Wake Forest University
Clemson
Wake Forest Downs Clemson in Five Sets
11/6/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Final Stats | Final Stats (PDF) 
Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeVolleyball)
CLEMSON, S.C. - The Wake Forest volleyball team held off a two-set Clemson rally to earn a 3-2 (33-31, 25-21, 23-25, 22-25, 16-14) victory Friday night at Jervey Gymnasium in Clemson, S.C. The Deacs snapped a four-match losing skid with the win and improved to 11-14 with a 3-10 ACC mark on the season.
The Demon Deacons also managed to remain unbeaten in five-set matches, improving to 4-0 in such contests.
Despite leading for much of the opening set, Wake Forest needed an extra effort to take a 1-0 lead. After earning its first set point at 24-23, the Deacons took a 33-31 win after Sophia Dodd posted back-to-back kills with the score knotted at 31. The 32-31 score marked the Deacs' fifth set point--they also managed to negate four set points for the Tigers.
There were 21 ties and eight lead changes in the set.
Attacking errors began to pile up for the home team in the second frame as Wake Forest staked itself to an early 7-3 lead. Clemson wound up tying the score at 19, but a 6-2 run capped by a Hanna Lee kill gave the Demon Deacons a 2-0 edge heading into intermission.
The Tigers came out of the break strong, opening up to a 7-2 lead in the third. The Deacs rallied to tie the set, 13-13, but Clemson answered with a four-point run. Refusing to go down easily, Wake Forest retied the set at 19, 21, 22 and 23, but the home team claimed the last two points to eke out a 25-23 win.
The fourth set was tight early on as neither team could take a lead of more than two points until the Tigers went up, 13-10. The Deacons tied the set late again, but Clemson was able to pull away by taking five of the last seven points to force a decisive fifth set.
In the final set, neither team owned a lead of more than two points. The Tigers erased a 14-12 Demon Deacon edge to even the score at 14, but Kylie Long notched the final two of her team-best 18 kills to seal the win.
ACC digs leader Caroline Wolf finished the match with 39 digs, the second-highest total of her career. Dodd posted her fifth double-double of the year with 48 assists and 16 digs of her own.
In addition to Long, three Deacs reached double digits in kills--Sam Boesch had 13, while Matalee Reed and Katie Moore posted 12 and 10, respectively. Moore hit .381 and also had a hand in six of the team's seven blocks on the evening.
The Deacons continue play Sunday at Georgia Tech before returning to Winston-Salem to host Boston College and Syracuse next weekend.
