2009 Volleyball - Year In Review

2009 Volleyball - Year In Review

Coaching Staff
Chris Poole, Head Coach
Caitlin Quinn, Strength and Conditioning
Holly Watts, Associate Head Coach
Gokhan Yilmaz, Assistant Coach

Click here for team picture

Click here to see individual mug shots
2009 Women's Volleyball

Top row: Nikki Baker
Middle row: Mira Djuric and Jordana Price
Bottom row: Brianna Barry

2009 Florida State Signees/Newcomers

Duygu Duzceler, 5-10, S, Istanbul, Turkey

Sareea Freeman, 6-4, MB, Fresno, Calif.

Fatma Yildirim, 6-0, OH, Istanbul, Turkey


2009 Roster - By Name

L
T                                             PY
R No Name                  Pos     Hgt   Cl   Ltr  Hometown (Prior School)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*  8 Nikki Baker           S       5-10  Sr   ***  Findlay, Ohio (Findlay)
*  5 Brianna Barry         MB      6-3   Sr   ***  Winter Springs (Winter Springs)
* 13 Mira Djuric           OH      6-2   Sr-R *    Belgrade, Serbia (Medicine/Oregon)
*  2 Drew Dudley           DS      5-9   So-R *    Mason, Mich. (Okemos)
* 20 Duygu Duzceler        S       5-10  Fr        Istanbul, Turkey (Private Bahcesehir)
* 22 Sareea Freeman        MB      6-4   Fr        Fresno, Calif. (Sunnyside)
*  1 Rachael Morgan        OH      6-2   So   *    Tauranga, New Zealand (Otumoetai College)
*  6 Stephanie Neville     OH      6-3   Jr   **   Cambridge, Ontario, Canada (Jacob Hespeler Secondary Sch)
* 12 Jordana Price         MB      6-1   Sr-R **   Mountain Home, Idaho (Mountain Home/College of Southern Idaho)
*  3 Lauren Richardson     OH      6-0   Jr   **   Ocala (Saint John's Lutheran)                         Neurocadiogenic Syncope
* 10 Jenna Romanelli       DS      5-4   Jr   **   Lighthouse Point (Cardinal Gibbons)
*  4 Taylor Wilson         DS      5-7   Jr   **   Clearwater (Countryside)
*  7 Fatma Yildirim        OH      6-0   Fr        Istanbul, Turkey (Yuzyil Isil)
  23 Lauren Young          MB      6-2   Sr   ***  Ben Wheeler, Tex. (Van)                               Torn ACL
* 11 Courtney Zuber        DS      5-7   Fr-R      Tallahassee (Leon)

2009 Roster - By Number

L
T                                             PY
R No Name                  Pos     Hgt   Cl   Ltr  Hometown (Prior School)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*  1 Rachael Morgan        OH      6-2   So   *    Tauranga, New Zealand (Otumoetai College)
*  2 Drew Dudley           DS      5-9   So-R *    Mason, Mich. (Okemos)
*  3 Lauren Richardson     OH      6-0   Jr   **   Ocala (Saint John's Lutheran)                         Neurocadiogenic Syncope
*  4 Taylor Wilson         DS      5-7   Jr   **   Clearwater (Countryside)
*  5 Brianna Barry         MB      6-3   Sr   ***  Winter Springs (Winter Springs)
*  6 Stephanie Neville     OH      6-3   Jr   **   Cambridge, Ontario, Canada (Jacob Hespeler Secondary Sch)
*  7 Fatma Yildirim        OH      6-0   Fr        Istanbul, Turkey (Yuzyil Isil)
*  8 Nikki Baker           S       5-10  Sr   ***  Findlay, Ohio (Findlay)
* 10 Jenna Romanelli       DS      5-4   Jr   **   Lighthouse Point (Cardinal Gibbons)
* 11 Courtney Zuber        DS      5-7   Fr-R      Tallahassee (Leon)
* 12 Jordana Price         MB      6-1   Sr-R **   Mountain Home, Idaho (Mountain Home/College of Southern Idaho)
* 13 Mira Djuric           OH      6-2   Sr-R *    Belgrade, Serbia (Medicine/Oregon)
* 20 Duygu Duzceler        S       5-10  Fr        Istanbul, Turkey (Private Bahcesehir)
* 22 Sareea Freeman        MB      6-4   Fr        Fresno, Calif. (Sunnyside)
  23 Lauren Young          MB      6-2   Sr   ***  Ben Wheeler, Tex. (Van)                               Torn ACL

2009 Conference Awards

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brianna Barry            Atlantic Coast Conference - Player of the Year
                         Atlantic Coast Conference - All-Conference

Mira Djuric              Atlantic Coast Conference - All-Conference

Rachael Morgan           Atlantic Coast Conference - All-Conference

Chris Poole              Atlantic Coast Conference - Coach of the Year

Jordana Price            Atlantic Coast Conference - All-Conference

Fatma Yildirim           Atlantic Coast Conference - All-Freshman

All-Conference -  6

2009 All-Americans

Name                     Organization
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brianna Barry            American Volleyball Coaches Assoc - 2nd Team All-American

Mira Djuric              American Volleyball Coaches Assoc - All-American - Honorable Mention

Rachael Morgan           American Volleyball Coaches Assoc - All-American - Honorable Mention

Jordana Price            American Volleyball Coaches Assoc - All-American - Honorable Mention

All-Americans -  4

2009 Schedule and Results

DATE
POST
GAME
BOX
SCORE
LOC
OPPONENT
SCORE
08/28
Postgame
Box
H
Central Michigan
Florida State Invitational
W 3-0
08/29
Postgame
Box
H
North Dakota State
Florida State Invitational
W 3-2
08/29
Postgame
Box
H
Florida A&M
Florida State Invitational
W 3-0
08/31
Postgame
Box
A
Florida
L 2-3
09/04
Postgame
Box
N
Illinois
New Mexico State Tournament, Las Cruces, N.Mex.
W 3-0
09/04
Postgame
Box
A
New Mexico State
New Mexico State Tournament
W 3-0
09/12
Postgame
Box
N
Middle Tennessee St
Florida International Tournament, Miami, Fla.
W 3-0
09/12
Postgame
Box
A
FL International
Florida International Tournament
W 3-1
09/13
Postgame
Box
N
Albany
Florida International Tournament, Coral Gables, Fla.
W 3-0
09/18
Postgame
Box
H
Miami
Seminole Tri-Tournament
W 3-0
09/20
Postgame
Box
H
Notre Dame
Seminole Tri-Tournament
W 3-2
09/25
Postgame
Box
H
Virginia Tech
W 3-1
09/27
Postgame
Box
H
Virginia
W 3-0
10/02
Postgame
Box
H
Georgia Tech
L 2-3
10/04
Postgame
Box
H
Clemson
W 3-2
10/09
Postgame
Box
A
Wake Forest
W 3-0
10/10
Postgame
Box
A
Duke
W 3-2
10/16
Postgame
Box
A
Maryland
W 3-0
10/18
Postgame
Box
A
Boston College
W 3-0
10/23
Postgame
Box
H
North Carolina State
W 3-0
10/25
Postgame
Box
H
North Carolina
W 3-1
10/30
Postgame
Box
A
Virginia
W 3-0
10/31
Postgame
Box
A
Virginia Tech
W 3-1
11/06
Postgame
Box
H
Duke
W 3-2
11/08
Postgame
Box
H
Wake Forest
W 3-2
11/13
Postgame
Box
A
Clemson
W 3-1
11/14
Postgame
Box
A
Georgia Tech
W 3-0
11/20
Postgame
Box
H
Boston College
W 3-0
11/22
Postgame
Box
H
Maryland
W 3-0
11/25
Postgame
Box
A
Miami
W 3-1
12/05
Postgame
Box
H
Alabama A&M
NCAA
W 3-0
12/06
Postgame
Box
H
Jacksonville State
NCAA
W 3-0
12/11
Postgame
Box
N
Kentucky
NCAA, Sweet 16, Minneapolis, Minn.
W 3-2
12/12
Postgame
Box
A
Minnesota
NCAA, Elite Eight
L 1-3
EOY Stats Ref

                Overall   Home    Away   Neutral
------------------------------------------------
FSU record is   31- 3    16- 1    11- 2     4- 0
vs ACC          19- 1    10- 1     9- 0     0- 0


2009 Atlantic Coast Conference Results
 1  Florida State        19- 1    31- 3 
 2  Duke                 17- 3    27- 6 
 3  Georgia Tech         15- 5    21-10 
 4  Clemson              13- 7    23-10 
 5t Miami                11- 9    18-13 
 5t North Carolina       11- 9    15-16 
 7t Virginia Tech         9-11    19-12 
 7t Wake Forest           9-11    11-20 
 9  Virginia              7-13    12-19 
10  Maryland              6-14    14-19 
11  Boston College        2-18    12-19 
12  North Carolina State  1-19     8-27 


2009 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 ================================================================================================================================================================== Mira Djuric 126 34 34 320 2.54 147 728 0.238 18 0.14 106 69 0.55 84 422 0.801 7 242 0.971 180 1.43 3 67 70.0 0.56 10 1 425.5 3.38 Jordana Price 123 34 31 275 2.24 64 595 0.355 10 0.08 43 0 0.00 0 0 0.000 1 2 0.500 20 0.16 20 141 161.0 1.31 19 2 365.5 2.97 Brianna Barry 116 33 1 289 2.49 42 502 0.492 8 0.07 45 0 0.00 0 1 1.000 1 12 0.917 25 0.22 23 88 111.0 0.96 14 0 356.0 3.07 Rachael Morgan 124 34 32 281 2.27 92 763 0.248 8 0.06 81 24 0.19 26 365 0.929 26 353 0.926 161 1.30 11 66 77.0 0.62 7 0 349.0 2.81 Stephanie Neville 126 34 32 286 2.27 82 661 0.309 8 0.06 33 0 0.00 0 15 1.000 0 7 1.000 46 0.37 2 77 79.0 0.63 3 0 326.5 2.59 Fatma Yildirim 124 33 33 232 1.87 86 638 0.229 23 0.19 160 23 0.19 33 498 0.934 20 512 0.961 344 2.77 4 35 39.0 0.31 8 4 276.5 2.23 Duygu Duzceler 127 34 1 17 0.13 6 50 0.220 683 5.38 1351 41 0.32 32 560 0.943 1 4 0.750 123 0.97 0 0 0.0 0.00 5 9 58.0 0.46 Sareea Freeman 26 12 4 28 1.08 6 44 0.500 0 0.00 6 0 0.00 0 0 0.000 0 0 0.000 1 0.04 3 18 21.0 0.81 3 0 40.0 1.54 Jenna Romanelli 111 31 1 2 0.02 2 6 0.000 66 0.59 340 12 0.11 23 401 0.943 31 746 0.958 381 3.43 0 0 0.0 0.00 0 0 14.0 0.13 Nikki Baker 127 34 33 8 0.06 2 19 0.316 746 5.87 1576 3 0.02 20 431 0.954 0 1 1.000 182 1.43 0 0 0.0 0.00 3 5 11.0 0.09 Taylor Wilson 105 34 0 3 0.03 0 4 0.750 27 0.26 157 8 0.08 3 210 0.986 16 323 0.950 126 1.20 0 0 0.0 0.00 0 0 11.0 0.10 Lauren Richardson 16 7 2 5 0.31 3 24 0.083 2 0.13 7 5 0.31 2 41 0.951 1 40 0.975 26 1.63 0 1 1.0 0.06 2 0 10.5 0.66 Drew Dudley 2 2 0 0 0.00 0 0 0.000 0 0.00 1 1 0.50 0 2 1.000 0 3 1.000 2 1.00 0 0 0.0 0.00 0 0 1.0 0.50 Courtney Zuber 17 8 0 0 0.00 0 0 0.000 1 0.06 8 0 0.00 3 21 0.857 2 22 0.909 9 0.53 0 0 0.0 0.00 0 0 0.0 0.00 Team 14 0.0 ============================================================================================================================================== FSU 127 34 34 1746 13.75 532 4034 0.301 1600 12.60 3914 186 1.46 226 2967 0.924 120 2267 0.947 1626 12.80 66 493 559.0 4.40 74 21 2244.5 17.67 Opp 127 34 34 1540 12.13 753 4241 0.186 1420 11.18 4204 120 0.94 233 2524 0.908 186 2739 0.932 1488 11.72 59 330 389.0 3.06 38 36 1884.0 14.83

Florida State 3, Central Michigan 0
08/28/2009, Florida State Invitational, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Djuric's Return Highlights FSU's Opening-Day Sweep Over Central Michigan.

Seminole volleyball team defeats Chippewas 25-9, 25-10, 26-24 as Mira Djuric plays for the first time since 2007 season.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - The Florida State volleyball team jump-started its 2009 season Friday night with a three-set sweep (25-9, 25-10, 26-24) over Central Michigan on day one of the Florida State Invitational at Tully Gym.

For the Seminoles (1-0), Friday night's victory marks the seventh-straight season that FSU has earned a victory in its opening match of the season and second year in a row that it swept its first opponent.

"We really didn't know what to expect in the first game," FSU second-year coach Chris Poole said. "You try to put some things together in the preseason but it's hard until you actually play an opponent to see what's going to work and what's not. Already we were able to make some adjustments and pick up on some things we will continue to work on."

In addition to providing Poole with his first real look at his team, FSU's matchup with Central Michigan (0-2) also served as the return of senior Mira Djuric. The 6-foot-2 outside hitter rejoined her teammates Friday after a medical redshirt kept her sidelined for the duration of the 2008 season.

After shaking off some obvious early rust, Djuric showed the crowded stands why she was named to the 2009 Preseason All-ACC Team. With her impressive jump serves and hard-hitting ability, Djuric finished the night with a match-high in kills (12) and services aces (three).

"It felt good to get back out there," Djuric said. "It took me awhile to get going but once I did, it was like I never missed a whole year. I need to keep improving and getting better but it was a good start. Now we just have to do a better job of closing teams out."

Djuric's sentiments about the Seminoles' closing ability stem from the team's struggles late in the third set. After running away with the first two games, FSU trailed the Chippewas 20-18 and were then clinging to a 24-23 lead before a Central Michigan service error concluded the evening.

"When you're up 2-0, you've got to come back out in game three and finish the match," Poole said. "That's a mentality that a lot of teams struggle with. I talked to (the team) about that after the match. Whether we are up 2-0 or we are down 2-0 it doesn't matter. You still have to win three games."

In addition to Djuric, senior Brianna Barry added 10 kills and sophomore Rachael Morgan contributed six of her own on just 13 attempts. Morgan's .462 hitting percentage was a match-high for players with at least 10 total attacks.

While the victory over the Chippewas was highlighted by the play of FSU's fifth-year senior star, a few newcomers also managed to put their stamps on the box score.

True freshman Duygu Duzcheler finished tied with senior Nikki Baker with 15 assists while fellow first-year player Sareea Freeman was a strong presence in the middle as she finished with five block attempts.

As for the other Seminoles, junior Stephanie Neville added four kills, junior libero Jenna Romanelli added a match-best 12 digs and senior Jordana Price posted two kills, one dig and three block attempts.

The contest between the Seminoles and Chippewas was the third and final match of the day at Tully Gym as North Dakota State defeated both Central Michigan and Florida A&M in three-set sweeps in prior matches.

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             3  6  0  13  0.462   0  0  1   2   7  0  4   1   0   8.0
 6 Stephanie Neville          3  4  3  11  0.091   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   4.0
 8 Nikki Baker                3  0  0   0  0.000  15  0  1   0   3  0  0   0   1   0.0
12 Jordana Price              3  2  2   9  0.000   0  0  0   0   1  0  3   0   0   3.5
13 Mira Djuric                3 12  8  24  0.167   1  3  4   0   5  0  2   0   0  16.0
22 Sareea Freeman             3  2  0   3  0.667   0  0  0   0   0  0  5   1   0   4.5
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              3  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  1   1   3  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3 10  3  14  0.500   0  0  0   0   0  1  0   0   0  11.0
10 Jenna Romanelli            3  0  0   0  0.000   3  1  0   0  12  0  0   0   0   1.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             3  2  0   2  1.000  15  2  0   0   3  0  0   0   0   4.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 38 16  76  0.289  34  6  7   3  34  1 14   2   1  52.0
   Opp                        3 27 18  85  0.106  24  3  8   6  22  1 12   1   1  37.0


  1 2 3
Central Michigan
19
13
23
Florida State
25
25
25

Florida State 3, North Dakota State 2
08/29/2009, Florida State Invitational, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Seminole Volleyball Moves To 21-0 All-Time Against FAMU, Claims Florida State Invitational Crown.

Florida State improves to 3-0 on the season with victories over North Dakota State and the Rattlers Saturday at Tully Gym.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - The Florida State volleyball team defeated Florida A&M in three sets Saturday night (25-18, 25-23, 25-19) and in doing so, wrapped up the Florida State Invitational championship for the fourth-straight season.

By defeating the cross-town Rattlers, the Seminoles not only advanced to 3-0 on the season but they also moved to 21-0 all-time against Florida A&M (0-3).

The weekend caps off a strong start to the 2009 season for FSU as a showdown with rival Florida looms on Monday night. Still, head coach Chris Poole knows that the team has a lot of room to improve as the season progresses.

