career-high. Griffin led the way with five blocks.

Despite hitting under .100 for the final two games, Florida State held a .209 (73-37-172) to .193 (54-25-150) hitting percentage advantage. The Seminoles were also up 57-49 on digs, but Maryland countered with a 20-8 margin for blocks. Florida State was its own worst enemy, giving Maryland 66 of its 121 points off attack errors (37), service errors (12), serve-receive errors (9), blocking errors (3) and ball handling errors (5).

Griffin's serve got Florida State off to a quick 4-0 lead to start the match and FSU would hold that margin until 10-6 on a Griffin kill, but the Terps went on a 5-1 run, that was fueled by four Seminole miscues, to tie the bout at 11-11. A Skower kill gave FSU a 13-12 lead then she went back to serve three-straight points to stake FSU to a 16-12 advantage.

Maryland clawed back to 18-17 but a Barry kill, followed by two UM attacking errors put the margin back to four (21-17). The lead got to as high as five (26-21) on a Griffin ace, but the hosts rallied to take a 29-28 lead on back-to-back FSU attack errors before stealing the game 30-28. It was just the sixth time this season that Florida State lost game one.

Skower and Barry led the way with a team-best five kills each, followed by a trio from freshman outside hitter Malorie Wessel (West Chester, Ohio). The Seminoles held a .270 (.17-7-37) to .212 (12-5-33) advantage in hitting, but serving was the difference in the game as Maryland pick up eight points from its aces and FSU's errors. The Seminoles were up 12-10 in digs, but down 2-0 for blocks.

Florida State spotted Maryland a 7-5 lead thanks to four errors at the beginning of game two, but the Seminoles rallied to grab an 11-8 lead as Tomic served five-straight points. During the run, Thompson had two kills and combined with Griffin for a block. Back-to-back Griffin aces would push the FSU lead to 16-9 then two more aces from Skower opened a 20-10 advantage. Maryland rallied to get within seven (22-15), but out of a Florida State timeout, Griffin came through with two kills and a solo block to get the lead back to ten (25-15). Back-to-back Maryland blocks helped cut the Seminoles' margin to five (26-21), but that's all the closer UM would get as a Thompson kill ended the game 30-23.

Thompson posted a game-high five kills and Griffin was one back while Barry and Skower each had three. A 12-9 advantage in digs helped the Seminoles to a .278 (17-7-36) to .161 (10-5-31) lead in hitting percentage. Florida State had five aces, but UM had the 5-3 margin in blocks.

Game three was a tight affair as the lead changed hands six times before Maryland claimed a 17-15 margin on a block. A Jackie BonSalle (Albuquerque, N.M.) kill followed by a UM ball-handling error tied the game then BonSalle combined with Barry for a block that gave FSU a 19-18 lead. Tied at 20-20, Thompson wrapped two kills around a block by Griffin and Tomic, as the Seminoles claimed a 23-20 lead. The Terrapins rallied to get the game back to 23-23, but FSU ended the game with a 7-0 run that was fueled by two kills from Griffin and Thompson as well as three UM attack errors for the 30-24 decision.

For the second game in a row Thompson was the go-to-player as she led the way with six kills. Griffin was next with three as the only other player with more than a pair of winners. Florida State was up .268 (15-4-41) to .171 (17-10-41) as well as 13-10 in digs and 3-2 for blocks.

Back-to-back Skower kills pulled FSU to within 4-3 at the start of game four, but the Terrapins went on a 6-1 run for a 10-4 lead. Florida State inched its way back as a Maryland attack error following a BonSalle kill tied the match at 13-13. Unfortunately, Maryland would run away with the set on an 11-2 run that gave the hosts a 24-15 margin before UM went onto the 30-19 victory.

Thompson and BonSalle tied for the team lead at four kills apiece, but they were the only players to record more than two kills. Even though Florida State held a 12-6 advantage for digs, it was out-hit .214 (10-4-28) to .086 (14-11-35) and Maryland had a 6-2 lead in blocks.

Game five started as a back-and-fourth affair until the Seminoles went on a 5-0 run for an 8-4 lead. During the run, Skower had a pair of kills and combined with Barry for a block. The Terrapins rallied for a 4-0 run of their own to take a 10-9 lead. FSU would forge an 11-11 tie, but a UM kill and block made it 13-11 before the hosts went on to win the match 15-13.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            5 19 12  46  0.152   0  1  0   0   1  1  1   0   0  21.5
 5 Brianna Barry              5 12  3  23  0.391   0  0  0   0   1  0  1   1   0  12.5
 7 Zrinka Tomic               5  3  1   4  0.500  57  1  1   0  10  0  1   0   1   4.5
13 Sarah Griffin              5 13  4  33  0.273   2  3  4   5   8  2  3   0   0  19.5
14 Jessica Skower             5 14  7  33  0.212   5  3  1   1   9  0  1   1   2  17.5
15 Malorie Wessel             3  5  4  12  0.083   1  0  3   0   2  0  0   0   0   5.0
   ---Substitutes---
 2 Jackie BonSalle            4  7  6  17  0.059   0  0  0   0   0  1  1   0   0   8.5
 3 Caitlin Belvin             1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   1   0.0
 4 Brittany Byrd              1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
 8 Nikki Baker                1  0  0   1  0.000   3  0  0   0   0  0  0   1   1   0.0
 9 Alex Plummer               5  0  0   3  0.000   0  0  1   1   6  0  0   0   0   0.0
21 Summer Weissing            5  0  0   0  0.000   2  0  2   2  20  0  0   0   0   0.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        5 73 37 172  0.209  70  8 12   9  57  4  8   3   5  89.0
   Opp                        5 55 25 151  0.199  49  9  4   8  49  2 36   1   9  84.0


  1 2 3 4 5
Florida State
28
30
30
19
13
Maryland
30
23
24
30
15

Clemson 3, Florida State 0
11/03/2006, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Florida State Volleyball Drops 3-0 Decision Against Clemson.

Seminoles drop back-to-back matches for just the second time this season.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - Game Scores: Clemson 3 Florida State 0 (16-30, 21-30, 21-30).

With only one player on the roster with postseason experience, the Florida State volleyball team is still learning to how to win the crucial matches. Unfortunately, the Seminoles are learning the hard way as they lost back-to-back matches for just the second time this year, falling 3-0 (16-30, 21-30, 21-30) to Clemson on Friday (November 3).

