Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest Announces 2009 Volleyball Schedule
4/8/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
April 8, 2009
Complete Schedule
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - The Wake Forest women's volleyball team has announced its schedule for the 2009 season. Fifth-year head coach Heather Kahl Holmes and her Demon Deacons are set to compete in four invitationals and for the second-straight season, will play host in a pair of them.
Wake Forest's schedule will feature six teams that competed in the 2008 NCAA Tournament and four teams that won their respective conferences last season.
The Demon Deacons will get the season started the same way they did last year, by hosting the Demon Deacon Invitational on August 28 and 29. Wake will welcome in UNC Charlotte, Furman and Jacksonville State.
The first match of the season will be against Charlotte at 7:00 p.m., on August 28. This will be the 19th meeting all-time between the two schools but just the second since 2000. Wake downed the 49ers 3-1 last season at the Appalachian State Invitational.
Wake Forest has faced Furman just once since 1986 and that meeting came in 2000 when the Demon Deacons swept the Paladins 3-0. Furman is coming off a 2008 season that saw it win its second SoCon title and advance to the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in school history.
The Saturday morning match between Wake Forest and Jacksonville State will be the first ever meeting between the two schools.
Wake will then head to Kalamazoo, Mich., for the Western Michigan Tournament on Sept. 4 and 5. Dayton and Illinois State will join Wake Forest in Michigan that weekend.
The competition should be strong as both Western Michigan and Dayton competed in the NCAA Tournament last fall and Illinois State notched 16 wins in 2008.
Western Michigan won the Mid-American Conference championship last season and advanced to the round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament with wins over Dayton and Tulane before falling to eventual champion Penn State.
Wake will be looking for its second-straight win over the Broncos as the Deacons came away with a 3-2 win last season at the Black & Gold Challenge.
Dayton made the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in the past six seasons in 2008 and boasted a 21-12 record which was good enough for second in the Atlantic 10. The Flyers have beaten the Demon Deacons in three-straight matches, including wins in both 2006 and 2007.
Wake Forest and Illinois State have never met on the volleyball court.
The following weekend, Wake will head to the Georgia Southern Invitational to face the Georgia Southern Eagles, Auburn and Coastal Carolina.
The Deacons will open with Georgia Southern on Friday, Sept. 11. Wake swept the Eagles in the previous two meeting between the two schools in 1998 and 1999.
Wake Forest will then take on Auburn and Coastal Carolina the following day. Wake downed Auburn 3-0 at the Deacon Invitational in 2002 and dropped its only match with the Chanticleers in the 1996 Deacon Invitational.
The Demon Deacons will then look to defend their title at the Black & Gold Challenge on Sept. 18-19. Wake welcomes in Appalachian State, Liberty and Duke.
Wake Forest has now won four-straight against their rivals from Boone, including last season's 3-1 victory on the opening night of the Appalachian State Invite.
Liberty is coming off a 2008 season that saw it win 25 matches, claim its second-straight Big South Conference title and make an appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
The Duke match on Friday evening, Sept. 18, will serve as the Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both squads. Last season, the teams split the two meetings as Wake won a dramatic five-set match in Winston-Salem but fell 3-1 in Durham in the final match of the season.
The Deacons will head out on the road in ACC play on Sept. 24 and 26 to take on Boston College and Maryland. Wake swept both teams at home last season but with the 20-match schedule of the ACC, the Deacs did not have to make a return trip to Chestnut Hill or College Park.
The month of October consists of ten matches with six of them at home and four on the road. Wake hosts Virginia Tech and Virginia on Oct. 2-3 and then Miami and Florida State on Oct. 8-9. The Deacons will then travel to NC State and North Carolina on Oct. 16 and 18 before wrapping up the first half of the conference schedule on the road at Georgia Tech and Clemson on Oct. 23-24.
Georgia Tech, Clemson and Florida State were the only three teams Wake Forest didn't beat last season on its way to a 10-10 conference record. Wake swept the season-series from Miami for the first time since the Hurricanes joined the conference in 2004 and also took both matches from NC State, running the Deacons win-streak over the Wolfpack to 21-straight.
Wake will then wrap-up the month of October by hosting Maryland and Boston College before starting the month of November with four-straight road matches at Miami, Florida State, Virginia and Virginia Tech.
The last home weekend will be on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 20-21, against North Carolina and NC State.
Wake will then close the regular season the same way it did last season, on the road against Duke. The Blue Devils are coming off their third straight trip to the second round of the NCAA Tournament last season.
The NCAA Tournament First and Second Rounds are set for Dec. 3-6 with Regionals scheduled for Dec. 11-12. The NCAA Final Four is slated for Dec. 17-19 in Tampa Bay, Fla. The ACC's automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament will go to the team with the best regular season record in conference play.
Coach Kahl Holmes returns 11 letterwinners, including five starters and the libero, from last season.