"We had some mountains and we had some valleys," Poole said. "But if we build on the strengths we showed when we did play well, I think we can really progress and be a really good team. We've got some weaknesses that we need to work on in the next couple of weeks without much time to do it. It's a good start, though."

FSU buried FAMU thanks in large part to sophomore Rachael Morgan. The Tauranga, New Zealand native notched a team-high 10 kills on just 17 attempts for a hitting percentage of .529.

Her stellar play not just Saturday but over the course of the two-day event was enough to earn All-Tournament MVP honors as voted on by the coaches of the teams in the event.

"Rachael has improved a lot since last fall," Poole said. "That was one of the first things that we notice in the preseason. She worked very hard in the spring and the summer to get herself in good shape and it really showed this weekend."

Senior middle blocker Brianna Barry also made the All-Tournament Team as she capped off her weekend with a nine-kill, six-block performance against FAMU. Fellow senior Jordana Price and Mira Djuric contributed nine and six kills, respectively.

True freshman Fatma Yildirim and junior Stephanie Neville both added six kills apiece while setter Nikki Baker had 20 assists. Duygu Duzceler had 17 assists of her own.

In the first match of the day, Florida State experienced its first real adversity of the young 2009 season as North Dakota State -- riding a streak of six-straight set-wins at the Florida State Invitational from Friday - pushed the Seminoles to the brink.

After FSU earned a 25-18 victory in the first set, the Bison (2-1) earned back-to-back wins in sets two and three by scores of 25-21 and 26-24, respectively.

Up 24-22 in the fourth set, a kill by Morgan tied the match at two sets apiece and then FSU closed out North Dakota State with a close 15-13 victory in the decisive fifth set.

Playing in her first game as a Seminole, Yildirim posted a double-double with 13 kills and 12 digs. Yildirim wasn't the only FSU player on the offensive attack as Barry had 13 kills of her own, Neville added 12, Djuric had 11 and Morgan finished with 10.

Jenna Romanelli was all over the court from the libero position as the junior from Lighthouse Point, Fla. achieved a match-high and new career-high 28 digs. She also earned a new career-best in assists with four, breaking her previous record of two.

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             5 10  4  27  0.222   0  0  1   0   1  0  0   1   0  10.0
 6 Stephanie Neville          5 12  3  27  0.333   1  0  0   0   1  0  3   0   0  13.5
 7 Fatma Yildirim             5 13  2  28  0.393   1  1  3   1  12  0  2   0   0  15.0
 8 Nikki Baker                5  1  0   1  1.000  26  0  2   0   5  0  0   0   0   1.0
12 Jordana Price              5  6  3  27  0.111   0  0  0   0   0  0  3   1   0   7.5
13 Mira Djuric                5 11 12  38 -0.026   0  1  5   0   7  0  5   3   0  14.5
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              4  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   4  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              5 13  4  24  0.375   0  0  0   0   1  1  6   1   0  17.0
10 Jenna Romanelli            5  0  0   0  0.000   4  2  1   1  28  0  0   0   0   2.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             5  0  1   1 -1.000  28  2  1   0   4  0  0   0   0   2.0
   Team                                                      1                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        5 66 29 173  0.214  60  6 13   3  63  1 19   6   0  82.5
   Opp                        5 52 30 161  0.137  47  3  6   6  64  0 20   2   1  65.0


  1 2 3 4 5
North Dakota State
19
25
26
22
13
Florida State
25
21
24
25
15

Florida State 3, Florida A&M 0
08/29/2009, Florida State Invitational, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Seminole Volleyball Moves To 21-0 All-Time Against FAMU, Claims Florida State Invitational Crown.

Florida State improves to 3-0 on the season with victories over North Dakota State and the Rattlers Saturday at Tully Gym.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - The Florida State volleyball team defeated Florida A&M in three sets Saturday night (25-18, 25-23, 25-19) and in doing so, wrapped up the Florida State Invitational championship for the fourth-straight season.

By defeating the cross-town Rattlers, the Seminoles not only advanced to 3-0 on the season but they also moved to 21-0 all-time against Florida A&M (0-3).

The weekend caps off a strong start to the 2009 season for FSU as a showdown with rival Florida looms on Monday night. Still, head coach Chris Poole knows that the team has a lot of room to improve as the season progresses.

"We had some mountains and we had some valleys," Poole said. "But if we build on the strengths we showed when we did play well, I think we can really progress and be a really good team. We've got some weaknesses that we need to work on in the next couple of weeks without much time to do it. It's a good start, though."

FSU buried FAMU thanks in large part to sophomore Rachael Morgan. The Tauranga, New Zealand native notched a team-high 10 kills on just 17 attempts for a hitting percentage of .529.

Her stellar play not just Saturday but over the course of the two-day event was enough to earn All-Tournament MVP honors as voted on by the coaches of the teams in the event.

"Rachael has improved a lot since last fall," Poole said. "That was one of the first things that we notice in the preseason. She worked very hard in the spring and the summer to get herself in good shape and it really showed this weekend."

Senior middle blocker Brianna Barry also made the All-Tournament Team as she capped off her weekend with a nine-kill, six-block performance against FAMU. Fellow senior Jordana Price and Mira Djuric contributed nine and six kills, respectively.

True freshman Fatma Yildirim and junior Stephanie Neville both added six kills apiece while setter Nikki Baker had 20 assists. Duygu Duzceler had 17 assists of her own.

In the first match of the day, Florida State experienced its first real adversity of the young 2009 season as North Dakota State -- riding a streak of six-straight set-wins at the Florida State Invitational from Friday - pushed the Seminoles to the brink.

After FSU earned a 25-18 victory in the first set, the Bison (2-1) earned back-to-back wins in sets two and three by scores of 25-21 and 26-24, respectively.

Up 24-22 in the fourth set, a kill by Morgan tied the match at two sets apiece and then FSU closed out North Dakota State with a close 15-13 victory in the decisive fifth set.

Playing in her first game as a Seminole, Yildirim posted a double-double with 13 kills and 12 digs. Yildirim wasn't the only FSU player on the offensive attack as Barry had 13 kills of her own, Neville added 12, Djuric had 11 and Morgan finished with 10.

Jenna Romanelli was all over the court from the libero position as the junior from Lighthouse Point, Fla. achieved a match-high and new career-high 28 digs. She also earned a new career-best in assists with four, breaking her previous record of two.

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             3 10  1  17  0.529   0  0  0   3   3  0  2   2   0  11.0
 6 Stephanie Neville          3  6  2  10  0.400   1  0  0   0   1  0  5   0   0   8.5
 7 Fatma Yildirim             3  6  2  14  0.286   0  2  2   1   4  0  1   0   1   8.5
 8 Nikki Baker                3  0  0   0  0.000  20  0  1   0   6  0  0   0   0   0.0
12 Jordana Price              3  9  1  13  0.615   0  0  0   0   1  1  6   1   0  13.0
13 Mira Djuric                3  6  3  15  0.200   1  1  2   0   6  0  3   0   0   8.5
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              2  1  0   1  1.000   0  0  0   0   1  0  0   0   0   1.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3  5  0   7  0.714   0  0  0   0   2  0  5   0   0   7.5
10 Jenna Romanelli            3  0  0   1  0.000   2  0  0   0  11  0  0   0   0   0.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             3  1  0   1  1.000  17  0  0   0   2  0  0   0   0   1.0
22 Sareea Freeman             1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
   Team                                                      1                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 44  9  79  0.443  41  3  5   5  37  1 22   3   1  59.0
   Opp                        3 36 20 103  0.155  32  5  8   3  21  0  2   4   0  42.0


  1 2 3
Florida A&M
18
23
19
Florida State
25
25
25

Florida 3, Florida State 2
08/31/2009, Gainesville, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Florida State Volleyball Team Falls To No. 5 Florida In Gainesville.

Seminoles push the Gators to five sets (19-25, 25-23, 20-25, 25-22, 15-17) but can't pull off the upset.

GAINESVILLE, FL - The Florida State volleyball team fell in five thrilling sets Monday night (19-25, 25-23, 20-25, 25-22, 15-17) to host No. 5 Florida at the Stephen C. O'Connell Center.

In the pivotal fifth set -- with the score knotted at 15-15 -- a Gator kill was then followed up by an awkward serve that bounced off the net before hitting the floor for an ace on FSU's side.

The loss extends Florida State's current losing streak to UF (3-0) to 18-straight matches and marks the Seminoles' first defeat of the 2009 season as they are now 3-1.

For the match, senior Jordana Price led all Seminoles with 12 kills while adding six blocks. Seniors Mira Djuric and Brianna Barry contributed 11 kills apiece with Djuric adding nine digs and two aces.

Junior Stephanie Neville rounded out the FSU offensive attack with 10 kills and freshman Fatma Yildirim connected on nine of her own. Setters Nikki Baker and Duygu Duzceler poured in a combined 50 assists.

Down 2-1 in the fourth set, FSU jumped out to a 5-1 lead and never relinquished the advantage. The Gators cut the score to 24-22 but a Barry kill and UF error concluded the set.

After falling 19-25 in the first set of the night, FSU bounced back in the second and beat the Gators 25-23. Kills by Rachael Morgan and Djuric put the Seminoles on top 22-21 and 23-22, respectively, and then Yildirim's slam at 24-23 won it for the visiting team.

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             5  5  4  23  0.043   0  0  2   1   7  0  5   0   0   7.5
 6 Stephanie Neville          5 10  2  25  0.320   0  0  0   0   1  0  2   0   0  11.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             5  9  5  27  0.148   0  1  3   3   8  0  2   0   0  11.0
 8 Nikki Baker                5  0  0   0  0.000  27  0  2   0   4  0  0   0   0   0.0
12 Jordana Price              5 12  3  30  0.300   0  0  0   0   0  1  5   2   0  15.5
13 Mira Djuric                5 11  6  28  0.179   1  2  2   0   9  0  2   0   0  14.0
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              3  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   1   3  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              5 11  1  21  0.476   0  0  0   0   0  0  5   0   0  13.5
10 Jenna Romanelli            5  0  0   0  0.000   4  1  1   3  20  0  0   0   0   1.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             5  0  1   1 -1.000  23  0  1   0   4  0  0   0   0   0.0
   Team                                                      2                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        5 58 22 155  0.232  55  4 11  10  56  1 21   2   0  73.5
   Opp                        5 68 27 161  0.255  61 10 12   4  63  3 12   1   3  87.0


  1 2 3 4 5
Florida State
19
25
20
25
15
Florida
25
23
25
22
17

Florida State 3, Illinois 0
09/04/2009, New Mexico State Tournament, Las Cruces, N.Mex.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

FSU Sweeps No. 8 Illinois.

Florida State volleyball team sweeps the Illini (26-24, 25-22, 25-17) in the first match of the New Mexico State Tournament Friday.

LAS CRUCES, NM - The Florida State volleyball team needed just three sets (26-24, 25-22, 25-17) to upset No. 8 Illinois on Friday in the first match of the New Mexico State Tournament in Las Cruces, NM.

After nearly knocking off a top-five Florida squad earlier in the week, the fortune of the Seminoles (4-1) changed as they were able pull off victories against Illinois in the closely-contested first two sets before earning the decisive win in the final game.

The victory marks the first time since the 2002 season that an FSU volleyball team has taken down a ranked opponent. In that season, the Seminoles beat No. 11 North Carolina in five sets.

"The girls played incredible today. I'm very proud of how hard they are working and they deserve the credit," head coach Chris Poole said. "Jenna (Romanelli) sprained her ankle before the match started, but Taylor (Wilson) stepped in and did an amazing job. With Jenna being out, that allowed Courtney Zuber to get her first college experience and she did a great job.

"Our hitters are getting more confident with our offense and our setters are making a lot of very good decisions."

Against the No. 8 Illini (2-1), junior Stephanie Neville slammed a team-high nine kills while freshman Fatma Yildirim and sophomore Rachael Morgan added seven apiece.

Senior Mira Djuric also contributed six kills and senior middle blockers Jordana Price and Brianna Barry registered four of their own. Senior setter Nikki Baker earned 19 assists while freshman Duygu Duzceler posted 15.

Defensively, junior Taylor Wilson held down the back row with a season-high seven digs. Yildirim also had seven digs and Morgan had four. Price and Morgan led FSU with three blocks each.

"With our win over No. 8 Illinois, we are literally one play away from beating two top-10 teams in a single week," Poole said. "If we stay healthy and continue to work hard, this team will continue to improve as the season progresses. We know we have a very tough preseason schedule, but this schedule will help us prepare for the ACC whether we win or lose."

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             3  7  4  15  0.200   0  1  0   1   4  2  1   0   0  10.5
 6 Stephanie Neville          3  9  3  19  0.316   1  0  0   0   1  0  0   0   0   9.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             3  7  4  20  0.150   0  0  3   0   7  1  1   0   0   8.5
 8 Nikki Baker                3  1  0   1  1.000  19  0  0   0   2  0  0   0   0   1.0
12 Jordana Price              3  4  1  11  0.273   0  0  0   0   0  0  3   0   0   5.5
13 Mira Djuric                3  6  3  14  0.214   1  1  3   0   2  0  2   0   0   8.0
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              3  0  0   0  0.000   0  1  1   1   7  0  0   0   0   1.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3  4  0   5  0.800   0  0  0   0   1  0  1   0   0   4.5
11 Courtney Zuber             3  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  2   1   1  0  0   0   0   0.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             3  0  0   1  0.000  15  2  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   2.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 38 15  86  0.267  36  5  9   3  25  3  8   0   0  50.0
   Opp                        3 36 25  95  0.116  34  3  5   5  26  1 16   0   0  48.0


  1 2 3
Florida State
26
25
25
Illinois
24
22
17

Florida State 3, New Mexico State 0
09/04/2009, New Mexico State Tournament, Las Cruces, N.Mex.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

FSU Wins New Mexico St. Tourney.

Seminole volleyball team beats host Aggies in straight sets to claim crown, will now play in an exhibition match against the Italian National Team Saturday afternoon.

LAS CRUCES, NM - Just hours after upsetting No. 8-ranked Illinois, the Florida State volleyball team made it a clean sweep of regular matches at the New Mexico State Tournament by beating the host Aggies in straight sets (25-17, 25-16, 25-21) Friday evening.

In earning the win over New Mexico State, FSU (5-1) claimed its second regular-season tournament crown of the young season as the team's final match of the trip out west will be an exhibition against the Italian National Team on Saturday.

An exciting and long day for the Seminoles, head coach Chris Poole was very pleased with what he saw on the volleyball court in Las Cruces, NM.

"We came out a little flatter in the game against New Mexico State than we did against Illinois," Poole said. "But that is to be expected coming off an emotional and hard-fought victory like the one we had earlier in the day. We looked fatigued and trailed in all three sets but we battled back each time.

"The key is that we are learning how to play in crucial matches and under pressure. We are very pleased with that."

Senior outside hitter Mira Djuric paced the offensive attack for FSU against the Aggies (3-1) as she finished the match with a game-high 12 kills. She also added six digs and two blocks.

Junior Stephanie Neville and senior Brianna Barry both added eight kills apiece in the winning effort.

Freshman Fatma Yildirim notched a team-high 11 digs while Taylor Wilson - who replaced junior libero Jenna Romanelli after she sustained an ankle injury against the Illini - came within one dig of tying her career-high as she finished with 10.

Florida State had just one receiving error on the evening and finished with 41 digs compared to New Mexico State's 26.

"We are very proud of the girls," Poole said. "To come out here and be successful against two very good teams is definitely an accomplishment."

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             3  6  6  17  0.000   0  0  0   0   4  1  1   0   0   7.5
 6 Stephanie Neville          3  8  1  18  0.389   0  0  0   0   1  0  2   0   0   9.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             3  5  6  15 -0.067   0  1  0   0  11  0  0   0   0   6.0
 8 Nikki Baker                3  0  1   1 -1.000  24  0  0   0   2  0  0   0   0   0.0
12 Jordana Price              3  5  1  12  0.333   1  0  0   0   2  0  3   0   0   6.5
13 Mira Djuric                3 12  4  23  0.348   1  0  3   0   6  0  2   1   0  13.0
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              3  0  0   0  0.000   2  1  0   1  10  0  0   0   0   1.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3  8  0  11  0.727   1  0  0   0   0  1  2   0   0  10.0
11 Courtney Zuber             3  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  1   0   3  0  0   0   0   0.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             3  0  0   1  0.000  14  1  0   0   2  0  0   0   0   1.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 44 19  98  0.255  43  3  4   1  41  2 10   1   0  54.0
   Opp                        3 30 21 101  0.089  27  1  5   3  26  1 12   0   0  38.0


  1 2 3
Florida State
25
25
25
New Mexico State
17
16
21

Florida State 3, Middle Tennessee St 0
09/12/2009, Florida International Tournament, Miami, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

No. 22 FSU Sweeps Middle Tenn.

Seminole volleyball team beats Middle Tennessee State in straight sets, plays FIU tonight at 7 p.m.

MIAMI, FL - The No. 22 Florida State volleyball team has swept Middle Tennessee State in straight sets (25-20, 25-14, 25-21) in the team's first game of the FIU/Miami Invitational.

The Seminoles (6-1) will now play the host Eagles tonight at 7 p.m.