Florida State fell out of a tie for second in the conference as it dropped to 10-5 in the ACC, 16-8 overall. The Tigers moved a half game ahead of the Seminoles at 10-4, 15-7 overall. The loss to Clemson, coupled with Virginia's win over Maryland, pushed FSU down to fourth place.

A trio of outside hitters - junior Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.), freshman Malorie Wessel (West Chester, Ohio) and senior Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.) - tied for the team lead with eight kills. Senior middle blocker Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) added six winners.

Junior libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) had 13 digs and senior setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) added 20 assists. Freshman middle blocker Brianna Barry (Winter Park, Fla.) had three blocks.

Florida State was held to a season-low .065 (35-28-108) hitting, while Clemson's .348 (44-12-92) rate was a season-high for an FSU opponent. The Tigers also held an advantage in blocks (10-4) and digs (38-35). More than half of Clemson's points (47-of-90) came from Florida State errors.

The two teams traded points to start game one with a Clemson attack error tying the match at 9-9. Unfortunately, six FSU errors and lackluster passing allowed the Tigers to go on a 12-2 run that built them a 21-11 lead. The margin would grow to as many as 14 at 28-14, before Clemson won the opening stanza 30-16.

No Seminole had more than two kills with Thompson, Tomic and Skower all recording a pair. Clemson held a .423 (15-4-26) to .038 (8-7-26) advantage in hitting as well as 4-1 in blocks and 10-7 for digs. The Seminoles committed 15 total errors.

Clemson took the momentum from game one and used it to build an early lead in the second stanza that the Seminoles could not overcome. The Tigers used a pair of Seminole errors to push an 8-7 lead to 13-8 during a 5-1 run. Florida State got the lead down to five (24-19) on a kill by Wessel, but the Tigers responded by pushing the lead to eight (27-19) before going on the 30-21 victory.

Only two players recorded more than two kills with Wessel leading the way at five, followed by Skower with a trio. Once again the Seminoles were their own worst enemy as they committed 14 errors. Clemson held a .316 (17-5-38) to .119 (13-8-42) advantage in hitting as well as 19-15 in digs.

In the same manner that took the wind out of Florida State's sails in each of the first two stanzas, early errors took the Seminoles out of the game. FSU held a 4-3 advantage, but three-straight errors ignited a 5-0 Clemson run that gave the Tigers an 8-4 lead. Florida State capitalized on two CU errors then Wessel added a kill and combined with Barry for a block to tie the match at 9-9. Unfortunately, three more FSU miscues came at the end of another 5-0 Clemson run as they took back a 14-9 lead. The margin would never get below five (22-17) before Clemson closed out the match 30-21.

Thompson recorded a game-high five kills, while Griffin, Wessel and Skower each had three. The Tigers held a .321 (12-3-28) to .025 (14-13-40) advantage in hitting as well as 4-2 in blocks. Florida State did win out 13-9 for digs, but gave the Tigers 20 points through errors.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            3  8  6  24  0.083   0  0  0   0   3  0  0   0   0   8.0
 2 Jackie BonSalle            2  2  1   8  0.125   0  0  1   0   0  0  0   0   0   2.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3  1  3   8 -0.250   0  0  0   0   0  1  2   2   0   3.0
 7 Zrinka Tomic               3  2  0   4  0.500  20  0  1   0   6  0  0   0   4   2.0
13 Sarah Griffin              3  6  2  16  0.250   0  0  1   0   4  1  0   0   0   7.0
15 Malorie Wessel             3  8  8  26  0.000   0  0  3   1   4  0  1   0   0   8.5
   ---Substitutes---
 6 Kim Crawford               1  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
 8 Nikki Baker                1  0  0   1  0.000   7  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   1   0.0
 9 Alex Plummer               3  0  0   1  0.000   1  0  1   0   3  0  0   0   0   0.0
14 Jessica Skower             3  8  8  20  0.000   0  1  1   0   2  0  1   0   0   9.5
21 Summer Weissing            3  0  0   0  0.000   3  0  0   1  13  0  0   0   0   0.0
   Team                                                      2                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 35 28 108  0.065  32  1  8   4  35  2  4   2   5  40.0
   Opp                        3 44 12  92  0.348  36  4  9   1  38  4 12   2   1  58.0


  1 2 3
Clemson
30
30
30
Florida State
16
21
21

Georgia Tech 3, Florida State 1
11/05/2006, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Florida State Volleyball Gives Georgia Tech A Tough Match But Falls 3-1.

Barry posts a career-high 16 kills.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - Game Scores: Georgia Tech 3, Florida State 1 (30-27, 26-30, 25-30, 26-30).

When two teams are evenly matched, it's the little things that decide the winner. In the case of the Florida State volleyball team, it was both ends of the serving, at in opportune times, that was their undoing as the Seminoles dropped a 3-1 contest (30-27, 26-30, 25-30, 26-30) on Sunday (November 5) at Lucy McDaniel Court.

Florida State has lost three matches in a row for the first time this season as it dropped to 16-9 overall, 10-6 in the ACC. The Yellow Jackets avoided being swept by the Seminoles for the first time as they improved to 15-10, 7-8 in the conference.

Five different players posted double figures in kills, led by freshman Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) with a career-high 16 kills. Junior outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.) was next with 15 kills, while rookie outside Malorie Wessel (West Chester, Ohio) contributed 14. Seniors Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) and Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.) tied with a dozen each.

Playing her best match of the season was rookie setter Nikki Baker (Findley, Ohio) as she recorded a career-best 57 assists. Junior libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) contributed 14 digs. Barry also led FSU's defensive effort with three blocks.

Even though Florida State held a .322 (70-24-143) to .304 (56-18-125) advantage in hitting, serving was the difference in the match. Georgia Tech got 28 points from aces (16) and Florida State service errors (12). GT held slim leads for digs (45-43) and blocks (7-6).

Despite giving Georgia Tech four of its first five points, the Seminoles tied game one at 5-5, but five miscues of their own allowed the Yellow Jackets to go on an 8-0 run that staked them to a 13-5 lead. Down 20-13, three-straight kills by Wessel followed by a Griffin kill and a block from Barry and Baker erased a seven-point lead and made it a 20-18 game.

After a kill by Thompson tied the match at 23-23, Alex Plummer (Woodbury, Minn.) came through with back-to-back aces to give Florida State a 25-23 lead. Griffin and Skower put together consecutive kills then Baker's serve hit the tape and rolled over for an ace that pushed FSU's lead to 29-24. Georgia Tech got back to within two (29-27), but a Thompson kill ended the match 30-27.

