Wake Forest University
Florida State
Wake Forest Falls to Florida State In Three
10/31/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 31, 2008
Box Score | Box Score in PDF Format 
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Wake Forest never seemed to get on track and Florida State took full advantage of every opportunity to sweep the Demon Deacons in three sets Friday evening at Lucy McDaniel Court. The Seminoles took the victory 25-17, 25-20, 25-19.
Wake Forest falls to 15-9 overall and 6-6 in the ACC with the loss. Florida State wins its fourth-straight match and improves to 15-7 overall and 7-5 in the conference.
The Demon Deacons struggled with their passing all night which led to just a .131 hitting percentage. No Demon Deacon reached double-figures in kills as sophomore Kristen White and freshman Kadija Fornah led the team with nine kills.
Graduate student Natalie Mullikin chipped in with eight kills but had six errors and hit a season-low .077. Mullikin did collect three block assists giving her 377 for her career, which is just 11 shy of tying Margaret Davidson's school record of 388.
Sophomore setter Kelsey Jones dished out 31 assists and had eight digs while fellow sophomore Megan Thornberry topped the squad with 13 digs.
Junior Abby Miller played solid defensively for Wake, notching 11 digs while senior Ashley Homitz led the team with a total of four blocks.
FSU's Lauren Richardson and Stephanie Neville each had strong nights in the Seminole victory. Richardson recorded a double-double with 10 kills and 14 digs while Neville added a match-high 12 kills and two blocks.
Libero Jenna Romanelli led the Seminoles with 15 digs while Ashlee Moon chipped in with 13.
Florida State his .230 for the match and outdug the Deacons 58 to 50.
The Seminoles took advantage of some sloppy play early on by the Deacons to take a 9-3 lead in the first set. Things didn't get much better after a Wake Forest timeout as the Seminoles extended the lead to 15-5. The Demon Deacons looked out of sync the entire first set.
The teams traded the next ten points forcing Wake to take its second timeout trailing 20-10. Fornah got a big swing out of the timeout for a point, and Homitz and McIntyre teamed up for a block assist to cut the lead to 20-12.
But Florida State stood strong and pushed the lead back to ten at 24-14 with Ashley Moon at the service line. The Deacs held off three set-points but their ninth hitting error of the set gave the Seminoles a 25-17 victory. FSU hit .165 with just five errors in the set while Wake could manage just nine kills with nine errors for a .000 hitting percentage.
FSU rolled the momentum into the second set as it ran out to an early 6-1 lead. Wake slowly worked its way back into the set, getting a pair of kills from freshman Carlin Salmon and a number of attack errors from the Seminoles to come back and take a 10-9 lead, forcing FSU to take a timeout.
Wake kept the advantage and eventually lead 13-12 before a 3-0 run by FSU gave the Seminoles a 15-13 lead. The `Noles pushed the lead to 20-16 before a kill from Salmon and three straight kills from White brought the Deacs within one at 21-20, forcing an FSU timeout.
Neville came out of the timeout with a big kill and three consecutive hitting errors by Wake gave FSU the second set 25-20. The Seminoles hit a solid .275 in the second set with 14 of their 17 kills coming from Neville (6), Richardson (5) and Brianna Berry (3).
Wake came out of the break and looked to its freshman for a spark. A pair of kills from Fornah, a block assist from Fornah and Salmon and a service ace from Cambrey Oehler gave Wake an early 8-3 lead.
FSU would respond with a 9-4 run of its own to even the score at 12-12. The teams would then trade sideouts leading to an FSU timeout with Wake up 18-17.
A kill from Rachel Morgan and a block assist from Morgan and Berry gave FSU a 19-18 edge forcing Wake to stop the action. Two good rallies ended in another two Seminole points off a block and a Wake Forest attack error.
A block by Neville and a kill from Mullikin made the score 22-19 in favor of the `Noles, who would then take advantage of a couple of questionable calls to run off the next three points and take the set and the match 25-19.
The loss was the sixth straight for Wake at the hands of the Seminoles and the Deacon's have now dropped their last five road contests
Wake will look to bounce back on Sunday afternoon as the Deacs head to Miami for a 1 p.m. tilt. The match can be seen on ACC Select.