Saturday afternoon's victory over the Blue Raiders (5-5) marks FSU's third-straight sweep of a regular-season opponent. The 'Noles also swept the Italian National Team their last time out in what was an exhibition match.

Against Middle Tennessee State, senior Mira Djuric paced the Seminoles with nine kills on just 13 attempts (.538 hitting percentage), four digs and a season-high four aces.

Senior Brianna Barry also connected for eight kills and Stephanie Neville and Jordana Price had seven apiece.

Setters Nikki Baker and Duygu Duzceler achieved a combined 28 assists.

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             3  1  2   7 -0.143   0  0  0   1   5  0  1   0   0   1.5
 6 Stephanie Neville          3  7  4  15  0.200   0  0  0   0   0  0  2   0   0   8.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             3  4  0  12  0.333   0  2  2   1   6  0  1   0   0   6.5
 8 Nikki Baker                3  1  0   1  1.000  15  1  0   0   2  0  0   0   0   2.0
12 Jordana Price              3  7  1  12  0.500   0  0  0   0   0  0  2   0   0   8.0
13 Mira Djuric                3  9  2  13  0.538   1  4  2   0   4  0  1   1   0  13.5
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              3  0  0   0  0.000   4  1  0   0   6  0  0   0   0   1.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3  8  1  17  0.412   0  0  0   0   1  1  3   2   0  10.5
10 Jenna Romanelli            3  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  1   0   2  0  0   0   0   0.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             3  1  0   1  1.000  13  2  0   0   2  0  0   0   0   3.0
22 Sareea Freeman             1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 38 10  78  0.359  33 10  5   2  28  1 10   3   0  54.0
   Opp                        3 37 10  84  0.321  33  2 14  10  26  1  6   1   0  43.0


  1 2 3
Florida State
25
25
25
Middle Tennessee St
20
14
22

Florida State 3, FL International 1
09/12/2009, Florida International Tournament, Miami, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

No. 22 'Noles Beat FIU.

Seminole volleyball team takes down Florida International in four sets after sweeping Middle Tennessee State earlier in the day.

MIAMI, FL - The No. 22 Florida State volleyball team won its second of two games at the FIU/Miami Invitational Saturday night with a four-set (24-26, 25-21, 25-17, 25-12) victory over host Florida International.

Earlier in the day, the Seminoles (7-1) swept Middle Tennessee State.

"I am very proud of the team for what they did today," FSU head coach Chris Poole said. "These were both very good teams that should be in the NCAA Tournament at season's end."

FSU had its back against the wall early as the Eagles (7-2) jumped out to a 1-0 lead with a 26-24 victory in the first set.

The FIU win to start the match put an end to an impressive nine-set FSU winning streak. The Seminoles had an answer, though, as they started another streak by closing out FIU with three-straight wins.

For the match, senior outside hitter Mira Djuric guided the 'Noles with a season-high in both kills (16) and hitting percentage (.433). Defensively she contributed seven blocks and four digs.

Senior Brianna Barry also had a season-high in kills with 12 while Stephanie Neville and Rachael Morgan had 10 and eight, respectively. True freshman Fatma Yildirim had a career-best 13 digs.

Nikki Baker's 28 assists were her best of the season and Duygu Duzceler registered 19 of her own.

"We started a little slow but made a few adjustments after we lost the first game, Poole said. "Our block and quick attack then took over."

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             4  8  4  18  0.222   0  0  1   0   4  1  2   0   0  10.0
 6 Stephanie Neville          4 10  2  16  0.500   0  0  0   0   1  0  2   0   0  11.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             4  2  1   8  0.125   2  2  1   0  13  0  0   0   0   4.0
 8 Nikki Baker                4  0  0   0  0.000  28  0  1   0   3  0  0   0   0   0.0
12 Jordana Price              4  6  3  16  0.188   1  0  0   0   0  0  4   0   0   8.0
13 Mira Djuric                4 16  3  30  0.433   0  1  2   0   4  0  7   1   0  20.5
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              4  0  0   1  0.000   0  0  0   1   6  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              4 12  2  19  0.526   0  0  0   0   0  0  7   1   0  15.5
10 Jenna Romanelli            3  0  0   0  0.000   0  1  1   0   4  0  0   0   0   1.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             4  0  0   0  0.000  19  3  3   0   5  0  0   0   1   3.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        4 54 15 108  0.361  50  7  9   1  40  1 22   2   1  73.0
   Opp                        4 48 25 125  0.184  45  1 11   7  32  0  8   2   1  53.0


  1 2 3 4
Florida State
24
25
25
25
FL International
26
21
17
12

Florida State 3, Albany 0
09/13/2009, Florida International Tournament, Coral Gables, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Another Tournament Crown.

No. 22 FSU sweeps Albany NY at the FIU/Miami Invitational as Neville's career day leads the way and Barry and Djuric make all-tournament team.

CORAL GABLES, FL - Junior outside hitter Stephanie Neville recorded a career-high 15 kills and the No. 22 Florida State volleyball team swept Albany NY (25-21, 25-20, 25-21) Sunday afternoon at the FIU/Miami Invitational.

For the Seminoles (8-1), the outcome against Albany NY (4-6) marks the team's fifth-straight win since the team nearly upset then-No. 5 Florida on Aug. 31 and moves FSU to a perfect 3-0 in regular-season tournaments this year.

"It was a great weekend all the way around," FSU head coach Chris Poole said. "Albany was a very scrappy team and kept forcing us to make plays, which was great for our mentality. It was not a great game on our part, but we kept finding ways to win, which is a positive.

"Everyone played and contributed today and it allowed us to give valuable playing time to some of the young players."

While Neville's new career-high for kills and hitting percentage (.528) guided the 'Noles, senior outside hitter Mira Djuric was also strong on the offensive attack with 12 kills. Senior Brianna Barry had seven from the middle blocker position and Rachael Morgan and Fatma Yildirim combined for 12 kills.

Yildirim was also a presence defensively as the true freshman from Istanbul, Turkey earned a new career-best for digs with a team-high 16. She also contributed two aces.

For their efforts all weekend, Barry and Djuric were named to the FIU/Miami Invitational All-Tournament Team.

"I am proud of Mira and Bri for being named to the all-tournament team," Poole said. "We won another tournament crown sweeping all three tournament championships this fall. All of our hitters had their moments this weekend and our offense continues to improve.

"Fatma was incredible on defense through the weekend."

The conclusion of the tournament means the Seminoles can now turn their attention to the start of Atlantic Coast Conference play.

FSU will welcome Miami to Tallahassee on Friday and will then play Notre Dame on Sunday as part of the Seminole Tri-Tournament before the ACC slate truly begins on Sept. 25 with a two-match home-stand against Virginia Tech and Virginia.

The matchup against the Hurricanes will take place at 6 p.m. and the game against the Fighting Irish is at 1 p.m. Both matches will take place at Tully Gym.

"We still have things we can work on and need to make improvement with some of our consistency during the match," Poole said. "However, I'm really proud of how far the girls have come in only one season and we are looking forward to playing home the next three weekends.

"We want to encourage the fans to come support us and be that seventh person on the court during our games."

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             3  6  4  17  0.118   0  1  2   0   5  0  0   0   0   7.0
 6 Stephanie Neville          3 15  1  25  0.560   0  0  0   0   1  0  2   0   0  16.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             3  6  3  19  0.158   0  2  1   0  16  0  0   0   0   8.0
 8 Nikki Baker                3  0  0   0  0.000  23  0  0   0   4  0  0   0   0   0.0
12 Jordana Price              2  4  4  12  0.000   0  0  0   0   0  1  0   1   0   5.0
13 Mira Djuric                3 12  4  24  0.333   0  1  3   0   4  0  1   1   0  13.5
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              1  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  1   0   2  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3  7  0  10  0.700   0  0  0   0   2  0  0   0   0   7.0
10 Jenna Romanelli            2  0  0   0  0.000   2  0  0   1   7  0  0   0   0   0.0
11 Courtney Zuber             2  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             3  0  0   1  0.000  21  0  1   0   2  0  0   0   0   0.0
22 Sareea Freeman             1  1  2   3 -0.333   0  0  0   0   0  1  3   0   0   3.5
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 51 18 111  0.297  47  4  8   1  43  2  6   2   0  60.0
   Opp                        3 35 14  97  0.216  34  1  4   4  38  7  2   1   2  44.0


  1 2 3
Florida State
25
25
25
Albany
21
20
21

Florida State 3, Miami 0
09/18/2009, Seminole Tri-Tournament, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

No. 19 'Noles Blow Away 'Canes.

Seminole volleyball team sweeps visiting Miami 25-20, 25-15, 25-17 to start the Seminole Tri-Tournament.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - The No. 19 Florida State volleyball team began the Seminole Tri-Tournament Friday night at Tully Gym by sweeping Miami (25-20, 25-15, 25-17) in both team's first Atlantic Coast Conference game of the season.

By sweeping the Hurricanes (7-3, 0-1 ACC), the Seminoles (9-1, 1-0) enacted a little revenge on a program that defeated them two times last year. With the win, FSU has now lost just five sets all season long and has swept its opponent in all but three games this year.

"I am very pleased with the way we continued to improve as the match went on," FSU head coach Chris Poole said. "I thought in game a lot of parts of our game were good but our offense wasn't very good. In games two and three our offense picked up better and our blocks stayed very good through those two games. That allowed us to be much stronger as the match continued on.

"That gives us a lot of confidence."

Three Seminoles led the way on the offensive end as Brianna Barry, Rachael Morgan and Jordana Price all had eight kills apiece. Mira Djuric and Stephanie Neville also combined for 12 kills.

As a team, the 'Noles hit .212 compared to just .044 by the Hurricanes.

Junior Taylor Wilson was masterful from the libero position as the Clearwater, Fla. native finished the match with a career-high 12 digs. Setters Nikki Baker and Duygu Duzceler had 15 and 13 assists, respectively.

Price and Barry also had six blocks each.

"It's important that we got this win against Miami," Djuric said as a crowd of over 1,100 fans filed out after the match. "Miami is really quick and really powerful at blocking and I feel like this is a big deal to start off the ACC schedule with a win like this."

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             3  8  4  24  0.167   1  1  2   0   1  1  3   1   0  11.5
 6 Stephanie Neville          3  6  1  13  0.385   0  0  0   0   1  0  3   0   0   7.5
 7 Fatma Yildirim             3  3  2  13  0.077   0  0  1   0   8  0  3   0   0   4.5
 8 Nikki Baker                3  0  0   0  0.000  15  0  0   0   2  0  0   0   0   0.0
12 Jordana Price              3  8  1  14  0.500   0  0  0   0   1  0  6   0   0  11.0
13 Mira Djuric                3  6  6  24  0.000   0  1  2   1   3  0  1   0   0   7.5
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              3  1  0   1  1.000   3  0  0   0  12  0  0   0   0   1.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3  8  3  16  0.313   0  0  0   0   2  2  4   0   0  12.0
10 Jenna Romanelli            3  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  1   0   1  0  0   0   0   0.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             3  0  0   1  0.000  13  1  0   0   3  0  0   0   0   1.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 40 17 106  0.217  32  3  6   1  34  3 20   1   0  56.0
   Opp                        3 28 24  91  0.044  28  1  5   3  37  3  6   1   0  35.0


  1 2 3
Miami
20
15
17
Florida State
25
25
25

Florida State 3, Notre Dame 2
09/20/2009, Seminole Tri-Tournament, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

No. 19 FSU Prevails in Thriller.

Seminole volleyball team starts slow but earns exciting come-from-behind victory in five sets over Notre Dame Sunday.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - After sweeping its opponent in six of the last seven matches, the No. 19 Florida State volleyball flexed its come-from-behind muscle Sunday against Notre Dame in the conclusion of the Seminole Tri-Tournament.

Down 2-1, FSU (10-1, 1-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) managed to bounce back and escape with a thrilling 3-2 win (19-25, 25-17, 18-25, 26-24, 16-14) over a Fighting Irish (6-4) team that defeated Miami in five sets one day earlier.

With the win, the Seminoles are now off to their best start since the 1997 season when that team started 12-0 and with eight-straight victories boast the longest winning streak since the 2000 campaign.

"It was a great volleyball match and the fans here saw two teams going at it hard," FSU head coach Chris Poole said. "Notre Dame beat Wisconsin and Stanford both this year so we knew they were going to be tough. We came out a little slow to start the match but then at the end we just kept finding ways to win the next point.

"That's the sign of a team that has matured in the last year."

Senior Brianna Barry served as the catalyst to FSU's never-say-die attitude against Notre Dame.

The standout middle blocker put away a combined 10 of her season-high 19 kills in the fourth and fifth sets and finished the match with an impressive .600 hitting percentage. She also contributed six blocks.

Senior Jordana Price and sophomore Rachael Morgan posted 13 and 10 kills, respectively, and junior Stephanie Neville added eight for a Seminole team that finished with a team hitting percentage of .305.

A scary moment for the Seminoles occurred early in the fifth set as junior libero Taylor Wilson was briefly knocked out of the game after a collision with teammate Fatma Yildirim on the back row. Sporting a swollen, black-and-blue eye left eye, the Clearwater, Fla. native somehow managed to return to the court in time to help the Seminoles build an 8-4 advantage.

The Fighting Irish scored three-straight points before their service error moved the score to 9-8 in favor of FSU. Tied at 12 apiece a few moments later, Duygu Duzceler's well-placed lob into the corner of the court put the 'Noles back on top 13-12 before a Notre Dame kill gridlocked the score at 13-13.

Tied at 14-14, Neville's kill put the game at match-point for FSU and Notre Dame error sealed the win and sent the near-capacity crowd into a frenzy.

"If we were the team we were last year we would not have had the strength to come back like we did," Barry said. "We definitely depend on each other and I am really proud of my teammates."

Things got quite interesting in the fourth set as the Seminoles found themselves trailing 20-15 with Notre Dame up two sets to one.

After FSU battled back and tied the game at 22-22, kills by Mira Djuric and Barry in the final moments helped the home team earn a 26-24 win to force the decisive final set.

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             5 10  2  19  0.421   0  2  0   2   6  0  1   0   0  12.5
 6 Stephanie Neville          5  8  3  20  0.250   0  0  0   0   1  0  4   0   0  10.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             5  5  5  22  0.000   2  0  0   0  10  0  2   0   0   6.0
 8 Nikki Baker                5  0  0   1  0.000  29  0  2   0   6  0  0   0   0   0.0
12 Jordana Price              5 13  1  25  0.480   1  0  0   0   0  0  6   2   0  16.0
13 Mira Djuric                5  6  7  21 -0.048   1  4  5   0   6  0  5   0   0  12.5
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              5  0  0   0  0.000   5  1  0   2  15  0  0   0   0   1.0
 5 Brianna Barry              5 19  1  30  0.600   0  0  0   0   0  0  6   0   0  22.0
10 Jenna Romanelli            3  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
11 Courtney Zuber             1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             5  2  0   2  1.000  23  3  1   0   5  0  0   1   1   5.0
   Team                             1   1                                       
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        5 63 20 141  0.305  61 10  8   4  49  0 24   3   1  85.0
   Opp                        5 69 23 155  0.297  62  4  8  10  51  1 20   4   0  84.0


  1 2 3 4 5
Notre Dame
25
17
25
24
14
Florida State
19
25
18
26
16

Florida State 3, Virginia Tech 1
09/25/2009, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

'Noles Knock Out Hokies.

Eighteenth-ranked Florida State volleyball team beats Virginia Tech in four games to extend winning streak to nine straight.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - The No. 18 Florida State volleyball team defeated visiting Virginia Tech 3-1 (25-23, 23-25, 25-17, 27-25) at Tully Gym Friday night.

With the victory over the Hokies (10-3, 1-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), the Seminoles (11-1, 2-0) have now won nine-straight matches and have not dropped a contest in the month of September.

"I was really proud of the girls for pulling it out," FSU head coach Chris Poole said. "I thought Virginia Tech did a great job of taking us out of our offense. There are some things that we can learn from this match and hopefully get in and get better from it. Anytime that you can make mistakes, not play your best, and still win, that's a bonus."

FSU's bonus on Friday night came by way of a heart-pounding fourth set.

The game was in match-point several times as a filled-to-the-brim crowd of 1,187 looked on before the Seminoles finally put the Hokies away, 27-25, thanks to sophomore Rachael Morgan's kill.

For the match, senior Mira Djuric was an offensive force as she connected for a team-high 15 kills while adding two aces, four digs and five blocks. She had a .387 hitting percentage on the night.

True freshman Fatma Yildirim also got in on the action with a double-double as she concluded the night with 11 kills and 13 digs. Senior Nikki Baker posted a new season-high for digs with nine as she tied fellow setter Duygu Duzceler in assists as they both had 22 apiece.

Junior Jenna Romanelli led the 'Noles with 10 digs and Morgan and senior Jordana Price combined for 15 kills. Price also had five blocks.

The pesky Hokies couldn't quite be shook in the third set as FSU never led by more than four points until running away with it late. Up 16-14, the 'Noles went on a 9-3 scoring run to take the game and go up 2-1 for the evening.

Both programs put on an exciting second set as there were seven lead changes and six ties in that contest. Then the Hokies earned a 22-21 lead and never looked back as they escaped with 25-23 victory to tie the match at 1-1.

