FSU sports information:The No. 23 Florida State volleyball team (20-8, 12-6) rallied to victory against the Clemson Tigers (10-19, 2-16) in a grueling five set match (20-25, 25-16, 21-25, 25-18, 15-10) for Senior Day on Sunday afternoon at Tully Gymnasium. The Noles extended their win streak against Clemson to 19 and have not lost to the Tigers since 2010. FSU also recorded 20 wins in a season for the 12th time under Coach Poole.
Set one kicked off with back and forth points. Despite consistent defensive efforts from the Noles, momentum shifted to Clemson, leaving FSU down 16-11. Following a kill by senior Taylor Head, the Noles went on a 4-0 run to cut the lead to 23-20, but the Tigers went on to take set one 25-20.
The Noles came out hot in set two with a pair of early kills from sophomore Kyleene Filimaua to put the FSU up from the start. With two more kills from Head and a strong offensive push, the Noles jumped to a 14-7 lead. Florida State kept rolling, putting up four kills in a row and extending its lead to 21-12. Head closed it out with another kill to solidify the Noles' 25-16 set two victory.
Florida State started off set three with an explosive kill from senior Khori Louis to go up 7-3. The Noles jumped to an 11-6 lead, but Clemson pushed a 5-0 run to tie it at 11. The Noles and Tigers continued trading points late in the set until Clemson went on a 3-0 run to lead 21-18. The Tigers went on to take set three 25-21.
Set four began with more point-for-point battles until Louis put up three kills, and the Noles went on a 3-0 run to get ahead of the Tigers 6-4. The Seminole offense kept on as Louis and Koenig had back-to-back joint blocks leading to two more Seminole points, extending their lead to a healthy 16-10. An ace late in the set from junior Emery Dupes and two more Tiger errors brought the Noles to their 25th point, taking a convincing 25-18 win in the fourth set and forcing a fifth.
The fifth set was another battle as the Noles and Tigers traded points to be tied at five until the Noles advanced to an 8-6 lead before switching sides. Louis put up her 19th kill of the day, and senior Audrey Koenig pulled through with her ninth kill of the day to put the Noles up 9-7. Following a Clemson timeout, Florida State held strong with back-to-back kills from Head and an ace from sophomore Kenna Phelan to go up 12-8. Filimaua closes out an offensive stretch for the Noles with a kill for the match point, Florida State winning the fifth set 15-10.
Louis tied her career high with 20 kills on just 27 attempts with just two errors for a .667 hitting percentage.. Head and Koenig also recorded double digit kills with 17 and 10. Koenig extended her school record to 25-straight matches with double digit kills while also contributing nine digs and four blocks.
Dupes was one of three Seminoles to have double digit digs at 11, accompanied by Loren Robertson and Head both with 10.
Phelan recorded a career-high of 33 assists for the Noles, topping her previous career-high of 30, set just last Friday against Georgia Tech.
The Noles will take on No. 10 SMU for their last regular season home match on Wednesday. First serve is set for 12 p.m. on ACCNX.
