Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest University
North Carolina
Wake Forest Sweeps North Carolina In Dominating Fashion
10/4/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 4, 2008
Box Score | Box Score in PDF Format 
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - In front of the largest crowd of the season, the Wake Forest volleyball team seized momentum early and never let it go as the Demon Deacons swept visiting North Carolina Saturday evening in Reynolds Gym. Wake rolled to wins of 25-13, 28-26, 25-15.
The win was the fourth straight ACC victory for the Deacs who improve to 13-4 overall and 4-1 in the ACC. The win also improves Wake to 10-1 in Reynolds Gym this season which is the best start at home in school history.
North Carolina, who never seemed to get on track all evening, falls to 8-7 overall and 2-2 in the conference.
Senior Ashley Homitz set a new season-high with 11 kills and hit a blistering .611 on 18 attempts with no errors.
Coming into the week, North Carolina topped the ACC in opponent hitting percentage at just .150 but Homitz led the Deacons to a solid .250 hitting percentage for the match. North Carolina hit just .065 and committed 21 errors.
Freshman Kadija Fornah also recorded double-figure kills with 10 and graduate student Natalie Mulikin hit .462 with seven kills and seven total blocks. She is now just five total blocks away from tying Margaret Davidson's school record of 472.
Sophomore Lauren McIntyre also had a good match at the net, recording eight kills and seven total blocks.
Cammy Kleinert led the Tar Heels with six kills in the match. Setter Erica Behm dished out 17 assists and Kaylie Gibson recorded a team-high 10 digs.
Wake jumped out to an early 11-4 lead in the first set thanks to a 6-0 run that was sparked by a big block from Fornah and McIntyre.
After a Tar Heel point, Homitz posted three kills along with another McIntyre kill to push the Deacon lead to 15-5.
Wake eventually opened up a 14-point lead at 22-8 after freshman Cambrey Oehler's third and fourth service ace of the set. The Deacs would go on to win the opening set 25-13.
Homitz had a total of five kills in the first set and Wake out dug UNC 19-9 on top of posting five service aces.
North Carolina led early in the second set and even took an 11-6 lead before Wake took a timeout. Despite some shaky serving, the Deacs managed to cut the lead to two at 15-17 before a 4-1 run gave the Deacons a 19-18 advantage, forcing UNC to take a timeout.
The stop in action was just what the Tar Heels needed as they ran off three straight points to snatch the lead back at 21-19.
After Wake Forest took its second timeout, two kills from Mullikin and a block solo from McIntyre sparked another 4-1 run for the Deacs, giving them the lead back at 23-22.
Knowing how crucial the second set was, UNC took its second timeout and evened the score at 23-23 on a block assist from Megan Owens and Christine Vaughen.
Two kills from Fronah and a pair of kills from UNC kept the set deadlocked at 25-25. UNC's Ingrid Hanson-Tuntland ensuing kill gave the Tar Heels a set point but Homitz's 10th kill of the match leveled the score again at 26-26.
A ball handling error from Behm gave Wake a 27-26 lead and Mullikin took a good set from sophomore Kelsey Jones and put the kill away ending the set at 28-26 in favor of the Deacs.
Jones had 18 assists leading Wake to a .304 hitting percentage in the second set. Mullikin, Homitz and Fornah all had five kills in the set as well.
With the score tied at 4-4 in the third set, Wake got a kill from McIntyre and block assist from McIntyre and Homitz to spark an 8-4 run that forced a UNC timeout.
The Tar Heels never recovered as the Wake Forest defense built a wall at the net, recording a total of 10 blocks in the third set alone. Mullikin had six of her seven total blocks in the set which saw the Tar Heels hit just -.028.
Wake went on to win the third set by a final score of 25-15.
Junior Sally Fischer, who started in place of the injured Kristen White, played a solid match, posting a career-high eight digs.
The Deacons finished the match with a total of 14 blocks to just five for UNC. Wake also out dug the Tar Heels 47 to 37.
Wake Forest has now won 10 of its last 11 matches and will try to keep the momentum rolling as it heads out on the road for its first road ACC matches next weekend. The Deacs will take on Clemson next Friday, Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. before heading to Georgia Tech on Saturday, Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m. Clemson and Georgia Tech were picked 1-2 in the ACC preseason poll.
