Wake Forest University
Marshall
Marshall Stymies Demon Deacons at Panther Invite
9/11/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
By Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeVolleyball)
HIGH POINT, N.C. – The Wake Forest volleyball team had its brief three-match winning streak snapped on Friday afternoon with a 3-1 loss to Marshall in the opening match of the Panther Invitational at High Point University.
After dropping a tightly-contested first set 25-23, Wake Forest came out and dominated the second set from the start in knotting the match at 1-1 with a 25-19 win. Marshall exacted a dose of revenge in the third set with a 25-10 win before taking the fourth set 25-17 to improve to 7-1 on the season. The loss drops Wake Forest to 4-3 on the season.
The Demon Deacons hit just .118 in the match while posting 43 kills. Marshall hit .294 with 64 kills on the way to the win. The Thundering Herd also racked up 60 assists to Wake Forest's 43.
Kylie Long led Wake Forest with 16 kills and 13 digs while Brianna Lynch was the only other Demon Deacon in double-digit kills with 11. Caroline Wolf led the Deacs with 27 digs while Sophia Dodd posted 30 of Wake Forest's 43 assists in the contest. Katie Moore also finished with five blocks.
Marshall was paced by Cassie Weaver and Taylor Pelton, who each finished with 15 kills while Ally Kiekover had 14 kills and a .565 hitting percentage. Allie Kellerman posted 24 digs while Kayla Simmons posted a stellar 52 assists.
In the first set, Marshall jumped out early with a 6-1 lead, but the Deacs crawled back in and tied the match at 13-all. After a 6-2 run that made it 19-15 Herd, the Demon Deacons couldn't completely get back into the set again as Marshall pulled out the tight set.
After dropping the tightly-contested first set, Wake Forest did the same thing Marshall did in the first set by jumping out to a sizeable lead at 7-2 and never looked back. With the score 20-13, Marshall tried to get back in by cutting the lead to four at 23-19, but the Deacs recovered to close out the set and knot the match at 1-all.
With the match tied, Marshall kicked into another gear through the final two sets. In jumping out to a 12-4 lead in the third set, Marshall hit .455 in the third set while Wake Forest struggled to a -.056 hitting percentage. The Herd's hot-hitting continued in the fourth set as they hit .359 to the Deacs .176, which helped Marshall close the match.
Wake Forest returns to action tomorrow afternoon at 12:30 p.m. when it takes on Davidson out of the Atlantic 10 conference. After taking on the Wildcats, the Deacs will battle host-High Point at 7 p.m. in the final nonconference road match of the regular season for the Demon Deacons .
