Wake Forest Athletics
Murczek Announces Deacs' 2015 Campaign
5/28/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
2015 Schedule
By Andrew Wilson, Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeVolleyball)
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Entering his third season at the helm of the Wake Forest volleyball program, head coach Ken Murczek announced the team's 2015 schedule Thursday. This year's slate features nine matchups against teams that made the NCAA Tournament field in 2014 to go with 17 contests against teams that finished with an RPI in the top 100.
The Demon Deacons are slated to start the 2015 campaign with three road tournaments, starting Aug. 28-29 with the Rambler Challenge hosted by Loyola University Chicago. The Deacs' three opponents in the tournament will be Northwestern, Loyola and New Hampshire.
Opening a stretch of 15-straight matches in the state of North Carolina, Wake Forest will stay close to home with the Elon Phoenix Classic from Sept. 4-5 and the High Point University Invitational from Sept. 11-12. In the Phoenix Classic, Wake Forest will take on North Carolina Central, Charleston Southern and Elon before battling Marshall, Davidson and High Point the following weekend.
After starting the season with nine road matches, Wake Forest will come home to close out the nonconference portion of its schedule with the Deacon Classic on Sept. 18-19. In the only tournament hosted by the Demon Deacons this year, Wake Forest will welcome Georgia, Hofstra and VCU as the other three participants. Wake Forest will take on Georgia in its first match of the tournament on Sept. 18 before battling Hofstra and VCU on Sept. 19.
During the 20-match conference schedule, Wake Forest will play home-and-home contests against Duke, Virginia, NC State, North Carolina, Miami and Florida State with the Deacs playing single matches against the remaining eight ACC programs. Each of the home-and-home opponents finished the 2014 season with its RPI in the top 100 while Duke, North Carolina and Florida State were ranked in the top 25 in the season's final poll.
The Deacs will open conference play with a bang in playing nine of their first 11 matches against teams that finished in last year's RPI top 100. The stretch starts with a road contest against Duke on Sept. 23. The Blue Devils finished last season ranked No. 25 in the country after losing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. After the midweek match in Durham, the Deacs will come home to open the home portion of their conference schedule against Virginia on Sept. 26.
Wake Forest closes the regular season at home during Thanksgiving week with its final midweek contest coming Wednesday, Nov. 25, against North Carolina. The last match of the regular season will come three days later on Nov. 28 when the Deacs host NC State.
First- and second-round action for the 2015 NCAA Tournament will be held on campus sites across the nation from Dec. 4-6 with Regional action taking place in either Austin, Texas, Des Moines, Iowa, Lexington, Kentucky, or San Diego from Dec. 11-12. The Final Four will be held in Omaha, Nebraska, with the championship match slated for Dec. 19.
The Deacs will return a core of its roster from the 2014 season, including All-Freshman honorees Caroline Wolf and Kylie Long. Long finished third on the team last year in kills with 265. She is the second-leading attacker returning for the Deacs this season behind Matalee Reed, who finished with 294 kills a season ago. Reed also finished her junior campaign leading the team in blocks with 105. Reed, Long and Wolf were the only three players last season to play in all 32 matches and 123 sets. Wolf led the team as a freshman with 523 digs, an average of 4.25 per set.