Griffin and Wessel tied for the team lead with a half dozen kills each. Thompson was next with three. The Seminoles held a .314 (18-7-35) to .200 (10-5-25) advantage in hitting percentage and had six aces. FSU was up 2-1 in blocks and the two teams tied with eight digs.

A pair of early Florida State errors in game two allowed Georgia Tech to establish a lead that the Seminoles could not overcome. A Skower kill on the heels of a Barry solo block made it a one-point game (12-11), but the Yellow Jackets pushed the margin back to three. A Griffin kill pulled FSU to within 17-15, but back-to-back errors got the lead back to four. The Seminoles whittled the lead to 27-26, but GT held on for the 30-26 win.

Barry led all attackers with five kills, while Thompson and Skower were one back and Wessel added a trio. Florida State held a slight .256 (18-7-43) to .250 (14-4-40) but FSU miscues were the difference, particularly in the serving department. Georgia Tech got 14 of its 30 points from Seminole errors, including six from serving and serve receive.

A pair of Barry kills helped Florida State take control of game three early, but the Yellow Jackets went on a 5-0 run that swung the lead in their favor 9-6. A Griffin ace completed a three-point run as FSU regained the lead (11-10) and started a string of four lead changes. The Seminoles held their last lead at 13-12 on a block by Wessel and Barry but Georgia Tech responded with an 8-0 run that opened a 20-13 lead and put the game away. FSU trimmed the lead to three as late as 23-20 on a Thompson kill before the Yellow Jackets pulled away for the 30-25 triumph.

Barry led Florida State's attack with five kills while Thompson was one back to go along with a trio from Skower. Georgia Tech's 11-6 advantage in digs helped it to a .448 (18-5-29) to .333 (16-5-33) lead in hitting percentage. The Yellow Jackets also benefited from four aces.

Similar to game three, Florida State took early control of game four, only to see the Yellow Jackets go on a run to seize a lead they would not relinquish. A solo block by Baker gave the Seminoles a 5-4 margin, but Georgia Tech rattled off five points in a row to capture a 9-5 advantage. Florida State chipped away at the margin, getting to within one (18-17) on a block by Skower and Griffin then again on a Wessel ace (25-24), but the Yellow Jackets held on for the 30-26 victory.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            4 15  6  34  0.265   0  0  0   0   3  0  0   0   0  15.0
 2 Jackie BonSalle            1  1  2   4 -0.250   0  0  0   0   0  0  1   0   0   1.5
 7 Zrinka Tomic               1  0  0   0  0.000   2  0  1   0   0  0  0   0   1   0.0
 9 Alex Plummer               4  0  0   0  0.000   0  3  0   0   5  0  0   0   0   3.0
13 Sarah Griffin              4 12  4  23  0.348   0  3  2   7   7  0  2   0   0  16.0
14 Jessica Skower             4 12  5  25  0.280   4  0  2   3   5  0  1   0   0  12.5
   ---Substitutes---
 5 Brianna Barry              4 16  1  27  0.556   0  0  0   0   3  1  2   1   0  18.0
 6 Kim Crawford               2  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   1   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
 8 Nikki Baker                4  0  0   0  0.000  57  1  3   0   4  0  2   0   2   2.0
15 Malorie Wessel             4 14  6  30  0.267   1  3  3   0   2  0  2   1   1  18.0
21 Summer Weissing            4  0  0   0  0.000   0  1  1   2  14  0  0   0   0   1.0
   Team                                                      3                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        4 70 24 143  0.322  64 11 12  16  43  1 10   2   4  87.0
   Opp                        4 56 18 125  0.304  50 16  7  11  45  1 12   2   0  79.0


  1 2 3 4
Georgia Tech
27
30
30
30
Florida State
30
26
25
26

Virginia 3, Florida State 2
11/10/2006, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Florida State Volleyball Cannot Complete The Comeback, Dropping 3-2 Decision To Virginia.

Makini Thompson post a career-high 26 kills.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - Game Scores: Virginia 3, Florida State 2 (28-30, 22-30, 30-22, 30-24, 14-16)

Since Florida State won 3-0 at Virginia on October 14, the two programs have gone in opposite directions. Unfortunately for the Seminoles they continued down the wrong path Friday night (November 10) as they rallied from a 2-0 deficit before dropping a 3-2 decision (28-30, 22-30, 30-22, 30-24, 14-16) to the Cavaliers.

The Seminoles lost their fourth match in a row to drop to 16-10 overall, 10-7 in the ACC. Virginia won its seventh in a row to improve to 20-6, 13-4 in the conference.

Posting a career-high 26 kills - the most by a Seminole the last two seasons - was junior outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.). Up next on the team was freshman middle blocker Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) with nine, while fellow freshmen Jackie BonSalle (Albuquerque, N.M.) and Malorie Wessel (West Chester, Ohio) contributed eight.

Senior setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) had a double-double with 47 assists and a team-best 19 digs. Four different players had double-digit kills with libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) adding 16, followed by 15 from senior Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.) and 14 more from Kim Crawford (Ft. Myers, Fla.).

Statistically Florida State dominated the match, holding a .229 (66-26-175) to .139 (67-38-208) advantage in hitting percentage as well as 91-74 in digs - season-high for FSU - and 14-13 for blocks. The one area where Virginia had an advantage was serving as UVA had 12 service aces and FSU committed eight service errors.

A Thompson kill knotted game one at 5-5, but a pair of UVA blocks and two FSU attack errors staked the visitors to a 10-5 lead. The Cavaliers built their lead to 17-10, but three Thompson kills and a trio of UVA attack errors allowed FSU to pull within one (18-17) on a kill by Wessel. Another Wessel kill made it 19-18, but the Cavaliers push the margin back to three (21-18) and extend it to 25-20. Florida State would fight back to tie the match at 27-27 on a block by Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) and Skower then Wessel gave FSU a 28-27 lead, but the Cavaliers ran off three-straight points for the 30-28 victory.

Topping the team with seven kills was Thompson, to go along with a .667 hitting percentage, while the rookie Wessel was one back with a half dozen. Weissing led the defensive effort with 10 digs - FSU out-dug UVA 24-18 - while Griffin had three blocks. FSU benefited from five UVA service errors, but was the difference stemmed from the Cavaliers' .204 (16-6-49) to .130 (16-10-46) advantage in hitting percentage.