Florida State was sluggish at the outset of the match as Virginia Tech jumped out to a 5-1 in the first game. FSU battled back and tied the score at 23-23 before a Hokies error and solo block by Morgan sealed the win.

The Seminoles are back in action Sunday at noon against Virginia. Fans wishing to meet the players are invited to attend an autograph session immediately after the match in the Tully Gym lobby.

"We really appreciate the fans coming out and supporting us," Poole said. "Virginia is a more athletic team than Virginia Tech and it should be a good match on Sunday. We need the fans to keep coming out and serving as that seventh player for us. Having home court advantage is very important."

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             4  7  5  19  0.105   1  3  1   0   3  2  1   0   0  12.5
 6 Stephanie Neville          4  4  5  19 -0.053   0  0  0   0   3  0  1   0   0   4.5
 7 Fatma Yildirim             4 11  4  24  0.292   2  0  2   1   9  0  0   0   0  11.0
 8 Nikki Baker                4  0  0   0  0.000  22  0  1   0  13  0  0   0   0   0.0
12 Jordana Price              4  8  1  20  0.350   1  0  0   0   0  1  4   0   0  11.0
13 Mira Djuric                4 15  3  31  0.387   0  2  2   1   4  1  4   0   0  20.0
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              4  0  0   0  0.000   0  1  0   0   2  0  0   0   0   1.0
 5 Brianna Barry              4  6  3  13  0.231   0  0  0   0   2  0  2   2   0   7.0
10 Jenna Romanelli            4  0  0   0  0.000   2  0  2   1  10  0  0   0   0   0.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             4  0  1   2 -0.500  22  0  1   0   6  0  0   1   2   0.0
   Team                                                      1                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        4 51 22 128  0.227  50  6  9   4  52  4 12   3   2  67.0
   Opp                        4 52 26 136  0.191  44  4 12   6  48  1 10   1   2  62.0


  1 2 3 4
Virginia Tech
23
25
17
25
Florida State
25
23
25
27

Florida State 3, Virginia 0
09/27/2009, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

No. 18 'Noles Sweep Away Cavs.

Florida State volleyball team goes undefeated in September for just the second time ever as the Seminoles move to 3-0 in the ACC with Sunday's victory.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - With 1997 Florida State Hall of Fame inductee Gabrielle Reece watching from the stands, the No. 18 FSU volleyball team put on a show as it swept Virginia 3-0 (25-14, 25-21, 29-27) at Tully Gym early Sunday afternoon.

Reece, a two-time Metro All-Conference selection, 1989 AVCA All-Region Team member and school-record holder for solo blocks, witnessed her former team take apart the Cavaliers (6-8, 1-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) as the Seminoles (12-1, 3-0) extended their winning streak to 10-straight.

With the triumph, the Seminoles completed the month of September with an unbeaten record for just the second time in school history as the 1982 team was the only other squad to do so when it went 5-0.

The straight-sets win also marks the 'Noles staggering ninth sweep of the season and at 3-0 in ACC play, FSU is off to its best start in the league since 2006 when that team began its conference slate 4-0.

"It's really amazing," FSU head coach Chris Poole said. "It's amazing to go through your preseason and know that we had the second-rated preseason in the country. To go through undefeated and then start off conference-play the way we have at 3-0, it's credit to the girls for the work they are putting in and work that we want to still continue to put in everyday."

Two days after a difficult matchup with Virginia Tech, the Seminoles breezed past the Cavaliers in the first set and then earned a 25-21 victory in the second. Game three was the toughest as Virginia wouldn't back down to set up a sequence of very exciting events inside Tully Gym.

Down 25-24, senior Jordana Price's kill tied the score at 25 apiece before a Virginia block put the Seminoles at set-point, 26-25. But as she has done on several occasions this season, senior Brianna Barry had an answer.

FSU's talented middle blocker's kill tied the score at 26-26 and then a few moments later she retied the set at 27-27 with another big hit. Senior Mira Djuric's too-hot-to-handle serve was then lofted back over the net and Barry slammed it home for a 28-27 score in favor of the 'Noles before a Cavs error ended the match.

"I thought through the first two games we played very well," Poole said. "I think we played well in game three but we just let down a little bit more defensively in that last game and made a few mistakes. Credit Virginia, though, they went in between games two and three and didn't give up. They came back out in game three and went really hard.

"I am proud of our girls for being able to put away a game we could have let slip away."

Djuric did her part in making sure that didn't happen as she led the way offensively by tying her season-high with 16 kills while adding eight digs. Barry also had nine kills and junior Stephanie Neville and true freshman Fatma Yildirim had eight apiece. Yildirim also had 11 digs - her second-straight match with at double-digits in that defensive category.

Junior libero Jenna Romanelli finished the match with a team-best 11 digs and setters Nikki Baker and Duygu Duzceler had 23 and 25 assists, respectively.

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             3  5  1  15  0.267   0  1  0   0   5  1  0   0   0   7.0
 6 Stephanie Neville          3  8  4  17  0.235   1  0  0   0   2  0  1   1   0   8.5
 7 Fatma Yildirim             3  8  0  22  0.364   0  2  0   2  11  0  1   0   1  10.5
 8 Nikki Baker                3  0  0   0  0.000  23  0  1   0   4  0  0   1   0   0.0
12 Jordana Price              3  7  1  15  0.400   0  0  0   0   0  1  2   0   1   9.0
13 Mira Djuric                3 16  3  24  0.542   0  1  2   0   8  0  1   0   0  17.5
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              3  0  0   0  0.000   2  1  0   1   6  0  0   0   0   1.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3  9  1  11  0.727   0  0  0   0   1  0  1   0   0   9.5
10 Jenna Romanelli            3  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  2   3  10  0  0   0   0   0.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             3  1  0   2  0.500  25  1  2   0   5  0  0   0   0   2.0
   Team                                                      1                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 54 10 106  0.415  52  6  7   7  52  2  6   2   2  65.0
   Opp                        3 34 13 103  0.204  31  7  2   6  40  1  2   1   2  43.0


  1 2 3
Virginia
14
21
27
Florida State
25
25
29

Georgia Tech 3, Florida State 2
10/02/2009, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

No. 17 FSU Drops A Heartbreaker.

Five 'Noles finish with double-digit kills.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - Despite five Seminoles with double-digit kills the No. 17 Florida State volleyball team dropped its first match of the young ACC season to visiting Georgia Tech, 3-2 (25-19, 25-27, 25-15, 25-27, 14-16). The Seminoles had their 11-match winning streak snapped with the loss as they fall to 12-2 on the year and 3-1 in the ACC.

Despite outhitting the Yellow Jackets by a commanding .331-.172 margin the Seminoles were unable to put away Georgia Tech in the fourth set and it proved costly as Florida State dropped its first match in 12 attempts.

"On all of the big points it seemed like they were getting every break," head coach Chris Poole said. "We kept battling but we were just unable to get that break tonight."

Mira Djuric led the way for FSU with 15 kills, while Jordana Price tallied 13 and the duo of Stephanie Neville and Brianna Barry each notched 12. Fatma Yildirim chipped in 11, while Nikki Baker dished out 35 assists.

The Seminoles took a 1-0 lead when they claimed the first set 25-19 on the back of six Mira Djuric kills. Florida State and Georgia Tech battled to ties at 8-8 and 13-13 before the 'Noles took a narrow lead they would never relinquish.

An attack error by the Yellow Jackets boosted Florida State's lead to 20-16 forcing Georgia Tech into its first timeout of the opening set. An assisted block by Jordana Price and Stephanie Neville bumped the lead to five (21-16) before the Yellow Jackets claimed two of the next three points. Djuric would answer for the Seminoles as the senior notched a pair of kills to give Florida State the opening set win.

Georgia Tech answered in the second set by jumping out to a 7-3 advantage early on. The Seminoles would not go quietly as they narrowed the deficit to just one at 18-17 with a chance to even things up with the serve in hand. A service error would spoil the opportunity bumping the Georgia Tech lead back to two.

Jordana Price came up with a crucial block at the end of a long rally to pull the 'Noles within one again at 20-19. The teams then would trade points before a Yellow Jacket attack error knotted things up at 21-21. The score would remain that way until Florida State claimed a 25-24 lead on a solo block by Fatma Yildirim.

A Georgia Tech kill tied the set back up at 25-25 before Brianna Barry delivered a huge attack on a ball that was somehow dug out by Monique Mead and managed to make its way to the Florida State side of the floor for a point. A service ace would cap off the set as Georgia Tech evened the match 1-1 with the 27-25 win.

The Seminoles came out with the big start in the third set by jumping out to a 13-4 lead on the back of a 7-0 streak that featured a pair of kills by Brianna Barry as the Winter Springs, Fla., native also picked up a crucial block.

Georgia Tech would cut into the lead slightly late in the set but the 'Noles had no problem hanging on for the easy 25-15 win. The Seminoles used a combination of offense and defense in the set to take the 2-1 match lead. FSU hit a match-high .450 in the set, while holding Georgia Tech to a mark of -.042.

The fourth set would prove to be another battle to the bitter end as Georgia Tech claimed another 27-25 win forcing a decisive fifth set. With the score at 20-19 in favor of the Yellow Jackets Florida State rattled off four consecutive points to take what appeared to be a commanding 23-20 lead needing just two points to claim the match.

A bad set by the Seminoles and back-to-back kills by Georgia Tech tied the set up at 23-23. The score would remain tied at 24-24 and 25-25 before the Yellow Jackets sent the match to five with the final two points of the set claiming the 27-25 win.

Georgia Tech jumped out to an 8-4 advantage in the fifth set as the teams switched sides. The small break seemed to fuel the Seminoles as they battled all the way back to tie the set at 12-12. The teams would once again trade points as the score reached 14-14 following a Jordana Price kill.

Mira Djuric had an opportunity to make it a one-point lead for FSU but was unable to drop in an attack as it hit the net and dropped on the Seminole side giving Georgia Tech the lead and the momentum. Another service ace by the Yellow Jackets, their fifth of the night would seal the match and drop the Seminoles to 12-2 on the year and 3-1 in ACC play.

"Every match we have a bullseye on our back and this is just one match," Poole said. "We have to be ready to play on Sunday, if we shake it off we can keep things going."

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             5  6  3  19  0.158   0  1  0   3   5  0  4   0   0   9.0
 6 Stephanie Neville          5 12  1  25  0.440   0  0  0   0   0  0  4   0   0  14.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             5 11  2  26  0.346   1  0  1   0  11  1  1   0   0  12.5
 8 Nikki Baker                5  1  0   2  0.500  35  0  0   0   4  0  0   0   0   1.0
12 Jordana Price              5 13  2  22  0.500   0  0  0   0   1  2 10   1   0  20.0
13 Mira Djuric                5 15  9  31  0.194   0  1  5   0   5  0  4   0   0  18.0
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              5  0  0   0  0.000   1  1  0   0   3  0  0   0   0   1.0
 5 Brianna Barry              5 12  3  24  0.375   0  0  0   0   1  0  5   0   0  14.5
10 Jenna Romanelli            5  0  0   0  0.000   8  0  1   4  13  0  0   0   0   0.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             5  0  0   0  0.000  18  0  2   1   7  0  0   0   0   0.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        5 70 20 149  0.336  63  3  9   8  50  3 28   1   0  90.0
   Opp                        5 62 32 158  0.190  57  8  7   3  48  5 11   0   0  80.5


  1 2 3 4 5
Georgia Tech
19
27
15
27
16
Florida State
25
25
25
25
14

Florida State 3, Clemson 2
10/04/2009, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Noles Hold Off Tigers.

FSU improves to 4-1 in the ACC.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - Florida State went to five games for the second time on the weekend but came up with a big ACC victory as the Seminoles held off Clemson 3-2 (26-24, 25-20, 23-25, 20-25, 15-7) to improve tol 13-2 overall and 4-1 in conference play.

Brianna Barry was on a tear in the five-setter as she set a new career high with 24 kills, while committing just one attack error for a hitting percentage of .697 on the day to fuel the Seminoles to the crucial 3-2 win.

Florida State had to go to extra points again on Sunday in the opening set as the Seminoles battled for a 26-24 win. FSU trailed by one at 16-15 before a Clemson attack error knotted things up at 16-16. The Tigers rattled off back-to-back kills to take the 18-16 lead but the Noles answered with kills by Rachael Morgan and Mira Djuric forcing Clemson into a timeout.

Coming out of the break the Tigers tallied three straight points to take a commanding 21-18 lead. The Seminoles would answer, however, by forcing Clemson into an attack error and service error before Morgan fired a service ace to tie the set at 21-21. Clemson called its final timeout before the teams traded the next six points. Another service error by the Tigers, their fifth of the set, put Florida State within a point of the win. The duo of Jordana Price and Stephanie Neville combined for the final point as the pair turned away a Lia Proctor attack for the 26-24 win.

The Seminoles carried the momentum into set two as they jumped out to a 13-6 lead on the back of a 9-1 run that featured a pair of service aces from Mira Djuric. The Tigers would not go quietly as they claimed six of the next seven points to pull within two at 14-12 forcing Chris Poole into a timeout. Florida State would settle down and take control of the match with a 2-0 set lead thanks to the 25-20 set two win.

The Tigers would not go quietly as they took the first eight points of set three and led by as many as nine (19-10) late in the set but Brianna Barry would not let the set slip away as she went to work with five straight kills for Florida State.

Barry and the Seminoles would continue to battle back pulling the deficit to just one at 23-22 before a Clemson kill put the Tigers within a point of making the match 2-1. A Stephanie Neville kill would make the score 24-23 but another kill by Procter sealed the set win for Clemson despite the late Seminole charge.

Clemson would storm out to an early lead again in the fourth set taking an 11-4 lead before FSU called a timeout to slow the momentum down. Once again Barry delivered several impressive kills to keep the Seminoles in the set.

Florida State played catch up in the middle of the set but were able to knot things up at 16-16 before Clemson answered with a 6-0 run to nearly insure a decisive fifth set. The Seminoles would cut it to four on a pair of occasions but were never able to get any closer as Clemson took the fourth set by a 25-20 margin.

Clemson took the early 1-0 lead before Price and Neville combined on a block to even the score. A service error by the Noles put the Tigers back in front but three consecutive points by FSU forced Clemson into a timeout. At the changeover Florida State held an 8-3 advantage as Clemson called its final timeout of the match.

The timeout worked for the Tigers as they tallied back-to-back points but another kill by Barry and one by Fatma Yildirim gave FSU a five-point advantage at 10-5. The Seminoles would cruise from there as they claimed the 15-7 set five win and took the match 3-2.

Jenna Romanelli led the squad with 23 digs from her libero position while Nikki Baker chipped in with 14 digs to go along with her 25 assists. Duygu Duzceler dished out a career-high 34 assists in the win.

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             5  7  2  26  0.192   0  2  0   2   8  0  0   0   0   9.0
 6 Stephanie Neville          5  9  6  36  0.083   0  0  0   0   2  0  6   0   0  12.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             5  7  5  26  0.077   0  0  0   0  12  0  2   0   0   8.0
 8 Nikki Baker                5  0  0   1  0.000  25  0  1   0  14  0  0   0   0   0.0
12 Jordana Price              5 13  0  25  0.520   1  0  0   0   1  0  7   0   0  16.5
13 Mira Djuric                5 10  6  24  0.167   1  2  1   1  13  0  1   0   0  12.5
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              4  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  0   0   2  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              5 24  1  33  0.697   0  0  0   0   1  1  2   1   0  26.0
10 Jenna Romanelli            5  0  1   1 -1.000   3  0  3   2  23  0  0   0   0   0.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             5  0  0   0  0.000  34  0  1   0   3  0  0   0   0   0.0
   Team                                                      1                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        5 70 21 172  0.285  65  4  6   6  79  1 18   1   0  84.0
   Opp                        5 66 23 179  0.240  57  6 12   4  65  2 14   0   0  81.0


  1 2 3 4 5
Clemson
24
20
25
25
7
Florida State
26
25
23
20
15

Florida State 3, Wake Forest 0
10/09/2009, Winston-Salem, N.C.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

No. 19 FSU Drops Demon Deacons.

Seminole volleyball team sweeps Wake Forest on the road Friday night.

WINSTON-SALEM, NC - The No. 19 Florida State volleyball team needed just three sets to defeat Wake Forest (25-20, 25-14, 25-22) Friday night in Winston-Salem, N.C.

With the straight-sets triumph, the Seminoles (14-2, 5-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) have now achieved nine sweeps in the 2009 season.

"We played pretty well tonight," FSU head coach Chris Poole said. "I was very pleased with the hitters. I think tonight was one of the best all-around games this year for our hitters as all six of them hit the ball well. Overall, we had a couple of close games but we played tough until the very end and that is something we have been working on."

Against the Demon Deacons (6-12, 4-3), the Florida State offensive attack was paced by the senior trio of outside hitter Mira Djuric and middle blockers Jordana Price and Brianna Barry. All three of the Seminoles' veteran leaders finished the match with 11 kills apiece.

Junior Stephanie Neville added nine kills while sophomore Rachael Morgan had eight and true freshman Fatma Yildirim posted five.

As a team, FSU generated a .473 hitting percentage as Barry registered a team-best .571 mark. Price and Neville also finished above .500 as the two concluded the evening with hitting percentages of .562 and .533, respectively.

