Wake Forest University
Clemson
Clemson Holds Off Wake Forest 3-1
11/8/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 8, 2008
Box Score | Box Score in PDF Format 
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Sophomore Lauren McIntyre recorded a career-high 16 kills but it wasn't enough to dig the Wake Forest volleyball team out of an 0-2 hole and visiting Clemson would hold on for the 3-1 victory. The Tigers outlasted Wake 25-23, 25-22, 22-25 and 25-22.
Clemson remains in a tie for first in the ACC with Duke and North Carolina with an 11-4 conference mark. The Tigers are now 19-7 overall.
With the loss, the Demon Deacons fall to 7-8 in the ACC and 16-11 on the season.
McIntyre had 16 kills and had a hitting percentage of .265 to go along with her three total blocks.
Graduate student Natalie Mullikin added 14 kills and three total blocks and is not just seven block assists shy of break Margaret Davidson's career block assists record of 388.
Freshman Kadija Fornah chipped in with 11 kills and four digs.
Defensively, sophomore libero Megan Thornberry collected 21 digs and tied her career-high with five assists. Fellow sophomore Kelsey Jones led the team with 47 assists on the night.
Freshman Cambrey Oehler played a solid all-around match for Wake, recording 11 digs, four kills, two service aces and one block. Senior Ashley Homitz added three blocks and nine kills.
The player of the match was Clemson's Danielle Hepburn. She showed why she is one of the top players in the conference, pounding a match-high 23 kills with no just three errors for a .500 hitting percentage. She also added a match-high seven total blocks.
Lia Proctor and Jeanette Abbott each added double-doubles for the Tigers. Proctor had 16 kills and 13 digs while Abbott posted 11 digs and 10 kills.
Setter Kelsey Murphy also collected a double-double for Clemson, dishing out 42 assists and collecting 13 digs.
Clemson finished the match with a total of 14 blocks compared to eight for the Deacs. The Tigers also won the hitting battle, hitting .232 and the Wake finished at .159.
The Tigers ran out to a 9-5 lead in the first set before Wake Forest took timeout. The Deacons would get within one on a couple of occasions but would never pull even the rest of the set.
Clemson took timeout up 20-19 and after the teams traded points, the Tigers got back-to-back kills from Hepburn to push the lead to 23-20, forcing Wake to burn its second timeout.
Coming out of the stoppage, Mullikin answered back with her back-to-back kills of her own to once again pull Wake to within one at 23-22. However, Clemson would get another kill from Hepburn and a Wake Forest hitting error to win the first set 25-23. Hepburn had a remarkable eight kills in the opening stanza and the Tigers blocked a total of six Wake Forest attack.
With Wake up 6-5 early in the second, Clemson would go on a 5-0 run to force a Demon Deacon timeout. Abbott had three kills during the Clemson spurt.
Abbott added another kill coming out of the timeout and the Tigers would eventually take an 18-12 lead before Wake called its second timeout.
This time, the stop in action worked as the Deacs scored four of the next six to pull within four a 20-16, forcing Clemson to take time.
The Deacons would pull to within two on a pair of occasions, with the final coming at 24-22 but Hepburn's 12th kill of the match gave the visitors a 25-22 victory and a 2-0 lead. Clemson hit .316 in the set and the Deacons countered with a .256 hitting percentage.
After the intermission, Clemson took a 3-1 lead before a 4-0 Wake Forest run, sparked by a pair of kills from McIntyre, gave the Deacs a 5-3 advantage.
The scored stayed fairly close until Fornah connected on back-to-back kills to give Wake a 3-0 run and a 15-11 lead. The Deacons extended the lead to 18-13 leading to Clemson's second timeout of the set.
Much like Wake's timeout in the first set, it took a second stoppage for the Tigers to come alive. CU would then go on a 7-1 run to tie the score at 20-20.
Three kills from Mullikin and a pair of attack errors from Clemson would give the Deacons a 24-21 advantage and Jones' second kill of the set ended the game 25-22 in favor of the Demon Deacons.
Jones had two kills and 13 assists in the set while Proctor had five kills and eight digs for the Tigers.
The fourth set was back-and-forth as the lead changed hands a total of five times and there were nine ties.
Wake opened the set on a roll, opening up a 6-1 lead thanks to service aces from Oehler and Thornberry. After a Clemson timeout, the Tigers would respond with a 6-0 run to take a 7-6 lead.
The Deacons would then score eight of the next 12 points to take a 14-11 advantage and force Clemson to burn its second timeout.
Once again, the timeout helped as the Tigers went on a 5-1 run to take a 16-15 lead. Wake responded again with back-to-back kills from Fornah to spark a 4-1 run to snag a 19-17 lead.
As was the story of the match, Clemson answered the Deacons run with a 4-1 of its own to regain the lead at 21-20.
The Deacons tied the score at 21 all after a timeout but a kill from Proctor and a pair of errors from Wake gave Clemson a 24-21 lead. After a kill from Homitz, Murphy set Proctor for the final point of the match.
The loss was just the third for the Deacons at home this season.
Wake Forest will hit the road next week as it will play at NC State at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday before heading to face the Tar Heels of North Carolina at 1 p.m. next Sunday.