After Virginia got a quick lead to start game two, the Seminoles fought back and got within one (6-5) but poor passing by FSU allowed the visitors to extend the margin to six (11-5) with the deficit getting to has high as 10 (22-12) before the Cavaliers went on to the 30-22 win.

Thompson and Barry were the only players with more than two kills as they each had three. The Cavaliers had the advantage in almost every facet of the game, including hitting percentage - .267 (14-6-30) to .182 (12-6-33) - and digs (12-10). UVA also got seven points from aces (four) and FSU service errors (three).

The Seminoles came alive in game three as they stormed out to an 11-3 lead as Skower served eight-straight points. Keying the run was Barry as she had a pair of kills and combined with Tomic for a block. The Cavaliers would only get the lead down to five (11-6) with the Seminoles extending the margin to nine on several occasions. Three-straight Virginia errors gave FSU its biggest lead at 29-18 and the Cavaliers put together a last gasp before a Thompson kill gave FSU the 30-22 triumph.

Leading the Florida State rally was Thompson as she posted a team-high five kills while Tomic and BonSalle were next at three. Improved Florida State defense was the difference as it out-dug (17-13) and out-blocked UVA (4-3). In turn, the Seminoles held a .250 (13-5-32) to -.136 (9-15-44) lead in hitting percentage.

It appeared that Virginia was going to steal the Seminoles' mojo in game four as the visitors took a quick 3-0 lead, but FSU responded with a 6-1 run that included a pair of blocks and two kills by BonSalle as FSU took a 6-4 lead it would extend to 9-5 on a Skower ace. The Cavaliers got the lead down to one (9-8) but were their own worst enemy as after a Barry kill, UVA committed six miscues as part of an 8-2 run that saw FSU take a 17-10 lead.

Florida State gave Virginia four points on errors and UVA converted lapses in FSU's passing into offensive opportunities as the Cavaliers went on an 11-4 run to tie the match at 21-21. The Seminoles responded by going to Thompson as she put together four kills, and Virginia committed a pair of errors, during a 7-1 run that gave Florida State a 28-22 lead it carry into a 30-24 victory.

Matching her game one total was Thompson as she led the team with seven kill while Barry and BonSalle were next at three. Once again defense was the key as the Seminoles out-dug UVA 28-15 to help it to a .400 (16-2-35) to .175 (18-8-57) advantage in hitting.

Game five was a nail-bitter with each team taking turns in the lead. UVA went up quickly, 0-2, but the Seminoles responded as a block by Griffin and Skower gave the hosts a 6-4 advantage. An attack error gave the Cavaliers an 8-7 advantage and they would hold that one-point margin until an ace gave them the two-point cushion (11-9). UVA would go up 14-11 on a kill but the Seminoles rattled off three-straight points to tie the game at 14-14 on a Thompson kill, but the Cavaliers got the final two points for the 16-14 victory.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            5 26  4  54  0.407   0  0  0   1   6  0  1   2   0  26.5
 5 Brianna Barry              5  9  1  14  0.571   0  0  0   0   1  0  6   2   0  12.0
 8 Nikki Baker                1  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
13 Sarah Griffin              5  5  1  21  0.190   1  0  1   3   7  0  6   3   1   8.0
14 Jessica Skower             5  7  7  25  0.000   8  2  1   4  15  1  5   0   1  12.5
15 Malorie Wessel             2  8  7  25  0.040   0  0  1   1   5  0  1   0   0   8.5
   ---Substitutes---
 2 Jackie BonSalle            4  8  5  28  0.107   0  1  2   0   2  0  3   0   0  10.5
 6 Kim Crawford               3  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  0   2  14  0  0   0   0   0.0
 7 Zrinka Tomic               5  3  0   6  0.500  47  0  3   0  19  0  4   1   1   5.0
 9 Alex Plummer               5  0  1   2 -0.500   1  2  0   1   6  0  0   0   0   2.0
21 Summer Weissing            3  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0  16  0  0   0   0   0.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        5 66 26 175  0.229  59  5  8  12  91  1 26   8   3  85.0
   Opp                        5 67 38 208  0.139  63 12 11   5  74  2 22   6   3  92.0


  1 2 3 4 5
Virginia
30
30
23
24
16
Florida State
28
22
30
30
14

Florida State 3, Virginia Tech 0
11/12/2006, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Seminole Volleyball Sends Seniors Off With 3-0 Sweep Of Virginia Tech.

Griffin moves into fifth place in school history with 137 aces.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - Game Scores: Florida State 3, Virginia Tech 0 (30-13, 30-26, 30-23)

There's no better way to honor the seniors during their final home match than to come through with a victory. The Florida State University volleyball team made sure its four seniors had a memorable last match at Lucy McDaniel Court as the Seminoles swept Virginia Tech 3-0 (30-13, 30-26, 30-23) on Sunday (November 12).

Florida State snapped its four-match losing streak as it improved to 17-10, 11-6 in the conference. The 11 league wins ties the most ACC wins in school history. Virginia Tech dropped to 14-12, 8-9 in the league.

"It's very important to send the seniors off with a win," FSU head coach Todd Kress said. "This class has meant so much to us and to send them out with a win, I couldn't be happier. They mean so much; they're great kids on and off the court, they're who we are, they're what we represent, they're great ambassadors, not only for our program, but for this university."

Topping the Seminoles offensively was junior outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.) with 13 kills while rookie outside Jackie BonSalle (Albuquerque, N.M.) was next at 11. Seniors Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) and Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.) were next at seven.

With six aces, Griffin moved into fifth in school history with 137 career aces. Florida State posted a season-high 16 aces on the Hokies. Fellow senior Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) had 35 assists and classmate Kim Crawford (Ft. Myers, Fla.) led the FSU defensive effort with eight digs. Rookie middle blocker Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) had five blocks.

Florida State had its best hitting match in over a month as it posted a .407 (48-11-91) to .121 (28-17-91) advantage in hitting. The Seminoles also led the Hokies 37-30 in digs and 6-2 for blocks.

"Obviously it was important to break the little streak that we had been on," Kress added. "We're not happy about the way we've been playing. It's a long ACC season; the double round robin is very tough. I think that's caught up on us and everyone else in the conference right now. You just need to get over the hump to get down the stretch, hopefully today we got over the hump and we'll play some of our better volleyball these last couple of weeks."

