Wake Forest Athletics
Volleyball Looks To Get Back On Track Against NC State
11/12/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 12, 2008
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - The Wake Forest volleyball team heads back on the road to take on the NC State Wolfpack on Wednesday evening at 7:30 p.m. in historic Reynolds Coliseum.
The match can be seen live over the internet through ACC Select.
The Demon Deacons (16-11, 7-8 ACC) are coming off a tough weekend in which it dropped a pair of matches to ACC frontrunners Georgia Tech and Clemson.
A number of Wake Forest players had stellar nights against the Yellow Jackets. Sophomore libero Megan Thornberry collected a career-high 30 digs while senior Ashley Homitz knocked down a career-high 14 kills.
Sophomore Lauren McIntyre recorded 13 kills against Tech and set a new career-high with 14 kills against Clemson one night later.
Leading the way offensively for the Deacs is graduate student Natalie Mullikin. She recorded a total of 29 kills and four blocks in the two matches last weekend. She is now just seven block assists away from breaking Margaret Davidson's career record of 388.
Mullikin recently went over the 300 kill mark for the season and now has a total of 1,351 kills in her career, which is good enough for third all-time in WFU history.
Setter Kelsey Jones is third in the ACC at 10.74 assists per set and she is also third on the team at 2.73 digs per set. Jones surpassed the 1,000 assist mark this season against GT and is fourth all-time in school history with 2,122 career assists.
Thornberry leads the Deacs' defense with 454 digs and her 4.63 digs per set ranks fourth in the conference.
NC State (9-21, 3-12 ACC) comes into the match having dropped its last nine matches and 12 out of its last 13. The Wolfpack have also been swept in their each of their last six contests.
State is led offensively by Arlee Tamietti's 287 kills and setter Alex Smith's 852 assists. Tamietti is also having a good year at the service line, leading the team with 23 aces.
Defensively, the Wolfpack is led by Kelly Wood's 4.04 digs per set an at the net Aiwane Iboaya tops the squad with a total of 103 block assists.
The Deacs have dominated the series with NC State since 1998. Wake has won 20 in a row over its in-state rival, including a 3-1 decision earlier this season in Winston-Salem. Overall, the Deacons lead the all-time series 23-19 as the Wolfpack win 19 of the first 22 meetings.
Wake will remain on the road for one more match against North Carolina on Sunday at 1 p.m. The Tar Heels are currently tied for the lead in the ACC at 11-4 and the Deacs will be looking for the season sweep, as Wake took down UNC 3-0 on Oct. 4.