Setters Nikki Baker and Duygu Duzceler had 24 assists apiece and junior libero Jenna Romanelli led the Seminoles with 16 digs.

After six-straight matches on a Friday-Sunday routine, FSU now has its first quick turnaround of the ACC slate as the team will play at Duke on Saturday at 7 p.m.

The Seminoles have not won in Durham, N.C. since 1998.

"The girls will have to be mentally prepared to play again tomorrow," Poole said. "That means getting a lot of rest tonight and focusing on the task at hand tomorrow. Hopefully we will be ready because the Blue Devils are a very good volleyball team."

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             3  8  1  18  0.389   1  1  1   0   5  0  2   0   0  10.0
 6 Stephanie Neville          3  9  1  15  0.533   0  0  0   0   1  0  2   0   0  10.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             3  5  2   9  0.333   2  0  2   1   6  0  1   0   0   5.5
 8 Nikki Baker                3  0  0   0  0.000  24  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
12 Jordana Price              3 11  2  16  0.563   0  0  0   0   1  0  3   0   0  12.5
13 Mira Djuric                3 11  3  17  0.471   0  3  2   0   2  0  0   1   0  14.0
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              3  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3 11  3  14  0.571   0  0  0   1   1  0  1   0   0  11.5
10 Jenna Romanelli            3  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  1   1  16  0  0   0   0   0.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             3  0  0   2  0.000  24  1  2   0   2  0  0   0   0   1.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 55 12  91  0.473  52  5  8   3  34  0  9   1   0  64.5
   Opp                        3 32 11  87  0.241  30  3  4   5  22  3  4   1   0  40.0


  1 2 3
Florida State
25
25
25
Wake Forest
20
14
22

Florida State 3, Duke 2
10/10/2009, Durham, N.C.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Losing Streak Over!

No. 19 Seminoles halt 12-match skid against Duke as they earn a victory in Durham, N.C. for the first time since 1998.

DURHAM, NC - A night after the No. 19 Florida State volleyball team exorcised the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest, the Seminoles put an end to another hex Saturday as they halted a 12-match losing streak to Duke by beating the Blue Devils 3-2 (25-18, 25-27, 25-20, 23-25, 15-10).

In taking out Duke (16-3, 6-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) at Cameron Indoor, FSU (15-2, 6-1) earned its first victory in Durham, N.C. since the 1998 season.

"It was an amazing match tonight," FSU head coach Chris Poole said. "There were times that we played very well over the weekend and particularly against a very good Duke team. We had good balance again on offense and we had different people stepping up at times tonight to make some big plays. We let the fourth set slip away and could have folded on the road, but we came back in the fifth set and refused to lose. I'm proud of the entire team and the effort they showed tonight."

That effort was sparked by the hitting power of senior Jordana Price and sophomore Rachael Morgan.

Both student-athletes achieved new career-highs in kills against Duke as Price finished with 19 to break her previous high of 18 and Morgan shattered her old high of 12 by notching 16.

Freshman Fatma Yildirim continued her excellent first season at FSU as the Istanbul, Turkey native earned her third career double-double with 10 kills and 15 digs.

Senior Mira Djuric also had nine kills and senior Brianna Barry accrued eight. Price and Barry led the team with seven blocks apiece.

Setter Nikki Baker had 33 assists and Duygu Duzceler had 23 while junior Jenna Romanelli led the 'Noles with 16 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 Rachael Morgan             5 16  3  41  0.317   2  2  4   2   7  1  4   1   0  21.0
 6 Stephanie Neville          5  5  4  22  0.045   0  0  0   0   1  0  4   0   0   7.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             5 10  3  26  0.269   0  0  4   0  15  0  2   0   0  11.0
 8 Nikki Baker                5  0  0   0  0.000  33  0  0   0  10  0  0   0   0   0.0
12 Jordana Price              5 19  3  31  0.516   0  0  0   0   2  0  7   1   0  22.5
13 Mira Djuric                5  9  5  26  0.154   1  0  4   0   6  0  3   0   0  10.5
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              4  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   1   3  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              5  8  0  19  0.421   0  0  0   0   1  1  6   2   0  12.0
10 Jenna Romanelli            5  0  0   0  0.000   2  1  0   2  16  0  0   0   0   1.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             5  1  0   1  1.000  23  3  1   0   8  0  0   0   0   4.0
   Team                                                      2                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        5 68 18 166  0.301  61  6 13   7  69  2 26   4   0  89.0
   Opp                        5 62 32 170  0.176  59  7  5   6  66  1 16   2   0  78.0


  1 2 3 4 5
Florida State
25
25
25
23
15
Duke
18
27
20
25
10

Florida State 3, Maryland 0
10/16/2009, College Park, Md.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

No. 17 FSU Trounces Terps, 3-0.

Seminoles sweep Maryland on the road behind true freshman Fatma Yildirim's team-best fourth double-double of the year.

COLLEGE PARK, MD - The No. 17 Florida State volleyball team won its eighth-straight match away from home Friday night as the Seminoles swept Maryland 3-0 (25-12, 25-22, 25-14) in College Park, Md.

For FSU (16-2, 7-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), the straight-sets win is the squad's 11th sweep of the year as the 'Noles stay perched atop the ACC.

"I know the girls were tired tonight because we had some flight delays yesterday and didn't get to sleep until about one in the morning," FSU head coach Chris Poole said. "But I am proud of the way they came out and didn't let that stop them. I felt like games one and three we played pretty well."

The league victory over the Terrapins (10-11, 2-6) is newsworthy enough, but the night's final score was not the only exciting thing for Florida State. That's because the Seminoles got a huge boost with the return of outside hitter Lauren Richardson.

FSU's 2008 MVP had not played in a single match this season as she continues to deal with a condition known as Neurocardiogenic Syncope. But at Maryland, the Ocala, Fla. native felt good enough to don the garnet and gold and check into a match for the first time as a junior.

And Richardson's impact was noticeable. She finished the evening with a team second-best nine digs.

"Lauren only played in the back row for us tonight and it was good to have her out there," said Poole, who was also pleased with the fact that true freshman Sareea Freeman also got to play against Maryland. "We came in to the night hoping to get the chance to play everyone and continue to build depth. Sareea got a chance to play in all three sets and I am pleased with the fact that we were able to give her that opportunity."

While Poole and his coaching staff were looking to build depth, Fatma Yildirim's was aiming to continue her impressive first year of American volleyball.

Against the Terps as the Istanbul, Turkey native registered 11 kills and 11 digs, marking her team-leading fourth double-double of the season.

"Right now Fatma is our most complete player," Poole said. "She is good in the back row and has a variety of shots. As her confidence continues to grow she is going to get better and better. She does a lot of good things for us on the court and her play really reminds me of the way Richardson impacted us last year."

Senior Brianna Barry also had 11 kills and two blocks. Senior Mira Djuric and junior Stephanie Neville contributed nine and seven kills, respectively.

True freshman setter Duygu Duzceler led FSU with 22 assists.

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             3  3  4  17 -0.059   0  1  1   1   3  0  1   0   0   4.5
 6 Stephanie Neville          3  7  5  19  0.105   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   7.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             3 11  2  24  0.375   1  1  0   0  11  0  1   0   0  12.5
 8 Nikki Baker                3  0  0   0  0.000  12  0  0   0   1  0  0   0   1   0.0
13 Mira Djuric                3  9  4  14  0.357   0  1  1   0   7  0  0   0   0  10.0
22 Sareea Freeman             3  0  1   1 -1.000   0  0  0   0   0  1  0   0   0   1.0
   ---Substitutes---
 3 Lauren Richardson          3  0  1   1 -1.000   0  0  0   0   9  0  0   0   0   0.0
 4 Taylor Wilson              1  0  0   0  0.000   0  1  0   0   2  0  0   0   0   1.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3 11  1  18  0.556   1  0  0   0   1  1  1   0   0  12.5
10 Jenna Romanelli            2  0  0   0  0.000   2  0  1   0   7  0  0   0   0   0.0
12 Jordana Price              1  2  1   7  0.143   0  0  0   0   0  0  1   1   0   2.5
20 Duygu Duzceler             3  1  0   1  1.000  22  1  2   0   1  0  0   0   0   2.0
   Team                                                      1                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 44 19 102  0.245  38  5  5   2  42  2  4   1   1  53.0
   Opp                        3 21 21  91  0.000  20  2  1   5  33  0 14   1   4  30.0


  1 2 3
Florida State
25
25
25
Maryland
12
22
14

Florida State 3, Boston College 0
10/18/2009, Chestnut Hill, Mass.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Another Match, Another Sweep.

For the 12th time this season, FSU volleyball team need just three sets to earn the victory as 'Noles beat Boston College 3-0 Sunday.

CHESTNUT HILL, MA - The No. 17 Florida State volleyball team has steamrolled yet another opponent; this time it was the Eagles of Boston College.

The Seminoles (17-2, 8-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) earned their 12th sweep of the 2009 season Sunday afternoon in Chestnut Hill, Mass. as they defeated Boston College (11-9, 1-8) in three sets (25-14, 25-15, 25-9).

In what was its most convincing victory of the year, FSU capped off another successful weekend on the road. The Seminoles have now won both conference road games in back-to-back weekends and extended their winning streak away from Tully Gym to nine games in a row.

"The girls were very focused today," FSU head coach Chris Poole said. "Everyone contributed and worked hard to get the win. Georgia Tech and Duke both lost today so that puts us in sole position of first place in the ACC."

Just as he did in Friday's win over Maryland, Poole had the opportunity to play his entire bench against the Eagles.

Sophomore outside hitter Rachael Morgan hit an impressive .625 and had a match-best 10 kills. Reigning ACC Player of the Week Jordana Price added nine kills from her middle blocker position while adding four blocks.

Seniors Brianna Barry and Mira Djuric also combined for 12 kills. Djuric had a team-high eight digs.

Setters Nikki Baker and Duygu Duzceler registered a combined 30 assists for a Seminoles team that recorded 33 assists to just 18 by Boston College.

Duzceler also achieved a new career-high with four aces, which tied with Djuric for most on the team.

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             3 10  0  16  0.625   0  0  0   0   0  0  1   0   0  10.5
 7 Fatma Yildirim             3  4  1   8  0.375   0  0  1   0   4  1  3   0   0   6.5
 8 Nikki Baker                3  0  0   0  0.000  14  0  1   0   5  0  0   0   0   0.0
12 Jordana Price              2  9  1  13  0.615   0  0  0   0   0  0  3   0   0  10.5
13 Mira Djuric                3  5  4  13  0.077   1  4  3   0   8  0  3   0   0  10.5
22 Sareea Freeman             3  0  2   3 -0.667   0  0  0   0   0  0  1   0   0   0.5
   ---Substitutes---
 3 Lauren Richardson          3  0  0   3  0.000   0  1  1   0   1  0  0   0   0   1.0
 4 Taylor Wilson              3  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  0   0   3  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              2  7  0   7  1.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  4   0   0   9.0
 6 Stephanie Neville          2  2  2   8  0.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  2   0   0   3.0
10 Jenna Romanelli            2  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  0   0   6  0  0   0   0   0.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             3  0  0   1  0.000  16  4  0   0   3  0  0   0   2   4.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 37 10  72  0.375  33  9  6   0  30  1 17   0   2  55.5
   Opp                        3 19 25  81 -0.074  18  0  4   9  21  2  2   0   0  22.0


  1 2 3
Florida State
25
25
25
Boston College
14
15
9

Florida State 3, North Carolina State 0
10/23/2009, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

No. 17 'Noles Pummel 'Pack.

Florida State volleyball team picks up its sixth-straight conference victory as the Seminoles earn their 20th win in a row over the Wolfpack.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - After two weekends in a row on the road, the No. 17 Florida State volleyball team returned to Tully Gym Friday night and defeated visiting N.C. State 3-0 (32-30, 25-17, 25-18).

The Seminoles (18-2, 9-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) have now won 20 matches in a row against the Wolfpack (7-17, 0-9) as they became the first team in the ACC to reach nine conference victories this season.

With the triumph, Florida State's current conference winning streak has been extended to six games, which is just one shy of the school record seven-straight that the 1992 and '98 teams achieved.

It wasn't easy though.

"I was disappointed that we weren't more focused the first game," FSU head coach Chris Poole said. "We made a lot of errors. To North Carolina State's credit, they came out and made plays and we didn't. I thought we showed character there at the end after we ran out of subs. Finding a way to win a game in that situation is a good thing for us."

That first game that Coach Poole referred to was a thrilling set that saw both teams combine for 62 points.

The Wolfpack managed to take the Seminoles to set-point on four separate occasions but Florida State showed its grit and escaped with a tough 32-30 win.

The second and third sets would prove to be much different for a Seminoles team that was without the services of libero Jenna Romanelli, who had to watch from the stands because she was sick.

Still, a back-row rotation of junior Taylor Wilson and freshman Courtney Zuber coupled with strong play by the Seminole hitters was enough to hold off the pesky 'Pack.

"Adversity is good for a team if we can learn from it," Poole said. "We can be better from this and be more focused and maybe realize that we can't take anyone or any match for granted. Hopefully this can serve as a step towards teaching them that."

For the match, junior Stephanie Neville led all Seminoles with 11 kills and a match-best .611 hitting percentage. She also added a dig and a block.

Senior Mira Djuric also had 10 kills and six digs and sophomore Rachael Morgan achieved nine kills. Senior setter Nikki Baker finished with a team-high eight digs to go along with her 19 assists.

Senior Brianna Barry and Jordana Price combined for 11 kills.

Next up for FSU is a showdown with North Carolina on Sunday in the team's Paint it Pink match.

That contest will air live on Sun Sports as first serve is slated for 1 p.m.

"It's definitely good to be back home," Baker said. "We need the fans to keep coming out like they have done all year long and cheer us on against the Tar Heels."

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             3  9  2  20  0.350   0  0  2   1   3  0  1   0   0   9.5
 6 Stephanie Neville          3 11  0  18  0.611   0  0  0   0   1  0  1   0   0  11.5
 7 Fatma Yildirim             3  3  1  10  0.200   0  0  1   1   7  0  0   1   0   3.0
 8 Nikki Baker                3  0  0   1  0.000  19  0  0   0   8  0  0   0   0   0.0
12 Jordana Price              3  5  1  11  0.364   1  0  0   0   0  1  2   0   0   7.0
13 Mira Djuric                3 10  3  21  0.333   1  2  2   0   6  0  1   0   1  12.5
   ---Substitutes---
 2 Drew Dudley                1  0  0   0  0.000   0  1  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   1.0
 4 Taylor Wilson              3  1  0   1  1.000   2  0  0   4   5  0  0   0   0   1.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3  6  1  11  0.455   1  0  0   0   0  0  1   0   0   6.5
11 Courtney Zuber             2  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   1   2  0  0   0   0   0.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             3  0  1   2 -0.500  17  3  1   0   3  0  0   0   0   3.0
   Team                                                      1                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 45  9  95  0.379  41  6  6   8  35  1  6   1   1  55.0
   Opp                        3 41 19 103  0.214  37  8  6   6  31  1  0   1   0  50.0


  1 2 3
North Carolina State
30
17
18
Florida State
32
25
25

Florida State 3, North Carolina 1
10/25/2009, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

FSU Beats UNC, Ties Record.

Seminole volleyball team's 3-1 victory over North Carolina is seventh in a row over an ACC opponent, tying 1992 and '98 teams for longest streak in program history.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - The No. 17 Florida State volleyball tied the school record for consecutive conference wins with its 3-1 (25-18, 23-25, 25-19, 25-15) victory over North Carolina at home on Sunday.

With seven consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference wins, the Seminoles (19-2, 10-1 ACC) matched the best-ever league winning streak in program history set by the 1992 and '98 teams.

Sunday's match against the Tar Heels (11-10, 7-3) had its share of ups and downs but FSU head coach Chris Poole was pleased with an end result that kept his Seminoles at first place in the ACC.

"The first three games were a little bit bland," Poole said. "They weren't quite as sharp as I wanted them to be. (We) still pulled out the first game and made a comeback in the second game but we knew we were going to need to pick up our level of play. I thought that midway through the third game, Taylor Wilson came in and had a stretch of serving that picked us up and our focus kicked into high gear.

"Then we did great the rest of the match and that is what we want to see."

While Wilson set the tone with her serving in the third set, sophomore Rachael Morgan left her mark in the same category as she set a new career-high with four aces.

She also set a new-career best with 10 digs.

"My hitting was a little off so I just tried hard to make an impact in another way," Morgan said. "I was really focused on not letting my troubles with hitting be a problem."

Senior Mira Djuric and Jordana Price had no issues on the offensive end as both recorded a match-high 13 kills apiece and both hit over .450 on the day. Djuric also had eight digs.

Junior Stephanie Neville posted 10 kills and senior Brianna Barry had eight. True freshman Duygu Duzceler led the way with 27 assists and junior Jenna Romanelli had 21 digs.

After winning the first set the Seminoles found themselves down 20-24 late in set No. 2. FSU battled back to within one point but the Tar Heels closed it out and earned the 25-23.

In the third set, both teams were deadlocked in a 17-17 tie before a UNC error gave the 'Noles an 18-17 advantage. Following a 'Heels timeout, FSU went on a 6-2 run to earn the win and push the game to 2-1.