A trio of Thompson kills and two from Tomic staked the Seminoles to a quick 8-2 lead to start game one. Any chance of Virginia Tech staying in game one was erased by Griffin as she served eight-straight points, including four aces, during a 9-0 run that gave Florida State a 21-6 advantage. The lead got to 20 points (29-9 on an ace by sophomore Alex Plummer (Woodbury, Minn.) before a Griffin kill ended the match 30-13.

Leading the Seminoles' offensive attack was Thompson as she recorded a game-high five kills while Skower was next at three. Florida State had one its best offensive games, holding a .625 (16-1-24) to .125 (7-4-24) advantage in hitting. Also helping the Seminoles was seven aces and an 11-7 margin in digs.

The momentum from their late run in game one sparked the Hokies at the start of game two as the visitors ran out to an 11-3 thanks to five Florida State errors. The senior tandem of Griffin and Skower cut the lead to two (13-11) as they served five points, including a pair of aces, then two more aces from BonSalle trimmed the lead to one (15-14). Unfortunately, the Seminoles would do their own unraveling, committing four errors to allow Virginia Tech to get the lead back to four (19-15).

Trailing 21-17, Florida State turned to Griffin once again as she came through with a kill then served four-straights to give the Seminoles the lead, 23-22. A Griffin ace gave Florida State the two-point margin it needed then rookie Malorie Wessel (West Chester, Ohio) dropped a pair of aces to finish the comeback 30-26.

Griffin and BonSalle were the only two players with more than a pair of kills as they tied for the team-high at four. The Seminoles were up once again, .250 (13-5-32) to .200 (12-6-30) for hitting percentage, but it was their eight aces that were the difference. VT led 13-10 for digs.

Just like game one, a trio of Thompson kills helped the Seminoles to get off to a fast start as BonSalle served five-straight points to stake FSU to a 7-1 lead. The margin reached double-digits for the first time (13-3) on a back-to-back kills by Skower and a Wessel kill completed a 9-0 run to give FSU a 17-3 margin. The lead got as high a 15 (20-5) on a VT attack error. Virginia Tech made a last gasp, going on a 16-6 run before the Seminoles ended the match 30-23 on a pair of BonSalle kill.

Thompson led the Seminoles with six kills, while BonSalle was one back at five to go along with three from Skower. FSU out-hit Virginia Tech .400 (19-5-35) to .054 (9-7-37) as wells had a 16-10 lead in digs.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            3 13  6  29  0.241   1  0  0   1   2  0  1   0   0  13.5
 2 Jackie BonSalle            3 11  2  21  0.429   0  4  3   0   3  0  1   0   0  15.5
 5 Brianna Barry              3  5  0   8  0.625   1  0  0   0   0  3  2   0   0   9.0
 7 Zrinka Tomic               3  4  0   6  0.667  35  1  1   0   7  0  0   0   2   5.0
13 Sarah Griffin              3  7  1  13  0.462   4  6  3   1   7  0  1   0   0  13.5
14 Jessica Skower             3  7  1  10  0.600   1  1  2   2   2  0  1   0   1   8.5
   ---Substitutes---
 3 Caitlin Belvin             2  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   3  0  0   0   0   0.0
 6 Kim Crawford               3  0  0   1  0.000   2  1  0   2   8  0  0   0   0   1.0
 9 Alex Plummer               3  0  1   1 -1.000   0  1  2   1   2  0  0   0   0   1.0
15 Malorie Wessel             2  1  0   2  0.500   0  2  1   1   3  0  0   0   0   3.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 48 11  91  0.407  44 16 12   8  37  3  6   0   3  70.0
   Opp                        3 28 17  91  0.121  26  8  4  16  30  0 10   1   3  41.0


  1 2 3
Virginia Tech
13
26
23
Florida State
30
30
30

North Carolina 3, Florida State 0
11/16/2006, Chapel Hill, N.C.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

UNC Takes Advantage of FSU Miscues As Seminole Volleyball Drops 3-0 Decision.

Freshman BonSalle posts a career-high 14 kills.

CHAPEL HILL, NC - Game Scores: North Carolina 3, Florida State 0 (27-30, 26-30, 32-34).

Every play in volleyball starts with the serve and for Florida State the serve was the beginning and end of its downfall as the Seminoles dropped a 3-0 (27-30, 26-30, 32-34) decision to North Carolina on Thursday (November 16).

The Seminoles dropped to 17-11, 11-7 in the ACC. North Carolina avoided being swept by Florida State for the first time since 1996 as it improved to 9-19, 7-12 in the league.

Leading the way for the Seminoles with a career-high 14 kills was freshman outside hitter Jackie BonSalle (Albuquerque, N.M.). Next on the team was junior outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.) at 13 winners. Rookie middle blocker Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) added eight kills.

Moving into tenth place on the FSU single-season charts with 400 digs for the year was junior libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) as she tied her season high with 23 digs. Setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) had a double-double with 37 assists and 13 digs.

Florida State led in nearly every statistical category, holding the advantage in hitting percentage - .196 (46-19-138) to .187 (53-25-150) - as well as digs (61-to-58) and blocks (7-to-5). The difference came in serving as the Tar Heels got 18 points from Florida State service errors (nine) and receiving errors (nine).

FSU dug itself a big hole to start game one as three Florida State miscues led to a 7-0 North Carolina advantage. The Tar Heels' lead grew to as many as ten (16-6), but the Seminoles started to chip away. A balanced offensive attack sparked a 19-9 run that saw Florida State tie the match at 25-25 on a UNC attack error. Unfortunately, two Seminole errors and a Tar Heel kill gave the hosts the cushion they would need as they went on to the 30-27 victory.

Leading the Seminoles with a half dozen kills was BonSalle while Thompson was one of three players to record a trio of kills. Hitting percentage - .244 (UNC)-to-.239 (FSU) - and digs (18-18) were nearly identical but it was the seven points the Tar Heels got from FSU serving errors (four) and receiving errors (three) that made the difference. Weissing contributed nine digs.

Three-straight errors by the Seminoles gave the Tar Heels an early lead that would be all the hosts needed for the game two victory. Florida State would only manage to string three or more points together twice during the entire stanza. The first came during a 3-0 run that included an ace by Weissing to make it 7-6, but that would be the closest the Seminoles got the rest of the game. Down 29-23, FSU showed some signs of life as they pulled to within 29-26 before UNC closed out the game, 30-26.

Thompson and BonSalle were the only two players to record more than two digs as they tied for the team lead at four. Florida State held the advantage in hitting percentage (.176-to-.133) and digs (19-to-12), but once again gave the Tar Heels eight more points on serving and receiving errors.

