Wake Forest Athletics
Volleyball Heads West For BYU Invitational
9/3/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 3, 2002
The Wake Forest volleyball team heads west this weekend to Provo, Utah to compete in the BYU Invitational. After opening the season 2-1 at their own Deacon Invitational, the Demon Deacons will be facing some tough competition this coming weekend with third ranked Southern California (3-0) at noon (10 am mountain time) on Friday followed by Brigham Young (1-2) at 6 pm (4 pm MDT). Wake will finish up with Oral Roberts (2-1) at 7 pm (5 pm MDT) on Saturday.
The Deacs made quick work of Auburn in their season opener, beating the Tigers in three games. Wake stumbled against Ohio, falling in four games and outlasted Virginia Tech in five.
Junior right side hitter Ashley Fisher and redshirt freshman left side hitter Valerie Rydberg were named to the Deacon Invitational All Tournament Team. Fisher led Wake Forest with 41 kills on 87 attempts, while coming up with 24 digs. Rydberg aced 20 serves, put away 37 kills and recorded 29 digs on the weekend.
Senior setter Ashlee Phillips led the way with 136 assists over the three match tournament (11.33 per game) and scored on 20 of her 33 attacks. Sophomore defensive specialist Tawni Schulte led the team with 36 digs (3.27 per game).
Juniors Jessica Hauff and Sara Beth DeLisle put together solid performances at the Deacon Invitational. Hauff, a six-foot middle blocker, put away 21 kills on 53 attempts to go with eight total blocks. DeLisle, a six-foot left side hitter, had 33 digs and 22 kills on the weekend.
Sophomore middle blocker Kim Stern led the team with 10 blocks on the weekend. She accounted for 26 kills as well.
Sophomore right side hitter Tarah Shelton came off the bench to provide some help for the Deacs in the opening weekend. She played in two games of two matches and had two kills. True freshmen Christy Williams, Erin Borhart and A.J. Nicholas came off the bench at different points of the weekend to give Wake a lift. Williams played in two games of two matches, recording two kills to go with a solo block. Borhart subbed in one game to spell Phillips at setter and tallied three assists. Nicholas came off the bench against Virginia Tech to serve seven balls. She put six into play and aced one in the victory.
Wake Forest has never player USC, BYU or Oral Roberts in volleyball before.