The Seminoles then finished off the match with a dominating fourth set much to the happiness of the nearly 1,000 in attendance.

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             4  6  3  26  0.115   1  4  1   1  10  0  1   0   0  10.5
 6 Stephanie Neville          4 10  3  27  0.259   1  0  0   0   2  0  0   0   0  10.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             4  5  2  21  0.143   0  0  2   0   9  0  3   1   1   6.5
 8 Nikki Baker                4  1  0   2  0.500  23  0  1   0   9  0  0   0   0   1.0
12 Jordana Price              4 13  3  23  0.435   0  0  0   0   2  0  1   1   0  13.5
13 Mira Djuric                4 13  4  22  0.409   0  0  3   0   8  0  3   0   0  14.5
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              4  0  0   0  0.000   2  0  0   0   4  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              4  8  0  18  0.444   0  0  0   0   1  1  5   1   0  11.5
10 Jenna Romanelli            4  0  0   0  0.000   1  1  2   0  21  0  0   0   0   1.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             4  0  0   2  0.000  27  1  2   0   5  0  0   1   1   1.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        4 56 15 141  0.291  55  6 11   1  71  1 13   4   2  69.5
   Opp                        4 43 26 153  0.111  37  1  7   6  56  1 14   0   0  52.0


  1 2 3 4
North Carolina
18
25
19
15
Florida State
25
23
25
25

Florida State 3, Virginia 0
10/30/2009, Charlottesville, Va.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

8 In A Row: That's A Record!

No. 17 Florida State volleyball team takes down Virginia for school-record eighth-straight ACC win.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA - The Florida State volleyball team's magical 2009 season hit another high note Friday night as the No. 17 Seminoles swept Virginia (25-12, 26-24, 25-19) to set a new school record for most conference wins in a row.

With eight-straight Atlantic Coast Conference victories, FSU (20-2, 12-2 ACC) is experiencing its greatest run of games in the league since the 1998 team won seven in a row. The 1992 squad also reeled off seven consecutive conference wins.

In the Cavaliers' (9-14, 4-8) home gym, the Seminoles came out firing on all cylinders in the first set and ran away with 25-12 win.

"That first set was probably the best first set we have played on all year long," FSU head coach Chris Poole said. "We played really well. We limited our mistakes and unforced errors. That is what we as a coaching staff have preaching to them on a daily basis. When you don't make mistakes you are difficult to stop.

"That first set the tone for us and we played consistent the whole match, which is a good when you're playing on the road."

The 'Noles' steady play throughout the night didn't mean that achieving the 12th sweep of the year - including a second of the season against Virginia - was easy.

The Cavaliers answered in the second game and built a 21-15 lead. But as they have shown all season long, this is an FSU team that handles adversity quite well and the Seminoles stormed back for an exciting 26-24 win.

"We were down late and played nearly flawless for the last 11 points or so," Poole said.

Up 2-0, Florida State then finished off the Cavs with a 25-19 triumph in the third and final set.

Senior middle blocker Brianna Barry and junior outside hitter Stephanie Neville led the way in Charlottesville, Va. with nine kills apiece for FSU. Senior middle blocker Jordana Price also contributed six kills and eight blocks.

Sophomore outside hitter Rachael Morgan had eight kills, true freshman outside hitter Fatma Yildirim had seven and senior outside hitter Mira Djuric finished with six.

Senior setter Nikki Baker tied with junior libero Jenna Romanelli for the team lead in digs with eight. Baker also contributed 14 assists while true freshman setter Duygu Duzceler had 18.

Djuric had three aces.

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             3  8  2  22  0.273   0  0  3   0   4  0  3   0   0   9.5
 6 Stephanie Neville          3  9  2  14  0.500   0  0  0   0   0  1  5   0   0  12.5
 7 Fatma Yildirim             3  7  2  13  0.385   0  0  0   1   6  0  0   0   0   7.0
 8 Nikki Baker                3  0  0   0  0.000  14  0  0   0   8  0  0   0   1   0.0
12 Jordana Price              3  6  1  13  0.385   1  0  0   0   0  1  7   0   0  10.5
13 Mira Djuric                3  6  5  23  0.043   2  3  3   0   7  0  1   0   0   9.5
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              2  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   1  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3  9  0  13  0.692   1  0  0   0   0  1  2   0   0  11.0
10 Jenna Romanelli            3  0  0   0  0.000   6  0  2   0   8  0  0   0   0   0.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             3  1  0   3  0.333  18  0  1   0   7  0  0   0   1   1.0
22 Sareea Freeman             2  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 46 12 101  0.337  42  3  9   1  41  3 18   0   2  61.0
   Opp                        3 31 21 103  0.097  28  1  4   3  36  0 11   1   1  37.5


  1 2 3
Florida State
25
26
25
Virginia
12
24
19

Florida State 3, Virginia Tech 1
10/31/2009, Blacksburg, Va.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Nothing Scary: FSU Beats VT.

Seminole volleyball team moves to 21-2 on the season with a 3-1 Halloween victory on the Hokies' home court.

BLACKSBURG, VA - The No. 17 Florida State volleyball had a very happy Halloween in Blacksburg, Va. as the Seminoles earned a 3-1 (25-19, 25-21, 19-25, 25-16) victory over Virginia Tech.

By taking down the Hokies (16-8, 6-7 Atlantic Coast Conference), the Seminoles (21-2, 12-1) maintain their first-place spot in the conference while extending their program-best league winning streak to nine in a row.

"It was a good match for us overall," FSU head coach Chris Poole said. "We played really well in the first and second sets and then let them back in it the third. They had a really good crowd here tonight that got loud and made it difficult. But we were able to fight back."

Three 'Noles posted double-digit kills Saturday night with sophomore Rachael Morgan leading the way with 13. Junior Stephanie Neville also had 12 and senior Jordana Price had 10 of her own.

Both Morgan and Neville registered hitting percentages of at least .340.

Defensively, true freshman Fatma Yildirim had a career night. The outside hitter had just four kills but more than made her mark on the match with a career-high 17 digs.

Junior Jenna Romanelli added 10 digs with senior Nikki Baker posted a match- and season-high 32 assists.

True freshman Duygu Duzceler had 13 while Price led all 'Noles with five blocks.

The four-set win is FSU's second 3-1 victory over Virginia Tech this season. The Seminoles previously defeated the Hokies in September.

As the 2009 season draws closer and closer to its conclusion, every match becomes that much more important for a Florida State team looking to hold on to its lead in the conference.

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             4 13  1  35  0.343   0  0  1   1   3  0  3   0   0  14.5
 6 Stephanie Neville          4 12  3  25  0.360   0  0  0   0   0  1  2   0   0  14.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             4  4  3  18  0.056   3  1  0   1  17  0  1   0   0   5.5
 8 Nikki Baker                4  0  0   1  0.000  32  1  1   0   7  0  0   0   0   1.0
12 Jordana Price              4 10  3  26  0.269   0  0  0   0   1  0  5   1   0  12.5
13 Mira Djuric                4  6  4  18  0.111   0  0  2   0   6  0  0   0   0   6.0
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              3  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   5  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              4  6  1  11  0.455   0  0  0   0   2  4  1   1   0  10.5
10 Jenna Romanelli            4  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  1   1  10  0  0   0   0   0.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             4  2  0   4  0.500  13  0  0   0   2  0  0   1   0   2.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        4 53 15 138  0.275  49  2  5   3  53  5 12   3   0  66.0
   Opp                        4 57 29 151  0.185  53  3  8   2  58  5 14   1   2  72.0


  1 2 3 4
Florida State
25
25
19
25
Virginia Tech
19
21
25
16

Florida State 3, Duke 2
11/06/2009, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

No. 16 FSU Defeats Duke, 3-2.

Seminoles get a win over the Blue Devils at home for the first time since 2002 as Fatma Yildirim's career night sets the tone.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - The showdown between the Atlantic Coast Conference's two best volleyball teams certainly lived up its billing Friday night inside Tully Gymnasium.

And when the epic five-set match reached its end, Florida State and its capacity crowd had reason to celebrate as the first-place Seminoles earned a 3-2 win (22-25, 25-19, 25-13, 25-21, 15-11) over the second-place Blue Devils.

The win pushes the 'Noles (22-2, 13-1 ACC) further ahead in the race for the conference crown. Duke (21-5, 11-3), which hadn't lost in Tallahassee since way back in 2002, is now two games behind FSU in the conference standings.

"I am proud of the girls for the effort they put forth tonight," FSU head coach Chris Poole said. "We can play better. We made a lot of critical mistakes but we found a way to win and that's the most important thing. We now have to get ready for Wake Forest coming in on Sunday."

After tying the match at 1-1, the Seminoles ran away with a 25-13 victory in the third set. The big win appeared as though it would propel the 'Noles to a 3-1 triumph but Duke battled back to tie the game at two sets apiece.

Duke then won the fourth set to force a decisive fifth game. In that set, FSU jumped out to a 5-0 lead before the Blue Devils tied it at 11-11. A kill by Stephanie Neville pushed the score to 12-11 in FSU's favor and then back-to-back blocks by Jordana Price put the game at match-point.

A Duke error then sealed the win for a Florida State team whose only two losses this year have occurred in close five-set ballgames.

So what was different about Friday night as opposed to previous losses to Florida and Georgia Tech?

"I think tonight didn't end like those two matches because of the way we started that fifth set," Poole said. "We built that five-point lead. Of course we let them get back into but we showed that same intensity and focus to close out the game."

True freshman Fatma Yildirim helped spur the FSU victory with her career night. The Istanbul, Turkey native finished with new career highs in kills (15), hitting percentage (.519) and digs (21).

Her stellar statistics also marked her team-leading fifth double-double of the year.

Sophomore Rachael Morgan had 13 kills and 10 digs for her first double-double this season, senior Jordana Price had 11 and senior Brianna Barry had 10 for an FSU team hit .306 as a team.

Junior libero Jenna Romanelli led all players with 24 digs. Setters Nikki Baker and Duygu Duzceler had 26 assists apiece.

Next up for the Seminoles is a 1 p.m. match on Sunday against Wake Forest. Following the game, there will be a free clinic for children ages five through eighth grade on the court.

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             5 13  5  40  0.200   0  1  2   0  10  1  6   0   0  18.0
 6 Stephanie Neville          5  8  2  22  0.273   0  0  0   0   2  0  2   0   0   9.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             5 15  1  27  0.519   2  1  0   0  21  0  0   1   0  16.0
 8 Nikki Baker                5  0  0   0  0.000  26  1  1   0   8  0  0   0   0   1.0
12 Jordana Price              5 11  3  23  0.348   0  0  0   1   0  1  7   0   0  15.5
13 Mira Djuric                5  5  4  14  0.071   1  0  3   0   3  1  4   0   0   8.0
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              5  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   1   3  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              5 10  2  19  0.421   0  0  0   0   0  1  5   0   0  13.5
10 Jenna Romanelli            5  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  0   4  24  0  0   0   0   0.0
11 Courtney Zuber             2  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   2  0  0   0   0   0.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             5  0  0   2  0.000  26  2  1   0   2  0  0   0   0   2.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        5 62 17 147  0.306  56  5  7   6  75  4 24   1   0  83.0
   Opp                        5 60 33 180  0.150  57  6  6   5  59  3 10   2   2  74.0


  1 2 3 4 5
Duke
25
19
13
25
11
Florida State
22
25
25
21
15

Florida State 3, Wake Forest 2
11/08/2009, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

FSU Survives Scare Vs. Wake.

No. 16 Seminoles jump out to 2-0 lead but need five sets to get the win on Sunday.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - The No. 16 Florida State volleyball continued its program-best conference winning streak Sunday afternoon at Tully Gym with a 3-2 (25-20, 25-20, 23-25, 22-25, 15-9) victory over Wake Forest.

The Seminoles (23-2, 14-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) are now at a staggering 11-straight ACC wins as they get closer and closer to achieving the first regular-season league title in school history.

Two days after a thrilling five-set win over visiting Duke, FSU needed just as many games to wipe out Wake Forest (9-17, 7-8). The Seminoles never could jump out to large leads in either of the first two sets and then in the third game saw the Demon Deacons come from behind to earn the win.

In the fourth set, Wake Forest scored three-straight points to unknot a 22-22 tie and get the victory.

In the final set, FSU built an 8-5 lead and never looked back in the 15-9 win.

"I was very disappointed the way we played in games three and four," FSU head coach Chris Poole said. "We came out in both of those games without any fire whatsoever and we played tight. We are a little banged up - which a lot of teams are this time of year - so we had to move some people around and that sometimes causes chemistry problems. But we got the win, which is most important.

"We now have to turn our attention to a very big weekend on the road coming up."

Junior outside hitter Stephanie Neville paced FSU with a team-high 13 kills. Jordana Price and Rachael Morgan had 11 and 10 kills, respectively, and Fatma Yildirim and Mira Djuric had seven apiece.

Playing in her first extended action as a Seminole because senior Brianna Barry only played the fifth set so she could rest her sore shin, true freshman Sareea Freeman performed very well from the middle blocker position. The Fresno, Calif. Native finished the match with a career-high 10 kills with a career-best .625 hitting percentage.

"Sareea played a terrific game for us today," Poole said. "It makes you excited because she is the future at that position and that shows good signs for us for next season."

Yildirim led the team with 18 digs and junior libero Jenna Romanelli had 17. Senior Nikki Baker added 12 digs to go along with her 25 assists while Duygu Duzceler had 28 assists.

Junior Lauren Richardson, who had only played in two matches all year entering Sunday's game due to illness, finally got the chance to play in front of the home crowd when she started and played in the duration of the third set and played some in the final set.

The Ocala, Fla. native finished the match with six 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 Rachael Morgan             5 10  4  37  0.162   0  2  1   0   9  0  3   0   0  13.5
 6 Stephanie Neville          5 13  3  27  0.370   0  0  0   0   1  0  5   1   0  15.5
 7 Fatma Yildirim             5  7  7  29  0.000   1  0  0   1  18  0  2   0   0   8.0
13 Mira Djuric                4  7  7  25  0.000   0  3  3   0   5  0  1   0   0  10.5
20 Duygu Duzceler             5  1  0   1  1.000  28  0  0   0   9  0  0   0   0   1.0
22 Sareea Freeman             4 10  0  16  0.625   0  0  0   0   1  1  3   1   0  12.5
   ---Substitutes---
 3 Lauren Richardson          2  0  0   5  0.000   0  0  0   1   6  0  0   2   0   0.0
 4 Taylor Wilson              3  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   2   4  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              1  2  0   4  0.500   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   2.0
 8 Nikki Baker                5  1  0   3  0.333  25  0  0   0  12  0  0   0   0   1.0
10 Jenna Romanelli            5  0  0   1  0.000   3  0  1   1  17  0  0   0   0   0.0
12 Jordana Price              5 11  3  29  0.276   0  0  0   0   3  2  8   0   0  17.0
   Team                             2   2                                       
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        5 62 26 179  0.201  57  5  5   5  85  3 22   4   0  81.0
   Opp                        5 59 31 194  0.144  56  5  8   5  80  2 16   0   3  74.0


  1 2 3 4 5
Wake Forest
20
20
25
25
9
Florida State
25
25
23
22
15

Florida State 3, Clemson 1
11/13/2009, Clemson, S.C.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

No. 15 FSU Downs Clemson, 3-1.

Florida State volleyball team pushes school-record conference winning streak to 12 games in a row as five players hit double-digit kills.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - The 15th-ranked Florida State volleyball team started its daunting weekend road trip with a 3-1 victory (21-25, 25-19, 25-19, 25-19) over Clemson in South Carolina Friday night.

Despite dropping a first set for just the fifth time all season, the Seminoles (24-2, 15-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) earned their school-record 12th-straight conference win by bouncing back and taking three sets in a row at Jervey Gymnasium.

Florida State was able to shake off a sluggish first set in which the team didn't hit well and defeated the Tigers (20-8, 10-6) by correcting that problem in sets two, three and four. As a team, FSU hit .325 for the entire match.

The 'Noles were paced by a stellar hitting performance by Rachael Morgan. The Tauranga, New Zealand native's 15 kills would have been a career-best if the outside hitter hadn't set a new career-high with 16 last week against Duke.

In addition to Morgan's 15 kills, four other Seminoles finished the evening with double-digit scoring efforts. Senior Brianna Barry had 12 kills while fellow senior Jordana Price had 11 of her own.

Junior Stephanie Neville and senior Mira Djuric had 10 kills apiece.

True freshman Fatma Yildirim, who had seven kills, had 10 digs. Djuric and junior libero Jenna Romanelli also had 10 digs on the defensive end.

Setters Nikki Baker and Duygu Duzceler combined for 51 of the team's 60 assists.

As she has done all season, Barry led FSU with a hitting percentage of .429. Price hit an impressive .409.