Out of the intermission Florida State took control of game three early, holding a lead at 10-9 on a kill by Barry. Unfortunately, the Seminoles gave the Tar Heels a pair points that allowed them to go on a 5-0 run to take a 14-9 lead. Down 17-12, the Seminoles would forge a 6-1 run to even the match at 18 on a UNC attack error. The two teams would trade points until 24-24 when poor FSU passing led to a pair of kills by the hosts and then an attack error gave North Carolina a three-point lead (27-24).

UNC would have three match points but a pair of North Carolina errors allowed FSU to tie the match at 29-29. The two teams would trade points with kills by Thompson knotting the match at 31-31 and 32-32. The Tar Heels would put the match away thanks to an FSU attacking error and a kill.

The Thompson-BonSalle duo led the Seminoles' offense for the third game in a row as Thompson recorded a half dozen kills and BonSalle chipped in with four. North Carolina's advantage in kills (23-to-17) trumped FSU blocking advantage (4-2). UNC also led 28-24 for digs.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            3 13  5  40  0.200   0  0  0   0   3  0  0   0   0  13.0
 2 Jackie BonSalle            3 14  5  34  0.265   0  0  1   0   4  0  1   0   0  14.5
 7 Zrinka Tomic               3  1  0   5  0.200  37  0  2   0  13  1  1   0   3   2.5
 9 Alex Plummer               3  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  1   0   9  0  0   0   0   0.0
13 Sarah Griffin              3  5  2  21  0.143   0  1  2   4   2  0  4   0   0   8.0
14 Jessica Skower             3  5  2  20  0.150   5  1  2   4   3  0  4   1   1   8.0
   ---Substitutes---
 5 Brianna Barry              3  8  4  17  0.235   0  0  0   0   0  0  2   1   0   9.0
 6 Kim Crawford               1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   1   1  0  0   0   0   0.0
10 Lauren Walker              1  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  0   0   2  0  0   0   0   0.0
15 Malorie Wessel             3  0  1   1 -1.000   1  0  0   0   1  0  0   0   0   0.0
21 Summer Weissing            3  0  0   0  0.000   1  1  1   0  23  0  0   0   0   1.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 46 19 138  0.196  45  3  9   9  61  1 12   2   4  56.0
   Opp                        3 53 25 150  0.187  51  9  6   3  58  2  6   1   5  67.0


  1 2 3
Florida State
27
26
32
North Carolina
30
30
34

Florida State 3, North Carolina State 1
11/17/2006, Raleigh, N.C.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Florida State Volleyball Gets Back On the Winning Track With 3-1 Victory At NC State.

Weissing posts a career-high 37 digs.

RALEIGH, NC - Game Scores: Florida State 3, NC State 1 (26-30, 30-18, 30-15, 33-31).

Showing it still has some fight left in it, the Florida State volleyball eliminated the costly errors that plagued it in game one and regrouped to win the last three games for a 3-1 (26-30, 30-18, 30-15, 33-31) victory over NC State on Friday (November 17).

The Seminoles improved their record to 18-11 overall, 12-8 in the ACC as they matched the second-most wins during the Todd Kress era and the most ACC wins in FSU lore. The Wolfpack are still looking for their first conference win of the season as they dropped to 0-19, 2-26 overall.

Four different players reached double-digits in kills, led by 24 from junior outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.). Rookie middle blocker Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) was next at 13, followed by 12 from freshman outside Jackie BonSalle (Albuquerque, N.M.) and 10 from senior middle blocker Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas). Rookie outside Malorie Wessel (West Chester, Ohio) added nine kills.

Senior setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) nearly posted a triple double with 55 assists, 16 digs and nine kills. Junior libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) recorded a career-high 37 digs as she moved up to sixth on the FSU single-season charts with 437 digs. Wessel was the third player on the team with double digit digs as she recorded 12.

The Seminoles had the advantage in nearly every statistical category, including .230 (77-30-204)-to-.119 (45-24-176) for hitting advantage, 92-to-79 for digs - a season-high for FSU - and six aces. Florida State gave the Wolfpack 49 of their 94 points through errors.

Three early errors in game one swung the momentum in Wolfpack's favor as they built an 8-5 lead on back-to-back kills. Two Florida State miscues and an NCSU kill made it 14-9. Consecutive blocks pulled the Seminoles within a pair (17-15), but FSU committed three-straight errors to give the Wolfpack their largest lead of the game, 23-16. FSU made a late rally, getting to within three, 29-26, on a Barry kill but an NCSU block ended the game 30-26.

Leading the way offensively was Barry as she recorded four kills, while four players were one back. Weissing had eight digs. More than half of NC State's points came from Florida State errors (16), including seven serving miscues. The Wolfpack held a .205-to-.161 advantage in hitting while the two teams tied with 24 digs.

Florida State got its offense in gear at the start of game two as five kills, including back-to-back winner by Thompson, established a 7-2 lead. The margin stayed at five until the Seminoles put together a 6-3 run that was helped by five NC State errors, to take a commanding 17-9 lead. Consecutive Thompson kills pushed the margin to double digits (22-12). Another kill by Thompson gave Florida State its biggest lead, 24-12, that it would hold until the 30-18 victory.

Thompson was the catalyst for the Seminoles' offense as she recorded 10 kills. Wessel was next with three winners. Florida State topped NC State .300-to- -.054 for hitting percentage, as well as 16-to-10 in digs.

The Seminoles youth took over in game three as a trio of freshmen accounted for the majority of Florida State's offense. A kill by Wessel opened a 5-1 advantage then back-to-back kills by BonSalle made it a 9-4 Seminole lead. Consecutive kills by BonSalle and Barry grew the FSU advantage to 18-11, then Wessel aces preempted BonSalle and Barry kills to open a ten-point lead, 23-13. Florida State closed the game with a 7-2 run, including three Thompson kills, to win 30-15.

Rookies accounted for 11 of FSU's kills with BonSalle topping the list with five, followed by Barry at four. Thompson also had four winners. Led by seven digs from Tomic and Weissing, the Seminoles held a 26-21 lead in digs as well as .348-to-.156 for hitting percentage. FSU also had four aces.

In a relapse to game one, Florida State gave NC State its first three points through errors then a stretch of five errors in six points allowed the Wolfpack to open a 14-9 advantage. Another Seminole miscue followed by an NCSU kill allowed the hosts to open their biggest lead at 19-8. Down 25-15, Florida Stage dug in its heels and started the comeback.

