Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest University
North Carolina
North Carolina Takes Down Wake Forest In Three
11/16/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 16, 2008
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - North Carolina capitalized on every opportunity and stayed in first place in the ACC with a three-set sweep of Wake Forest Sunday afternoon in the Dean E. Smith Center on the UNC campus.
With the win, UNC remains atop the conference with a 13-4 mark and a 19-9 record overall. The Demon Deacons fall to 8-9 in the ACC and 17-12 overall.
Graduate student Natalie Mullikin led the Deacon attack with 12 kills. She also tied the school's career block record with three block assists on the day.
Senior Ashley Homitz chipped in with eight kills while setter Kelsey Jones added five kills and 30 assists.
Libero Megan Thornberry led the Deacon defense with 17 digs and defensive specialist Abby Miller added 12 digs.
For North Carolina, Heather Brooks, Suzanne Haydel and Lauren Prussing all finished with eight kills and Ingred Hanson-Tuntland added seven.
Stephanie Jansma dished out 19 assists and Erica Behm added 14 assists for UNC. Brianna Eskola led the Tar Heel defense with 17 digs as eight different players recorded a dig for UNC in the match.
The Heels held the hitting advantage for the match, clubbing .217 while Wake managed just .056. UNC also held an edge in blocking at eight to four but the Deacs outdug the Heels 63 to 47.
With Wake up 5-4 in the first set, UNC got kills from Brooks and Prussing to go on a 5-0 run and take a 9-5 lead. After the Deacs scored four of the next five points to pull within one at 10-9, UNC went on another 6-1 run to open up a 16-10 advantage.
Back-to-back kills from Mullikin and another by Kadija Fornah jumped started a 5-0 run for the Deacs, again pulling them within one at 16-15, forcing a UNC timeout.
The Heels stopped the Wake run with a kill from Hanson-Tuntland and went on a 4-2 run of their own to take a 20-17 lead as Wake called its second timeout of the set.
Coming out of the timeout, the Heels got some good defense on a pair of nice attacks from Homitz to win a crucial point and go up 22-17. The teams would trade the next six points and the UCC took the first set 25-20. Prussing had five kills in the set for UNC and the Heels hit .256 in the set compared to just .049 for Wake.
The second set started better for the Deacs as they got kills from Jones, Mullikin, Lauren McIntyre and Fornah along with an ace from Kate Rodriguez to open up an early 6-3 lead, forcing UNC to burn its first timeout.
The stop in action was exactly what the Heels needed as they came out of the break and ran off five straight points to snag an 8-6 lead as it was Wake's turn to stop the action.
The Deacs scored three of the next four on kills from McIntyre and Homitz to even the score at 9-9 but UNC responded with an 8-2 run to take a commanding 17-11 lead. Four kills and a pair of blocks attributed for most of the Heel's points during the run.
The teams traded the next six points and with UNC up 20-14, Wake got kills from Homitz and McIntyre to pull to within four at 20-16 but could not get any closer as the Heels held on for the 25-19 second set victory.
UNC hit .205 in the second set and had a total of five blocks. Wake countered with just a .077 hitting percentage and just one block. McIntyre had four kills in the set.
The Deacs looked out of sort early in the third and the Heels capitalized, building an 8-2 lead. The hosts extended the lead to 14-3 and forced the Deacs to take their second timeout of the set.
Wake regrouped and went on an 8-3 run to cut the lead to six at 17-11 and eventually pulled to within four a 20-16 before UNC called timeout. Mullikin was key in the comeback for Wake, as she recorded six kills during the run.
The Deacons continued the comeback, scoring the next two points to pull to within two at 20-18 but a pair of Wake Forest errors gave UNC another four-point lead at 22-18. Wake again got within two at 22-20 but a kill, block and an ace for the Heels gave them a 25-20 third set victory.
Wake returns home to host its final two home matches of the year this week. Virginia Tech comes to town for a 7 p.m. match on Thursday night and Virginia will be in Reynolds Gym on Friday. The Virginia match will also be senior night for the Deacs and that match will start at 7 p.m.