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             4 15  6  37  0.243   1  0  0   1   4  0  3   0   0  16.5
 6 Stephanie Neville          4 10  2  29  0.276   0  0  0   0   4  0  2   0   0  11.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             4  7  2  19  0.263   1  1  0   0  10  1  1   1   0   9.5
 8 Nikki Baker                4  2  0   2  1.000  26  0  0   0   9  0  0   0   0   2.0
10 Jenna Romanelli            4  0  0   0  0.000   5  1  0   2  10  0  0   0   0   1.0
13 Mira Djuric                4 10  3  20  0.350   0  2  1   0  10  0  0   0   0  12.0
   ---Substitutes---
 3 Lauren Richardson          1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
 4 Taylor Wilson              3  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  0   0   4  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              4 12  3  21  0.429   0  0  0   0   0  0  1   0   0  12.5
12 Jordana Price              4 11  2  22  0.409   1  0  0   0   2  1  5   0   0  14.5
20 Duygu Duzceler             4  1  0   4  0.250  25  1  2   0   4  0  0   0   0   2.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        4 68 18 154  0.325  60  5  3   3  57  2 12   1   0  81.0
   Opp                        4 58 17 145  0.283  54  3  4   5  53  4 14   2   2  72.0


  1 2 3 4
Florida State
21
25
25
25
Clemson
25
19
19
19

Florida State 3, Georgia Tech 0
11/14/2009, Atlanta, Ga.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Revenge Swat: FSU Jams Jackets.

No. 15 Florida State volleyball team needs just three sets to defeat a Yellow Jackets squad it lost to earlier this season.

ATLANTA, GA - The No. 15 Florida State volleyball has taken yet another step towards its first regular-season conference championship with its three-set sweep (25-20, 25-23, 25-23) of Georgia Tech Saturday afternoon in Atlanta, Ga.

The Seminoles (25-2, 16-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) remain two games up on second-place Duke as they earned their school-record 13th consecutive conference victory with the win over a Yellow Jackets (18-9, 12-5) team that handed FSU its lone league loss earlier this year.

As the score would indicate, this was one of those hard-fought, down-to-the-wire type of matches that could have gone either way. But just as it has done all season long, this FSU team found a way to come out on top and enact a little revenge against a team that did that same thing in its win in Tallahassee last month.

"It sure got close in both the second and third sets," FSU head coach Chris Poole said. "We showed a lot of poise and determination to get wins in those two sets. And that was something we talked about coming into the game. We really talked about coming in and trying to close out the match as fast as possible and not let Georgia Tech get going because they are a very good team."

The Seminoles didn't hit particularly well Saturday (they had a team hitting percentage of .275) but their tremendous offensive balance and strong defense made all the difference.

All but one of FSU's hitters had at least five kills with senior middle blocker Brianna Barry leading the way with nine. The Winter Springs, Fla. native, who leads the conference and is second in the nation in hitting percentage, showed why that's her area of expertise in Atlanta. She finished the day with a hitting percentage of an even .600.

"Everybody played pretty well today," Poole said. "It was up and down but that's how it goes sometimes. Brianna really stepped up as she has done all year. She is still battling with a sore shin so she has to favor one leg but that didn't stop her from performing very well."

Junior Stephanie Neville and freshman Fatma Yildirim both hit .429 and finished with eight and six kills, respectively. Sophomore Rachael Morgan had eight kills and senior Jordana Price had five.

Defensively, the 'Noles had eight team blocks compared to just three by the Yellow Jackets.

Junior libero Jenna Romanelli had 12 digs and senior setter Nikki Baker had 16 assists.

Florida State has just three games left before the start of the NCAA Tournament. Depending on what Duke does in its Saturday night match against Virginia, FSU may just be one or two wins shy of claiming the conference crown outright.

Either way, FSU fans will have the opportunity this weekend to see the Seminoles play their final home stand of the season with the opportunity to clinch the automatic tournament berth and perhaps the outright ACC championship.

With one more win, FSU will claim the ACC's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament since they own the tiebreaker over the Blue Devils. Assuming Duke wins tonight, two more FSU wins mean the team will earn the first regular-season ACC crown for the first time in school history.

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             3  7  5  22  0.091   0  1  0   0   6  0  0   0   0   8.0
 6 Stephanie Neville          3  8  2  14  0.429   1  0  0   0   3  0  4   0   0  10.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             3  6  0  14  0.429   1  0  1   0   9  0  0   0   1   6.0
 8 Nikki Baker                3  0  0   0  0.000  16  0  1   0   2  0  0   0   0   0.0
12 Jordana Price              3  5  3  15  0.133   0  0  0   0   0  0  7   0   1   8.5
13 Mira Djuric                3  1  2   8 -0.125   1  4  2   2   2  0  4   0   0   7.0
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              2  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3  9  0  15  0.600   1  0  0   0   0  0  1   0   0   9.5
10 Jenna Romanelli            3  0  0   0  0.000   1  1  0   0  12  0  0   0   0   1.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             3  1  0   3  0.333  11  0  1   0   3  0  0   0   0   1.0
   Team                                                      1                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 37 12  91  0.275  32  6  5   3  37  0 16   0   2  51.0
   Opp                        3 44 22 108  0.204  44  3  9   6  40  1  4   2   0  50.0


  1 2 3
Florida State
25
25
25
Georgia Tech
20
23
23

Florida State 3, Boston College 0
11/20/2009, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

FSU Clinches Tournament Bid.

No. 15 Florida State volleyball team sweeps Boston College Friday night at Tully Gym and earns the right to represent the ACC in postseason play.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - The Florida State volleyball program's six-year postseason drought is officially going to come to an end as the No. 15 Seminoles swept Boston College (25-18, 25-18, 25-11) Friday night at Tully Gym and thus clinched the Atlantic Coast Conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

With an impeccable 26-2 overall record and 17-1 conference mark, FSU earned the right to represent itself as the best team in the ACC when tournament play starts in early December.

Now, the Seminoles will host Maryland on Sunday with the chance to officially claim the regular-season ACC Championship outright with a win.

Against the Eagles (13-18, 5-13 ACC), Florida State never really was tested as the Seminoles earned their 14th sweep of the season and extended their school-record conference winning streak to 14 matches in a row.

"I am extremely proud of the girls and I am even more excited for them tonight," FSU head coach Chris Poole said. "They have just put in so much hard work this past year and they deserve to go to the NCAA Tournament. They went out tonight and played hard and played like they wanted to be ACC champions."

Senior Mira Djuric led all Seminoles with 10 kills and five service aces. At one point in the third set, the Belgrade, Serbia native with the famously ferocious jump-serve was the server for nine-straight FSU points.

Djuric, who was 8-for-8 on kills attempts in the first set, finished the night with a .444 hitting percentage.

Junior Stephanie Neville accounted for nine kills from her outside hitter position as she hit a remarkable .727 for the match. Senior Jordana Price hit .500 with eight kills and true freshman Sareea Freeman, who played in place of Brianna Barry so the senior could get some rest, had a career-best hitting percentage of .827 on six kills on eight attempts.

As a team, the Seminoles hit .443 compared to just .119 by the Eagles. Duygu Duzceler led the 'Noles with 19 assists.

Defensively, all but two Seminole finished with at least one dig with junior Jenna Romanelli's six being the most among FSU players.

Friday's outcome on Lucy McDaniel Court and second-place Duke's sweep of N.C. State sets up what could be one of the most memorable days in FSU volleyball history on Sunday.

Not only will Sunday's match serve as Senior Day where the program will honor Barry, Price, Djuric and Nikki Baker, but with a win the Seminoles would earn the program's first ever regular-season conference title. The 1998 Seminoles boast an ACC Championship but that squad earned their title in the conference tournament.

"Sunday is going to be an important day for us," Poole said. "It's a big deal that we can claim the outright conference championship but we are also going for a good seed in the NCAA Tournament and we know that in order to do that we need to win out. It gives us another opportunity to come out and keep getting better.

"We want the crowd to come out Sunday and get behind us on what will be an emotional game because its Senior Day and those players deserve a good crowd that will send them out right."

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 3 Lauren Richardson          2  2  2  10  0.000   0  2  1   0   5  0  0   0   0   4.0
 6 Stephanie Neville          3  9  1  11  0.727   0  0  0   0   1  0  2   0   0  10.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             3  4  2  12  0.167   0  0  0   0   5  0  0   0   0   4.0
 8 Nikki Baker                3  0  0   0  0.000  17  0  0   0   3  0  0   0   0   0.0
12 Jordana Price              3  8  2  12  0.500   0  0  0   0   0  0  4   0   0  10.0
13 Mira Djuric                3 10  2  18  0.444   0  5  3   0   1  0  2   0   0  16.0
   ---Substitutes---
 1 Rachael Morgan             1  5  0   8  0.625   0  0  0   0   1  0  1   0   0   5.5
 2 Drew Dudley                1  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   2  0  0   0   0   0.0
 4 Taylor Wilson              3  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   5  0  0   0   0   0.0
10 Jenna Romanelli            2  0  0   0  0.000   2  0  0   0   6  0  0   0   0   0.0
11 Courtney Zuber             2  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   1  0  0   0   0   0.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             3  0  0   1  0.000  19  1  2   0   1  0  0   0   0   1.0
22 Sareea Freeman             3  6  0   7  0.857   0  0  0   0   0  0  1   0   0   6.5
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 44  9  79  0.443  38  8  6   0  31  0 10   0   0  57.0
   Opp                        3 28 18  84  0.119  26  0  4   8  24  2  6   0   1  33.0


  1 2 3
Boston College
18
18
11
Florida State
25
25
25

Florida State 3, Maryland 0
11/22/2009, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

ACC Champions!

No. 15 Florida State claims first-ever outright conference title with sweep of Maryland Sunday on Senior Day.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - That ACC Volleyball Champions banner hanging in the rafters at Tully Gym is going to have to be updated.

That's because the No. 15 Florida State volleyball team swept Maryland Sunday afternoon (25-22, 25-23, 25,9) to officially become 2009 outright champions of the Atlantic Coast Conference - an achievement that is a first for a program that's only other conference title occurred in the 1998 ACC Tournament.

That year, the Seminoles finished fifth in the league and got hot at the end of the year. Fast forward 11 seasons later and this FSU (27-2, 18-1 ACC) team has been hot from the start and steamrolled the conference competition to claim the outright crown.

Against Maryland (13-18, 5-13) on Senior Day, the Seminoles could taste the championship when they came on to the court for the third set - and it looked like it judging by their performance on the court.

The Terrapins had proved to be difficult to put away in the first two sets but FSU ran away with a 25-9 win in the third to clinch the title.

"They have been challenged so much this year and they could have let down but they didn't," FSU head coach Chris Poole said. "These players have always found a way to overcome not playing well and have stayed together as a team all year no matter the situation. I am just so proud of them for what they have accomplished this season."

Mira Djuric led all FSU players with 11 kills on a .421 hitting percentage. She also added three service aces and six digs in her final home game at Florida State.

Stephanie Neville posted eight kills and Fatma Yildirim had seven. Yildirim also led the team with a match-best 13 digs.

Maryland entered Sunday's match with nothing to lose and it showed as the team proved to be a pesky bunch. The Seminoles could never generate very big leads in either of the first two sets but still earned close wins in both games.

Sunday's outcome is just another notch in the belts for a team that has set a variety of school records this season - including highest national ranking ever (No. 15) and most ACC wins in a row (14).

"The whole history of everything that has happened will I think set in after the season," Poole said. "Team records and individual records are not something we are focused on. We just have to get ready for Miami now and then the NCCA Tournament."

 
                                -----ATTACK----- SET SERVE SRV DEF BLOCK GEN
NO        NAME               SP  K  E  TA    PCT   A SA SE  RE DIG BS BA  BE BHE  PTS
== ========================= == == == === ====== === == == === === == == === === =====
 3 Lauren Richardson          2  1  0   1  1.000   0  2  0   0   1  0  0   0   0   3.0
 5 Brianna Barry              2  2  2  10  0.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  2   1   0   3.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             3  7  1  16  0.375   0  0  0   0  13  0  2   1   0   8.0
 8 Nikki Baker                3  0  0   0  0.000  19  0  0   0   4  0  0   0   1   0.0
12 Jordana Price              3  3  1  13  0.154   1  0  0   0   0  0  1   0   0   3.5
13 Mira Djuric                3 11  3  19  0.421   0  3  1   2   6  0  1   0   0  14.5
   ---Substitutes---
 1 Rachael Morgan             3  7  0  21  0.333   0  0  0   0   7  0  0   0   0   7.0
 4 Taylor Wilson              2  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
 6 Stephanie Neville          3  8  1  22  0.318   0  0  0   0   3  0  2   0   0   9.0
10 Jenna Romanelli            3  0  0   0  0.000   1  1  1   0  12  0  0   0   0   1.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             3  0  0   0  0.000  20  1  1   0   3  0  0   0   0   1.0
22 Sareea Freeman             2  4  0   5  0.800   0  0  0   0   0  0  4   0   0   6.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 43  8 107  0.327  41  7  3   2  49  0 12   2   1  56.0
   Opp                        3 28 18 113  0.088  37  2  6   7  47  1  4   0   1  33.0


  1 2 3
Maryland
22
23
9
Florida State
25
25
25

Florida State 3, Miami 1
11/25/2009, Coral Gables, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

3-1 Win Caps Regular Season.

Behind Rachael Morgan's career-best 17 kills, No. 14 FSU beats Miami on Wednesday to end remarkable regular season.

CORAL GABLES, FL - The No. 14 Florida State volleyball team finished its memorable 2009 regular season on Wednesday afternoon with a 3-1 (24-26, 25-16, 25-19, 25-16) win over Miami in Coral Gables, Fla.

By defeating the Hurricanes (18-12, 11-9 Atlantic Coast Conference), the Seminoles (28-2, 18-1) officially capped off what has been the greatest regular season in program history since FSU joined the ACC in the early 1990s.

Not only did the 'Noles win more in-conference games than ever before but they also achieved the first-ever regular season outright ACC Championship. Wednesday's victory also extended the team's program-best league winning-streak to an impressive 16 in a row.

Against the 'Canes, sophomore Rachael Morgan stole the show for the Seminoles in a match that saw FSU drop a very close first set before running away with three in a row to get the win. The Tauranga, New Zealand native blasted 17 kills, breaking the career-high 16 she had registered against Duke earlier this season.

She also added four digs and three blocks to go along with her .516 hitting percentage.

Brianna Barry, Fatma Yildirim and Stephanie Neville all recorded eight kills apiece with Barry posting a match-best .583 hitting percentage.

Senior Mira Djuric connected for six kills while also adding four service aces - a total that moves her into fifth place all-time in the career record books at Florida State. Senior Jordana Price also had six kills to go along with her five blocks.

Junior libero Jenna Romanelli posted 11 digs and Nikki Baker led the Seminoles with 24 assists.

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             4 17  1  31  0.516   1  0  0   0   4  0  3   0   0  18.5
 6 Stephanie Neville          4  8  3  19  0.263   0  0  0   0   2  0  4   0   0  10.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             4  8  4  21  0.190   1  2  3   1   9  0  0   1   0  10.0
 8 Nikki Baker                4  0  0   0  0.000  24  0  1   0   9  0  0   0   0   0.0
12 Jordana Price              4  6  3  19  0.158   0  0  0   0   0  1  4   1   0   9.0
13 Mira Djuric                4  6  5  15  0.067   0  4  1   0   3  0  1   1   0  10.5
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              3  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              4  8  1  12  0.583   1  0  0   0   0  3  4   1   0  13.0
10 Jenna Romanelli            4  1  0   1  1.000   2  1  1   0  11  0  0   0   0   2.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             4  0  0   2  0.000  19  0  1   0   2  0  0   0   0   0.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        4 54 17 120  0.308  48  7  7   1  40  4 16   4   0  73.0
   Opp                        4 52 24 125  0.224  50  1 10   7  44  1 16   3   4  62.0


  1 2 3 4
Florida State
24
25
25
25
Miami
26
16
19
16

Florida State 3, Alabama A&M 0
12/05/2009, NCAA, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Poole Gets 600, FSU Advances.

Florida State's Chris Poole becomes 16th active Division I volleyball coach to reach 600 wins in the Seminoles' 3-0 victory over Alabama A&M Saturday in the 1st round of the NCAA Tournament.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - Florida State head volleyball coach Chris Poole couldn't have asked for a better time to earn his 600th career win.

The No. 12 Seminoles' second-year coach reached the milestone Saturday afternoon as his third-seeded team swept Alabama A&M (25-10, 25-19, 25-10) in the first round of the NCAA Championship at Tully Gym to move on to Sunday's second round game.

The straight-sets win is FSU's (29-2) 16th sweep of the season and is the second NCAA Tournament victory in program history. At 2-10 all-time in the Big Dance, it is also the Seminoles' first ever NCAA Tournament win in Tallahassee.

"I certainly was pleased the way we played most of the match," said Poole, who became the 16th active Division I coach to reach 600 victories. "We've really have worked hard the last few weeks to try to limit our errors as much as possible and to go three sets and only have seven hitting errors is very good. We also limited the amount of serving errors we had and that's something else that we've really been trying to focus on is to really play in more control on our side of the net."

Senior Jordana Price paced the balanced FSU attack against the Bulldogs (22-13) with seven kills. She also had a team-best six total blocks.

Senior Mira Djuric and freshman Fatma Yildirim had six kills apiece. Yildirim also had eight digs and Djuric posted an impressive five service aces. Sophomore Rachael Morgan and junior Stephanie Neville had five kills each.

Freshman Duygu Duzceler's 16 assists and junior Jenna Romanelli's nine digs were both team-highs.

