Wake Forest Athletics
Deacon Decade -- Volleyball
12/15/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Dec. 15, 2009
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10. Wake Forest Sweeps #24 Purdue at Tennessee Invitational -- Sept. 11, 2004
Junior Valerie Rydberg and Erin Borhart both posted double-doubles en route to leading Wake Forest to a 3-0 (30-22, 30-19, 30-27) sweep over No. 24 Purdue on the opening night of the Tennessee Invitational. Rydberg, who posted her third double-double of the season, led the Deacs with 16 kills and 12 digs in addition to three service aces. Borhart also earned her third double-double of the year with 13 digs and 40 assists. Kim Stern had a great match for the Deacons, finishing with 15 kills, a .462 hitting percentage, seven digs, five assists and four blocks.
9. Volleyball Wins The 2007-08 Dean's Cup - June 15, 2008
The Dean's Cup was created by Wake Forest Student-Athlete Services in 2005 as a competition between the sports teams and has grown into a fun rivalry over the last four years. Each year, the men's and women's team with the highest team GPA wins the award. For the 2007-08 academic year, the volleyball team took that honor, stopping the women's soccer team's two-year reign at the top. During that year, Natalie Mullikin and Kelsey Jones each earned Academic All-ACC honors while Mullikin also took home Academic All-District honors. Ten of the 15 players that year were named to the ACC Honor Roll.
8. Wake Forest Knocks of #24 Maryland, 3-1 - Nov. 12, 2005
Senior Christy Williams knocked down 21 kills and was one of four Wake Forest players to finish with double-digit kills, as Wake Forest defeated No. 24 Maryland, 3-2. Williams closed the night with a team-high hitting percentage of .556 with 21 kills and just one error. She also added a total of five blocks. Redshirt-freshman Jessica Furlong earned her fourth straight double-double with 19 kills and 11 digs while Lauren Peterson and Natalie Mullikin rounded out the players with double-digit kills with 16 each. Setter Erin Borhart also played a great match, finishing with 61 assists, 22 digs, six kills, five blocks and three service aces. The Deacs had fallen in a hard-fought five-set match earlier in the season to the Terrapins.
7. Volleyball Finishes With a Program-Best 14-3 Record At Home In 2008
The 2008 team finished with a school-record 14-3 mark in matches played at Reynolds Gym. The season started with a tournament title at the Deacon Invitational with wins over Davidson, Norfolk State and Winthrop. Wake then returned to Reynolds two weeks later to once again, capture the Black & Gold Challenge title with a perfect 3-0 record. After starting ACC play with a heart-breaking five-set loss to Florida State, the Deacons won four straight matches over a week-span versus Miami, Duke, NC State and North Carolina. Boston College and Maryland then came to town at the end of October and Wake would take care of both teams with 3-0 sweeps to run its home record to 12-1. Despite a pair of losses to Georgia Tech and Clemson, the Deacons finished the year strong with wins over Virginia Tech and Virginia. The previous home record of 12-3 had been set just a couple of years earlier in 2005.
6. Deacons Beat All Three In-State Rivals In Five-Day Span - Sept. 30-Oct. 4, 2008
After claiming in emotional five-set victory over Duke on Tuesday, Sept. 30, the Demon Deacons downed NC State 3-1 on Friday evening before finishing-off the weekend with a three-set sweep of North Carolina on Saturday. Natalie Mullikin had 17 kills and Kristen White posted 16 kills while Kelsey Jones had 45 assists and a then career-best 19 digs in the win over the Blue Devils. Against NC State, freshman Kadija Fornah notched a season-high 16 kills to go along with Mullikin's five blocks. Then against the eventual ACC Champion Tar Heels, Mullikin and Lauren McIntyre each posted seven blocks en route to holding the Heels to a .065 hitting percentage, which was their lowest in a conference match all season. For the week, Mullikin led the team with 37 kills and hit a respectable .259. McIntyre topped the squad with 18 blocks while Jones recorded a double-double in two of the three matches. The three wins marked the first time Wake had beaten all three North Carolina teams in succession and it was the first time since 2003 that the Deacons had beaten all three teams at least once in the same season.
5. Thornberry Breaks Single Season Digs Record - Nov. 25, 2008
With a new NCAA rule implemented in 2008, shortening the number of points needed to win a set from 30 to 25, the majority of the single-season records seemed to be safe. Well in the very first year of the rule change, libero Megan Thornberry broke the single-season digs record of 528 that Trina Maso de Moya had held since 2000. Thornberry came into the final match of the season at Duke needing just three digs to break Maso de Moya's mark. She ended the night with 24 and finished the season with a new school-record of 550. The St. Louis, Mo., native also recorded her 1,000th career-dig in the same match. Thornberry eclipsed the 20-dig mark 10 different times throughout the season and recorded double-digit digs in all but three matches. She finished the year with an average of 4.70 digs per match which is second all-time for a single season in school-history.
4. Christy Williams Named 2002 ACC Rookie of the Year - Nov. 21, 2002
Christy Williams was tabbed the 2002 ACC Rookie of the Year and was also selected to the ACC All-Freshman Team. The middle blocker played in 27 of the 31 matches, starting eight, and saw action in more than half of the sets. She led the team with a .351 attack percentage in conference matches and was second on the squad with a .332 attack percentage in all contests. Her 0.90 blocks per set was second-best on the team despite playing in just 69 sets and was third on the team with 2.65 kills per game. Williams led the team with 19 kills and 12 blocks against Liberty Oct. 8, including a then-school record 10 block assists.
3. Trina Maso de Moya Named 2000 ACC Player of the Year - Nov. 15, 2000
Outside hitter Trina Maso de Moya was named the 2000 ACC Player of the Year for her outstanding junior season. Maso de Moya, who also was named to the first team All-ACC, averaged 4.89 kills and 5.14 digs during the regular season. She finished the year with a school-record 502 kills, which still stands today, and led the team with 528 digs. She also broke the school-records for kills and digs in a single match, registering 31 kills on Nov. 10, against Virginia and 44 digs on Oct. 13, at North Carolina. Maso de Moya earned ACC Player of the Week honors three different times during the 2000 season. She is still the program's only ACC Player of the Year.
2. Mullikin Leaves Her Mark - 2005-08
Middle blocker Natalie Mullikin will go down as one of the best to ever wear the black and gold. She finished her career as the school's all-time leading blocker, holding the school record for career block solos (124), career block assists (397) career total blocks (521) and career blocks per set (1.17). She also finished third all-time for career kills with 1,423, fifth in career kills per set at 3.19 and third in total attacks with 3,159. Mullikin was named the 2008 ACC Volleyball Scholar Athlete of the Year and earned All-ACC honors three times, including first team honors each of her last two seasons. The Lebanon, Ind., native also earned AVCA honorable mention All-American honors in 2008, becoming just the third Demon Deacon to do so.
1. Trina Maso de Moya Named to ACC 50th Anniversary Volleyball Team - Aug. 1, 2002
One of the top athletes to come through the Wake Forest volleyball program, Trina Maso de Moya was selected to the ACC 50th Anniversary Volleyball Team for her accomplishments while playing for the Demon Deacons from 1998-2001. She set new career records in kills (1,848), attempts (4,785), kills per set (4.19), service aces (182), digs (2,010) and digs per set (4.56). Named ACC Player of the Year in 2000, Maso de Moya also earned All-ACC first team honors three times. She made the All-ACC Freshman team as a rookie and earned AVCA All-District Team honors as a sophomore. Maso de Moya was named ACC Player of the Week six times in her career.