A Barry kill sparked a 7-1 run, that included three Thompson winners, to get FSU within two, 27-25. The teams traded points until NC State had game point at 29-26. Consecutive NCSU errors and a Wessel kill tied the game at 29-29. FSU got its first lead of the game, 31-30, on a Wolfpack service error then BonSalle came through with a kill and Wessel put the match away with an ace.

Thompson was the go-to player in the deciding game as she posted seven kills. Barry and BonSalle were next at four winners. Florida State's eight-kill advantage (22-13) was the difference as it held a slight .161-to-.140 lead in hitting percentage and 26-24 for digs, but gave NC State 18 points through errors.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            4 24  6  47  0.383   0  0  1   0   1  1  0   0   0  25.0
 2 Jackie BonSalle            4 12  8  45  0.089   0  0  3   0   1  0  0   0   0  12.0
 7 Zrinka Tomic               4  9  2  21  0.333  55  0  0   0  16  0  1   0   1   9.5
 9 Alex Plummer               4  0  0   1  0.000   0  2  1   0   7  0  0   0   0   2.0
13 Sarah Griffin              4 10  2  20  0.400   3  0  4   1   9  0  1   0   0  10.5
14 Jessica Skower             1  0  1   6 -0.167   1  0  0   0   3  0  2   0   0   1.0
   ---Substitutes---
 5 Brianna Barry              4 13  8  33  0.152   0  0  0   0   6  0  2   0   0  14.0
15 Malorie Wessel             4  9  3  31  0.194   7  3  3   1  12  0  0   0   2  12.0
21 Summer Weissing            4  0  0   0  0.000   2  1  2   0  37  0  0   0   0   1.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        4 77 30 204  0.230  68  6 14   2  92  1  6   0   3  87.0
   Opp                        4 45 24 176  0.119  44  2 11   6  79  2 12   0   1  55.0


  1 2 3 4
Florida State
26
30
30
33
North Carolina State
30
18
15
31

Florida State 3, Wake Forest 0
11/21/2006, Winston-Salem, N.C.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Florida State Volleyball Makes It Two In A Row With A 3-0 Sweep At Wake Forest.

Seminoles get first win at Wake Forest since 2002.

WINSTON-SALEM, NC - Game Scores: Florida State 3, Wake Forest 0 (30-16, 30-28, 30-18).

It doesn't appear that the Florida State volleyball team is going to go quietly into the night. Looking to make a run at an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, the Seminoles picked up their second win in a row as they came through with a 3-0 sweep (30-16, 30-28, 30-18) at Wake Forest on Tuesday (November 21).

With the victory, Florida State improved to 19-11 on the year, 13-10 in the conference. The win gave FSU the season sweep of WFU and was the Seminoles' first win at Wake Forest since 2002, which is also the last year they swept the Demon Deacons.

"I thought we came out of the gate well," FSU head coach Todd Kress said. "We executed from the start and played good fundamental volleyball. We had a few too many errors than I would have liked, but we defended well, served well and Z (Zrinka Tomic) set a nice match. We've stumbled as of late so it was nice to get into the win column and hopefully we'll be ready for tomorrow night."

Topping the Florida State offense with 14 kills was junior outside hitter Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.). Rookie outside hitter Jackie BonSalle (Albuquerque, N.M.) was next at nine while freshman Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) and senior Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.) each had eight.

With 13 digs, junior libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) moved up to a tie with Luiza Ramos for fourth on the FSU single-season charts at 450 digs. Senior setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croaita) had 39 assists to take over the No. 10 spot on the single-season assist list at 1,172. Skower added three blocking assists to climb past Norisha Campbell for eighth in school history with 280 career block assists.

Florida State dominated Wake Forest in every facet of the game, including a .261-to-.062 advantage in hitting percentage. Barry led the blocking contingency with eight as part of Seminoles season-high 15 blocks. FSU also out-dug Wake Forest 38-37 and benefited from 45 Deacon errors.

Wake Forest gave Florida Sate five of its first 10 points as the Seminoles ran out to a 10-2 start to game one on a block by Barry and BonSalle. The Deacons would close to within six (15-9), but BonSalle and Barry sandwiched kills around a block and the lead reached double digits for the first time (19-9) on a WFU blocking error. Consecutive attack errors by the hosts would give FSU a 23-10 margin it would expand to 14 points, 28-14, as well as the final score, 30-16.

Barry led the offensive attack with a game-high four kills, while BonSalle was next at three. Blocking and Wake Forest miscues were the difference as the Seminoles recorded seven blocks and got 17 points from Deacon errors. Florida State also held a .303-to- -.081 in hitting percentage.

Game two was heading in the same direction as game one as FSU got out to a 6-3 lead thanks to a trio of Demon Deacon miscues, but back-to-back WFU blocks closed the lead to 7-6. The Seminoles responded by going to Thompson as she produced a pair of kills and another WFU error made it 15-10. Florida State returned the favor with a trio of errors to make it 15-14, but Skower and senior middle blocker Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) had a block then Tomic came through with consecutive aces to push the margin back to 18-14.

The Seminoles got their lead up to 20-15, but four-straight attack errors gave Wake Forest the lead 24-23. A block by Tomic and Barry then a lift on Wake Forest tied the match at 24-24 and the Seminoles regained the lead, 26-25, on a WFU blocking error. Back-to-back kills by Griffin and Thompson pushed the lead to 28-25 before the Seminoles went on to win 30-28.

Thompson erupted for nine kills while BonSalle followed with four. Florida State won the game despite being out-hit .205-to-.125. Wake Forest held a 6-3 advantage in kills, but the Seminoles benefited from the two Tomic aces as well as three Demon Deacon serving errors.

The third game began as a back-and-fourth affair as there was 11-straight side outs before Wake Forest got a 7-5 lead. Three Wake Forest errors and a BonSalle kill swung the lead in FSU's favor, 9-7. A Skower kill sparked a 6-0 run by the Seminoles as Griffin served five-straight points to give Florida State a 16-8 advantage. A Wake Forest ace got the margin down to 16-12, but kills by Barry and Tomic got the lead back to 20-14. The Demon Deacons would not threaten the rest of the way as Florida State closed on a 10-4 stretch to take the match 30-18.

