Hurricane Headliners: Grace Lopez

And it was Lopez, after an assist from setter Alanys Viera, who put down the final point.

“Before the game, I was saying to the girls, ‘You know what? Why not us? Why not us?’ and the girls were all hyped. We had good energy and all that stuff,” Lopez said. “It was amazing. … When we won, we were really, really happy and proud of ourselves.”

That Lopez may be finding her voice as one of the veterans in Miami’s locker room is no surprise after the season she put together last fall.

Though she expected she might redshirt her freshman year, a strong, nine-kill performance against then-No. 1 Wisconsin last September had Lopez and her coaches rethinking the idea to have her sit out.

It was clear she was ready to not just play at the college level but excel.

And that’s exactly what she did.

Lopez went on to total a team-high 407 kills, 178 digs and had 27 aces in her first season as a Hurricane. She had eight matches where she logged at least 20 kills and quickly added her name to Miami’s record book.

Today, Lopez has the third-most kills in a match with 30 for the Hurricanes and is tied for first for most kills in a three-set match (22).

Twice during the season, she was recognized as the ACC Freshman of the Week and at year’s end, Lopez was named to both the All-ACC first team and the ACC All-Freshman team.

That all of that success came after Lopez feared a serious knee injury in high school would limit her college options only made her freshman season all the more memorable.

“Last season meant a lot. It’s insane, because to be honest, when I tore my ACL, my leg was so skinny. I was able to gain muscle again in that leg and go through a lot of recovery, but when I came back to the court, I was still uncommitted,” Lopez recalled. “Then I started playing with the national team [back home in Puerto Rico] and that’s when it started, colleges were writing to me again. That’s when I decided to go to Miami. But the ACL [injury] helped me be more disciplined with my exercises and all that stuff and now I feel much stronger than before, physically and mentally.”