Florida State had 14 team blocks compared to none by Alabama A&M. FSU out-hit the Bulldogs .397 to .024.

After running away with 25-10 win in the first set - a score that was the 'Noles second largest margin of victory all year - FSU was pushed by an Alabama A&M team that won the Southwestern Athletic Conference in the second.

But a kill by Djuric made it 17-13 and Florida State eventually won 25-19 on Price's dink in the middle of the court.

Just like the first set, the third was no problem for the Seminoles, who extended their winning streak to 17 matches in a row.

The Seminoles will now play a Jacksonville State team that defeated Florida A&M in an exciting five-set match earlier in the day. FSU and JSU will match up for the first time in the history of both volleyball programs on Sunday at 3 p.m. in Tully Gym.

The winner of that match will move on to the third round in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

"They're dangerous because they play with so much emotion," Poole said about Jacksonville State. "They're a very good serving team and very scrappy on defense so we are going to have to play really well. We can't lay down and allow them to get into their rhythm. We will really have to try to dictate the offense and the tempo ourselves on our side of the net. Certainly we have a lot of respect for them and we're going to have to go out and play well."

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             2  5  1  11  0.364   0  0  0   0   3  1  2   1   0   7.0
 6 Stephanie Neville          3  5  2  15  0.200   0  0  0   0   2  0  2   0   0   6.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             3  6  2  18  0.222   2  1  0   1   8  0  1   0   0   7.5
 8 Nikki Baker                3  0  0   0  0.000  11  0  1   0   4  0  0   0   0   0.0
12 Jordana Price              3  7  0   8  0.875   0  0  0   0   0  1  5   1   0  10.5
13 Mira Djuric                3  6  0  11  0.545   1  5  1   0   2  0  1   0   0  11.5
   ---Substitutes---
 3 Lauren Richardson          3  2  0   4  0.500   2  0  0   0   4  0  1   0   0   2.5
 4 Taylor Wilson              2  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   2  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              1  3  0   5  0.600   0  0  0   0   0  0  2   0   0   4.0
10 Jenna Romanelli            3  0  1   1 -1.000   3  0  0   0   9  0  0   0   0   0.0
11 Courtney Zuber             2  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  0   0   0  0  0   0   0   0.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             3  1  0   1  1.000  16  2  2   0   2  0  0   0   0   3.0
22 Sareea Freeman             2  3  1   4  0.500   0  0  0   0   0  0  0   1   0   3.0
   Team                                                      1                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 38  7  78  0.397  36  8  4   2  36  2 14   3   0  55.0
   Opp                        3 24 22  85  0.024  21  2  4   8  25  0  0   0   1  26.0


  1 2 3
Alabama A&M
10
19
10
Florida State
25
25
25

Florida State 3, Jacksonville State 0
12/06/2009, NCAA, Tallahassee, Fla.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Moving On To Minnesota.

No. 12 FSU sweeps Jacksonville State on Sunday, now heads to Minneapolis to compete in the third round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever.

TALLAHASSEE, FL - The No. 12 Florida State volleyball extended its historic season Sunday with a 3-0 sweep (25-18, 26-24, 25-22) of Jacksonville State in the second round of the NCAA Championship at Tully Gym.

With the win, the Seminoles (30-2) move on to the third round for the first time in program history and will face a Kentucky (29-4) team that - like FSU - has swept its way past its first two opponents.

Florida State and Kentucky will face off on Friday in Minneapolis, Minn. with the victor then playing against the winner of the Minnesota versus Colorado State match. Game times for the third round matches have yet to be announced.

The fourth round contest will take place on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. and will air nationally on ESPNU.

Sunday against the Gamecocks (27-8), Florida State didn't make easy work of Jacksonville State despite what the final score said. FSU had to fight for every point they earned against a talented JSU team that won a thriller over Florida A&M the day before.

"They were serving very tough, which caused them to miss a lot because they knew they had to serve tough in order to pull us out of our offense," FSU head coach Chris Poole said. "We still offensively, I felt like we were able to hold up pretty well when we got the passing in and when we had control. It wasn't as clean as a game as what I would like for it to be, but at the same time, it's a win that we can kind of learn from, get better from and move on to the next round."

True freshman Fatma Yildirim guided FSU with 11 kills and 11 digs. Senior Jordana Price had nine kills and senior Mira Djuric and junior Stephanie Neville had eight kills each.

Neville's .571 hitting percentage led the team.

Senior Nikki Baker had 24 assists and junior Jenna Romanelli had 15 digs for the Seminoles, who hit .408 and didn't commit a service error.

At the postgame press conference following his team's 3-0 sweep of Alabama A&M on Saturday, Poole described Jacksonville State as a "scrappy team" and the Seminoles got to see that right away on Sunday.

The Gamecocks would just not go away in the opening game but FSU - behind four kills apiece from Yildirim, Neville and Morgan - was able to post the 25-18 triumph.

Then Jacksonville State gave the Seminoles a bit of a scare in the second set.

JSU boasted a 20-19 lead before true freshman Sareea Freeman's kill tied the score at 20-20. Two plays later, Yildirim's slam re-tied the game at 21-21.

Two straight Gamecocks points led to a Seminoles' timeout and FSU came back out swinging. Down 23-21, the 'Noles got back-to-back kills from Neville and Price. After JSU took the set to game-point, Djuric's kill tied it at 24-24, a block pushed it to 25-24 and then senior Brianna Barry's kill sealed the 26-24 second-set win.

Like the first two sets, the third and final one was a struggle -- but when it was all said and done, FSU emerged victorious as it reached an impressive 30 wins this season.

"Certainly when we came in that was our intention to build a program that every year was a top 15 nationally recognized program and that's something we wanted to do right off," Poole said. "We've been lucky, blessed and had a lot of breaks to get where we are right now. Certainly we worked hard to try to get here but we know that we've got to continue to play well because when you're in this situation it's one and done. You have a bad match, you have some bad points, bad rallies and it can be over.

"Going up to Minnesota we know we're going to have to play well and we're going to have to be ready to battle a very, very good Kentucky team."

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             3  6  2  21  0.190   0  0  0   2   3  0  3   0   0   7.5
 6 Stephanie Neville          3  8  0  14  0.571   0  0  0   0   1  0  0   0   0   8.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             3 11  2  23  0.391   0  1  0   2  11  0  0   1   0  12.0
 8 Nikki Baker                3  0  0   0  0.000  24  0  0   0   1  0  0   0   0   0.0
12 Jordana Price              3  9  3  17  0.353   1  0  0   0   0  1  2   3   0  11.0
13 Mira Djuric                3  8  1  13  0.538   1  3  0   0   5  0  0   1   0  11.0
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              3  0  0   0  0.000   1  0  0   0   1  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              3  4  0   8  0.500   0  0  0   0   0  1  0   0   0   5.0
10 Jenna Romanelli            3  0  0   0  0.000   2  0  0   1  15  0  0   0   0   0.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             3  0  0   0  0.000  14  1  0   0   4  0  0   0   0   1.0
22 Sareea Freeman             1  2  0   2  1.000   0  0  0   0   0  0  1   0   0   2.5
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        3 48  8  98  0.408  43  5  0   5  41  2  6   5   0  58.0
   Opp                        3 50 12 110  0.345  48  5 11   5  40  1  2   0   0  57.0


  1 2 3
Jacksonville State
18
24
22
Florida State
25
26
25

Florida State 3, Kentucky 2
12/11/2009, NCAA, Sweet 16, Minneapolis, Minn.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Hello, Elite 8!

No. 12 FSU advances to fourth round of NCAA Championship with 3-2 win over No. 13 Kentucky Friday night.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - And the dream season continues.

The No. 12 Florida State volleyball defeated No. 13 Kentucky 3-2 (16-25, 26-24, 25-17, 19-25, 17-15) Friday night in the third round of the NCAA Championship at the University of Minnesota's Sports Pavilion.

With the thrilling triumph, the Seminoles (31-2) advance to the Elite Eight for the first time in program history and will face the winner of Friday night's Minnesota vs. Colorado State match live on ESPNU Saturday at 6:30 p.m. ET.

In the decisive fifth set, the teams switched benches at the eighth point after Stephanie Neville's kill gave FSU an 8-6 lead. Mira Djuric's kill moved the FSU advantage to 11-8 and the Wildcats' (29-5) coaching staff was forced to call a timeout.

The short break worked in UK's favor as the team scored back-to-back points to make it an 11-10 score. But reigning ACC Player of the Year Brianna Barry's key solo block pushed the Seminole lead up to 12-10.

Two Kentucky kills then tied the game at 12 points apiece and set up some very exciting moments.

Djuric answered with a kill to the side of the court and the Wildcats returned the favor to make it a 13-13 game. After a Kentucky service error put the set at match-point in favor of FSU, the 'Cats kept their season alive by tying the game at 14-14.

An error and ensuing timeout by the Wildcats put them on the brink again but they tied it once more.

After Neville's kill made it 16-15, Kentucky couldn't return Duygu Duzceler's serve and the 'Noles escaped with a memorable 17-15 win.

"It was really just two good offenses out there," said FSU head coach Chris Poole, whose ballclub has now won a staggering 19 consecutive matches. "Neither one of the teams could stop the other one very often. I am really proud of the girls for finding a way to win and for playing better as the match went on."

Sophomore Rachael Morgan led FSU with 15 kills while adding six digs and two blocks. Djuric had 13 kills, one ace, three digs and one block.

Barry and true freshman Fatma Yildirim had nine kills apiece. Barry also contributed four blocks and Yildirim posted 15 digs.

Junior libero Jenna Romanelli had a fantastic game with 25 digs and just two errors against a Kentucky team that had four players register double-digit kills.

"I just really tried to play as well as I could and not let my team down," Romanelli said. "I worked really hard to get to every ball and make a good pass each time the ball was on our side of the net."

Neville and senior Jordana Price, who had a team-best six digs, accrued seven kills apiece and Duzceler had 26 assists. Senior Nikki Baker had 24 assists of her own.

Both teams had 11 blocks.

After dropping the first set 25-16, the Seminoles rallied late in the second game behind some Djuric heroics.

After Morgan tied the game at 21-21, Djuric connected for two kills in the final moments and then slammed the game-winning ace to give FSU a 26-24 win that tied the match at 1-1.

Any early-match jitters that FSU may have been experiencing quickly disappeared after the team returned to the court in the third set.

The Seminoles and Wildcats battled back and forth to a 9-9 score before the 'Noles officially caught fire and raced to a 22-16 advantage. Yildirim then registered a kill and combined with Price for a block as FSU took the game to set-point at 24-16.

Price's well-placed shot to the back of the court was then good for the final point that put FSU on top 2-1.

FSU came out strong in the third set and looked like it may finish off the 'Cats for good. But after the 'Noles jumped out to an 8-4 lead, Kentucky went on a 17-6 run.

A kill by Price and an error by the Wildcats trimmed the Seminole deficit to 21-16 before UK moved the score to 22-16. Kills by Djuric and Yildirim made the score 22-18 but Florida State wouldn't get any closer in a 25-19 defeat.

"Both Minnesota and Colorado State are great teams," Poole said. "I have a lot of respect for the program here at Minnesota and Colorado State has proven how good they are after eliminating Washington earlier in the tournament."

A win Saturday would send the Seminoles to the Final Four at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Fla.

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             5 15  5  38  0.263   0  0  0   0   6  0  2   0   0  16.0
 6 Stephanie Neville          5  7  2  18  0.278   2  0  0   0   2  0  1   1   0   7.5
 7 Fatma Yildirim             5  9  3  28  0.214   1  1  0   2  15  0  1   0   0  10.5
 8 Nikki Baker                5  0  0   1  0.000  24  0  1   0   4  0  0   2   0   0.0
12 Jordana Price              5  7  2  17  0.294   0  0  0   0   1  3  3   1   0  11.5
13 Mira Djuric                5 13  3  39  0.256   0  1  3   0   3  1  0   0   0  15.0
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              3  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   1  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              5  9  4  22  0.227   1  0  0   0   1  3  1   0   0  12.5
10 Jenna Romanelli            5  1  0   1  1.000   2  1  0   2  25  0  0   0   0   2.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             5  1  2   3 -0.333  26  2  0   0   3  0  0   1   1   3.0
   Team                                                      1                  
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        5 62 21 167  0.246  56  5  4   5  61  7  8   5   1  78.0
   Opp                        5 75 24 176  0.290  69  5 10   5  73  4 14   1   2  91.0


  1 2 3 4 5
Florida State
16
26
25
19
17
Kentucky
25
24
17
25
15

Minnesota 3, Florida State 1
12/12/2009, NCAA, Elite Eight, Minneapolis, Minn.

From the FSU Website, seminoles.com.

Dream Season Comes To An End.

No. 12 Florida State falls to No. 11 Minnesota in the Elite 8 Saturday night in Minneapolis.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - The greatest season in the history of Florida State volleyball came to an end Saturday night at the Sports Pavilion on the campus of the University of Minnesota as the Seminoles fell in their Elite 8 match to the Golden Gophers, 3-1 (20-25, 7-25, 25-18, 17-25).

By losing to No. 11 Minnesota (28-8), the No. 12 Seminoles (31-3) head back to Tallahassee on Sunday as a team that far exceeded expectations this season.

The 2009 campaign will forever be remembered as the year in which head coach Chris Poole and his staff helped guide a team that broke a plethora of school records.

From winning the Atlantic Coast Conference crown outright for the first time to making it to the Elite 8 for the first time, Poole said he was more than pleased with his team's performance all year despite the outcome in Minnesota.

"I am just so proud of these girls for working so hard all year long," Poole said. "There are 63 teams that will close out their year with a loss in the NCAA Tournament and we are one of them. Obviously you want to be the one that finishes with a win but I am very proud of them for what they accomplished."

Against the Golden Gophers, senior Mira Djuric led the Seminoles with 11 kills while adding an ace and four digs. Junior Stephanie Neville had nine kills and senior Brianna Barry added eight of her own.

Junior Jenna Romanelli led the team with 15 digs and true freshman Fatma Yildirim had 12 to go along with her six kills.

The Seminoles were out-blocked by Minnesota, 8-5.

"It did get frustrating for us at times," Barry said. "We are used to our balls hitting the court but Minnesota is a great blocking team and it frustrated us at times. They did a great job tonight."

A night after dropping the first set in the match against Kentucky, FSU suffered the same setback against Minnesota.

The Seminoles never led in the set but got to within a two-point deficit at 21-19. Unfortunately, the 'Noles wouldn't get any closer in the Golden Gopher's 25-20 win.

The second set wasn't any kinder to the Seminoles. Minnesota built a 16-3 lead and never let up. By set's end Florida State had sustained its most lopsided loss of the year, 25-7, and fell behind 2-0 in a match for the first time all season.

But if Minnesota's raucous home crowd thought that a tough match like that would mean the end for FSU, they certainly didn't know about the resilient Seminoles. Florida State came back out in the third set and took the lead at 5-4 for the first time all evening.

The Gophers tied the game at 6-6 but FSU answered and generated an 18-12 advantage before sophomore Rachael Morgan's kill made it 19-12. True freshman Duygu Duzceler then served up an ace to make it 20-12 and force a Minnesota timeout.

It wouldn't do much good, though, as Barry and Neville connected for back-to-back kills on the final two points and the 'Noles prolonged their season with a 25-18 win.

Unfortunately, the magical season wouldn't last much longer.

In the fourth set, Djuric got a kill and an ace to make the score 16-12 in favor of the Golden Gophers. Then the Seminoles then cut the deficit to just 17-14 but Minnesota retaliated with a 8-3 run to finish the set and take the match.

For the efforts in Minnesota, Djuric and Morgan were named to the Minneapolis All-Regional Team.

"It's a great experience for the freshmen and sophomores and juniors on this team," Djuric said. "As seniors, we never had the chance to make it this far. I am happy that they got to experience this and they can now build off what we did this year."

 
                                -----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 Rachael Morgan             4  6  1  26  0.192   0  0  0   2   5  0  2   0   0   7.0
 6 Stephanie Neville          4  9  3  26  0.231   0  0  0   0   4  0  0   0   0   9.0
 7 Fatma Yildirim             4  6  5  26  0.038   0  1  0   0  12  0  1   1   0   7.5
 8 Nikki Baker                4  0  1   1 -1.000  17  0  0   0   4  0  0   0   1   0.0
12 Jordana Price              4  5  2  17  0.176   0  0  0   0   1  1  2   1   0   7.0
13 Mira Djuric                4 11  6  28  0.179   1  1  3   0   4  0  1   0   0  12.5
   ---Substitutes---
 4 Taylor Wilson              3  0  0   0  0.000   0  0  0   0   1  0  0   0   0   0.0
 5 Brianna Barry              4  8  1  20  0.350   1  0  0   0   4  0  2   1   0   9.0
10 Jenna Romanelli            4  0  0   0  0.000   2  0  0   2  15  0  0   0   0   0.0
20 Duygu Duzceler             4  0  0   1  0.000  19  1  0   0   6  0  0   0   0   1.0
                             =========================================================
6  FSU                        4 45 19 145  0.179  40  3  3   4  56  1  8   3   1  53.0
   Opp                        4 66 17 148  0.331  60  4  3   3  73  0 16   2   1  78.0


  1 2 3 4
Florida State
20
7
25
17
Minnesota
25
25
18
25