Leading the way for the Seminoles was Barry and Skower as they produced four kills each while Thompson had three. Florida State out-hit Wake Forest .412-to-.054 and out-blocked them 5-3.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            3 14  3  27  0.407   0  0  1   0   3  1  1   0   0  15.5
 2 Jackie BonSalle            3  9  4  30  0.167   0  0  0   0   0  2  2   0   0  12.0
 7 Zrinka Tomic               3  2  1   6  0.167  39  2  0   0   6  0  4   1   1   6.0
 9 Alex Plummer               3  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   1  0  0   0   0   0.0
13 Sarah Griffin              3  5  4  17  0.059   1  1  2   2   8  0  2   0   0   7.0
14 Jessica Skower             3  8  2  15  0.400   2  1  1   0   3  2  3   0   0  12.5
   ---Substitutes---
 5 Brianna Barry              3  8  1  15  0.467   1  0  0   0   0  0  8   0   0  12.0
15 Malorie Wessel             3  1  2   5 -0.200   1  0  0   1   4  0  0   0   0   1.0
21 Summer Weissing            3  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  0   0  13  0  0   0   0   0.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 47 17 115  0.261  45  4  4   3  38  5 20   1   1  66.0
   Opp                        3 37 30 113  0.062  35  3  5   4  37  1 18   5   1  50.0


  1 2 3
Florida State
30
30
30
Wake Forest
16
28
18

Duke 3, Florida State 0
11/22/2006, Durham, N.C.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

FSU Volleyball Shows A Lot Of Fight In 3-0 Loss To No. 25 Duke.

Seminoles post 19 wins on the year, second most under Todd Kress.

DURHAM, N.C. - Game Scores: #25 Duke 3, Florida State 0 (23-30, 24-30, 29-31).

On any other night, the Florida State volleyball team may have been walking out of the gym with a victory. But on Wednesday (Nov. 22), the Seminoles need a little bit more as they dropped a 3-0 (23-30, 24-30, 29-31) decision to No. 25 Duke.

Florida State concluded the 2006 regular season with a record of 19-12, 13-9 in the ACC. The 19 victories are the second most under head coach Todd Kress. Duke, who wrapped up the conference title last week, improved to 27-3 overall, 20-1 in the league.

In perhaps her final match in a Seminole uniform, senior middle blocker Sarah Griffin (Hereford, Texas) had a match-high 11 kills. Rookies Brianna Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) and Jackie BonSalle (Albuquerque, N.M.) were next with nine and eight kills, respectively.

With 17 digs, junior libero Summer Weissing (Boca Raton, Fla.) took over possession of the No. 3 spot on the FSU single-season list with 467 digs. She now owns two of the top three single-season digging performances in school history. Senior setter Zrinka Tomic (Nustar, Croatia) had 29 assists. Barry led FSU's blocking effort with six rejections.

The Seminoles played even with Duke on defense, barely trailing 59-52 for digs and 11-7 for blocks, but the difference was the offense. Duke out hit Florida State .235 (51-19-136) to .131 (45-27-137). Overall, Duke got 41 of its 91 points from FSU miscues.

A service error by the Blue Devils pulled FSU to within 4-3 to start game one, but Duke went on a 9-3 run to open up a 13-5 advantage. The Seminoles would storm back on 5-0 run of their own - that was helped by three DU errors - to get within 13-11 on a Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass) kill. Unfortunately, Duke came back with a 5-0 run of its own to get the lead up to 21-13 before closing out the game 30-23.

Leading the team with four kills each was Griffin and Thompson as they were the only Seminoles with more than two kills. Blocks were even at 2-2 and Duke held a slight 18-17 advantage in digs, but the difference in the game was the Blue Devils .302-to.093 lead in hitting percentage as FSU committed nine attack errors.

Florida State came out and played much cleaner at the start of game two, but the Blue Devils played stronger defense and translated that into points as they turned a 9-7 advantage into a 13-8 lead. FSU got it back to 14-10 on a Griffin kill, but three-straight Seminole miscues and block pushed the margin back to 18-10 in Duke's favor. Another Griffin kill got the lead down to four (21-17), but the Blue Devils held on for the 30-24 win.

The Seminoles started off like gangbusters in game three as Weissing served seven-straight points during a 7-0 run to start the game. During the run, Barry had a pair of kills and a solo block while Tomic added a pair of kills. A Jessica Skower (Naples, Fla.) kill made it 12-6, but three-straight Duke blocks, two FSU errors, an ace and a kill completed an 7-0 Duke run and gave it 13-12 advantage.

Florida State got the lead back, 16-15, as Barry combined with Skower then BonSalle on blocks. Unfortunately, Duke answered with three points, including a block and an FSU attack error to reclaim a 17-15 advantage. After a Griffin kill, the Blue Devils committed back-to-back attack errors to tie the game at 20-20. The Seminoles got the lead, 22-21, on a DU back row attack error, but consecutive FSU attack errors allowed the Blue Devils to regain the lead at 24-22.

Duke had a 28-23 lead, but Barry virtually brought FSU back on her own as she recorded three kills and combined with Tomic for a block to tie the match 28-28. A BonSalle kill knotted the game at 29-29, but Duke got a pair of kills to end the match 31-29.

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 1 Makini Thompson            3  6  4  23  0.087   1  0  1   0   3  0  1   0   0   6.5
 2 Jackie BonSalle            3  8  6  29  0.069   0  0  0   0   1  0  1   0   0   8.5
 5 Brianna Barry              3  9  3  16  0.375   0  0  0   0   0  1  5   0   0  12.5
 7 Zrinka Tomic               3  7  2  14  0.357  29  1  0   0   7  0  2   1   2   9.0
13 Sarah Griffin              3 11  2  22  0.409   2  0  2   2   9  0  1   0   0  11.5
15 Malorie Wessel             3  0  2   4 -0.500   4  0  1   0   7  0  0   0   0   0.0
   ---Substitutes---
 9 Alex Plummer               3  0  0   3  0.000   1  0  0   0   8  0  0   0   0   0.0
14 Jessica Skower             3  4  8  25 -0.160   1  0  1   0   0  0  2   0   0   5.0
21 Summer Weissing            3  0  0   1  0.000   1  2  2   0  17  0  0   0   0   2.0
   Team                                                      2                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 45 27 137  0.131  39  3  7   4  52  1 12   1   2  55.0
   Opp                        3 51 19 136  0.235  48  4  6   3  59  3 16   2   3  66.0


  1 2 3
Florida State
23
24
29
Duke
30
30
31