Wake Forest Athletics
Volleyball Wraps-up Season Tuesday Night At Duke
11/24/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 24, 2009
WINSTON-SALEM, NC - The Wake Forest volleyball team will look to finish the season with a school-record tying 10th ACC win as it travels to Duke for the season-finale Tuesday evening.
The Demon Deacons are coming off a successful weekend in which they took down North Carolina in a thrilling five-set match in front of one of largest crowds ever in Reynolds Gym and then sent the seniors off with a three-set victory over NC State on Saturday.
Junior Kristen White recorded a double-double in both matches. She put away a team-high 16 kills and collected a career-best 25 digs in the victory over UNC and then posted 10 kills and 11 digs in just three sets over NC State. White has now recorded a total of seven doubles on the year, which is second on the team to setter Kelsey Jones.
Jones also posted a double-double in the win over UNC with a season-high 55 assists to go along with 19 digs. She also added five kills and five blocks on the night. For the year, Jones is averaging 10.23 assists per set, which is fifth-best in the conference.
Sophomores Kadija Fornah and Carlin Salmon have led the Deacons offensively all season. Fornah is just three kills shy of 300 for the year while Salmon is hitting a solid .238 with 265 kills. Salmon also tops the squad in blocks with a total of 109.
Freshman middle blocker Andrea Beck has had a great freshman campaign, averaging 2.23 kills per set and leading the squad with a .264 hitting percentage. She is also second on the team in total blocks with 96 and leads the way with 17 block solos.
In the back row, junior libero Megan Thornberry and senior Abby Miller have both ascended the career charts this season. Thornberry is averaging 4.51 digs per set and is currently third in school-history with 1,333 career digs. Miller recorded her 1,000th career-dig earlier this season and currently stands fifth on the all-time list with 1,073.
The Deacons are in search of their school-record 10th ACC victory but they know a win in Durham will not come easy. Duke is currently 26-5 overall and 16-3 in the conference. The Blue Devils have won 11 of the last 12 meetings between the two schools and Wake hasn't won in Cameron Indoor Stadium since 2003.
Duke is second in the ACC in kills and assists per set and leads the conference in opponent hitting percentage as the opposition is hitting just .156. One of the reasons is because of the play of Becci Burling and Christina Grey at the net. Burling leads the team with a total of 109 blocks and Grey is not far behind with 104. Burling is also second on the team with a total of 317 kills.
Rachel Moss leads the team and is fifth in the ACC with 3.30 kills per set and is hitting a solid .255 on the outside. Moss is also averaging 2.95 digs per set and has recorded 12 double-doubles. Grey has recorded 191 kills and is sixth in the conference with a .342 hitting percentage.
Setter Kellie Catanach has been the catalyst of the Blue Devil offense this season, dishing out 10.48 assists per set, which is fourth-best in the conference. She was dominant earlier this season at the Deacon Invitational, dishing out a total of 136 assists, collecting 21 digs, notching 11 kills and eight blocks on her way to being named the tournament's MVP.
In the first match of the year between the two teams, Duke won a close first set 25-21 and rolled that momentum into two more wins to complete the sweep. Moss had 11 kills to lead all attackers while Fornah put-away eight kills to pace the Deacs. Wake was however without the services of Thornberry as she was still recovering from her finger injury.
