Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest University
Virginia
Volleyball Drops Fourth Straight Match 3-1 at Virginia
10/19/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 19, 2008
Box Score | Box Score in PDF Format 
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Despite winning the first set, the Wake Forest volleyball team dropped its fourth straight match by a 3-1 score to Virginia Sunday afternoon in Memorial Gym.
The win for Virginia (14-25, 25-21, 25-16, 27-25) improves its record to 4-5 in the ACC and 12-9 overall. The loss drops the Demon Deacons into a tie with Virginia at 4-5 in the conference and they are now 13-8 overall.
The Cavaliers were never in the first set but rebound to win the next three sets behind a strong offensive day from Simone Asque. Asque led all attackers with 21 kills and she nearly posted a double-double with nine digs.
For the Deacs, sophomore Lauren McIntyre had another solid day at the net, tying a career-high with nine total blocks, including matching a career-high with eight block assists. The Indianapolis, Ind., native also added eight kills and a pair of digs.
Offensively, graduate student Natalie Mullikin had a second straight good match, posting a team-high 18 kills and hitting an impressive .406.
Sophomores Kristen White and Kelsey Jones each recorded double-doubles on the day. White notched 13 kills, 12 digs and three service aces while Jones dished out 47 assists and collected 16 digs.
The Deacons had a total of four players with double-digit digs. In addition to White and Jones, sophomore libero Megan Thornberry posted a match-high 21 digs while junior Abby Miller chipped in with 14.
For the second straight match, Wake outdug its opponent 76 to 66 and held the blocking advantage 12 to 9. However, the Cavaliers held a slight advantage in attack percentage at .185 to just .159 for the Deacs.
Wake Forest came out of the gate red hot thanks to kills from White, McIntyre and a pair of kills from Mullikin. The Deacs would lead 10-2 after three straight block assists from McIntyre and eventually grabbed as much as a 12-point lead at 19-7. McIntyre teamed with senior Ashley Homitz for two of the blocks and freshman Kadija Fornah for the other.
Virginia was unable to find any offense in the first set and Wake went on to the easy 25-14 victory. The Cavaliers hit -.026 in the first set while Mullikin recorded six of her 18 kills in the opening stanza.
The second set was played much closer as the score was tied a total of eight times. Wake took a 14-13 lead on a kill by Fornah but Virginia then went on a 4-0 thanks to three straight kills from Ascue to open up a 17-14 lead.
Wake pulled to within one at 19-18 but the Cavaliers responded with a 5-1 run to put the set out of reach. A kill from Mullikin and a block assist from McIntyre and Jones made the score 24-21 but a kill from Virginia's Lauren Dickson gave the hosts a 25-21 victory. Ascue had a total of eight kills in the set.
The third set started close but with the score tied at 8-8, Virginia went on a 10-4 run to take a commanding 18-12 lead. The run was keyed by three blocks from Virginia's Sydney Hill and a pair of kills from Ascue.
The Cavaliers would cruise the rest of the way and would take 25-16 victory. UVA hit a blistering .379 with just one attack error in the pivotal set.
The Deacons came out swinging in the fourth set and after a pair of kills and a block from Mullikin, Wake found itself with a 5-0 lead. For the second time in the match, McIntyre hooked up with Homitz for back-to-back block assists and then made it a third straight as she teamed up with White to give the Deacs an 11-5 advantage.
However, Virginia slowly chipped away at the lead and eventually tied the score at 21-21. A block from the Cavaliers gave them their first lead of the set at 22-21 but a kill from Mullikin again evened the score.
The teams then traded the next six points to again find themselves tied at 25-25. Another block from Virginia gave the Cavaliers its second match point and Hill came through with her eighth kill of the day to win the set and the match 27-25.
The loss was Wake's fourth straight setback to Virginia and the eighth in the last nine meetings.
The Deacons will look to stop its skid as it returns home to host Boston College on Friday evening and Maryland on Saturday. The match Saturday night against the Terrapins will be Wake's Dig for the Cure match. Action is set to begin at 7 p.m. Friday night and 5 p.m. Saturday.
