CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Senior pin attacker Azyah Dailey led the Tigers offensively for the third-straight match finishing with 10.5 points behind nine kills and three block assists on Friday evening during Clemson Volleyball’s match at Miami (Fla.). Despite Dailey’s offensive effort, Clemson (10-18, 2-15 ACC) dropped a three-set match (21-25, 22-25, 22-25) to the Hurricanes (19-9, 10-7 ACC) in the James L. Knight Sports Complex.
Joining Dailey offensively were junior Mia McGrath and freshman Neea-Maria Joki, who each finished with 9.5 points. Both Tigers secured their points off eight kills, one ace and one block assist, while Joki also supplied a team-high .312 hitting percentage. Katherine Sandt led Clemson with 25 assists, while senior Devan Taylor provided two of Clemson’s six aces and a team-high 11 digs. McGrath added 10 digs of her own, and graduate Indigo Young added five block assists to her total 6.5 points of the evening.
The Tigers were hot at the service line with Joki notching her team-high 26th ace of the year alongside Sandt and Taylor picking up aces in the opening set. Clemson finished with more blocks (3-1), more aces (3-2) and tallied a .360 hitting percentage compared to Miami’s .314, but the Hurricanes took set one, 25-21, following a spread offense that had three Hurricanes contributing five kills each.
Joki, Dailey and Young helped the Tigers keep pace with Miami in the second behind block assists and kills down the stretch. After getting behind to open the set, a Dailey kill spurred a 4-0 run that included back-to-back kills by Joki to tie things at 13-all. Young provided pressure at the net defensively, holding a team-high five blocks through two. The Tigers continued to battle, bringing the deficit to 24-22 behind kills from McGrath and Young, but the effort fell short as Clemson dropped set two, 25-22.
Clemson took an early lead in the third set following kills from McGrath, Joki and Kate Hansen. Miami evened things up, and the two programs traded point stretches before the Hurricanes clipped a two-point advantage halfway through the set. Hansen kept the Tigers in the set with a solo block, her 14th solo block of 2024, but it was once again aces that proved to be the most beneficial. McGrath and Kennedy Wagner added two aces for the Tigers, but the most crucial one came from Taylor, who cut Miami’s advantage down to one in the third to keep the Tigers alive. Despite batting back, Miami finished on a two-point run to…