Wake Forest Athletics Has Memorable Weekend

3/2/2020 12:00:00 PM | Baseball, Men's Basketball, Men's Tennis, Women's Basketball, Women's Tennis, Women's Track and Field, Les Johns

From an ACC Championship for the women's DMR team to men's basketball's big win over Notre Dame, here's a recap of the weekend.

By Les Johns

Sarr's Career Day Leads Wake Basketball To Senior Night Win

Junior center Olivier Sarr posted career highs in points (30) and rebounds (17) as the Deacs defeated Notre Dame 84-73 Saturday afternoon at LJVM Coliseum.

Wake pounced early and survived a second-half Fighting Irish rally before closing out a second-straight win to close out the home portion of the regular season. Junior guard Chaundee Brown also contributed a double-double, scoring 15 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, with all the board coming in the second half.

Senior point guard Brandon Childress scored 14 and dished six assists in his final home game. Before the game Childress, and grad transfer guards Torry Johnson and Andrien White were honored during a Senior Day ceremony.

Wake Forest Competes at ACC Indoor Track Championships

The Wake Forest men finished in eighth place with 30 points, while the women's team finished 11th in the ACC Indoor Track Championships that concluded Saturday in South Bend, Indiana.

Zach Facioni earned first team All-ACC honors for a second-place finish in the 3,000m and Archie Wells earned second team All-ACC for a fourth-place finish in the 800m. Facioni also broke the Wake Forest program record in the 5,000 meters at 14:01.66 while finishing in third place. Tony Jones broke his own school record in the high jump — earning a fifth-place finish and grabbing second team All-ACC recognition.

Both Amy Harding-Delooze and Johanna Schulz earned second team All-ACC recognition by posting top-six finishes in the finals of the women's mile.

On day one, Wake Forest won ACC Championship with a school record time of 11:08.40 in the women's distance relay medley with a team comprised of Amy Harding-Delooze, Cydney Delley, Aleeya Hutchins and Johanna Schulz.

Bats come to life for Wake Forest Baseball

The Deacs went 4-0, closing out a perfect weekend with a 9-5 win Sunday over Sacred Heart at David F. Couch Ballpark.

Freshman Adam Cecere broke out with three home runs in his first 12 career at-bats and Shane Muntz went yard twice for the Deacs on Sunday.

Wake enjoyed a trio of solid starts on the mound from Ryan Cusick, William Fleming, and Jared Shuster, while defeating LaSalle, 7-4 Friday, then sweeping a double header over Brown Saturday, 7-4 and 10-0. Grad transfer William Simoneit hit the game-winning grand slam home run in the first game against Brown Saturday, and added four base hits Sunday against Sacred Heart.

The Deacs will host the Pioneers again Tuesday before beginning ACC play at home Friday against Louisville.

Women's Tennis Battles Against the Best

The No. 12 ranked Wake Forest women's tennis came up short in a pair of road matches against top-10 ranked ACC competition.

Carolyn and Anna Campana both grabbed singles wins at North Carolina State Friday, but the Deacs lost the match, 5-2. Carolyn defeated No. 16 Alana Smith (7-5, 6-4) and Anna topped Lexi Keberle (6-2, 6-2).

Saby Nihalani grabbed a ranked win Sunday against No. 110 Gia Cohen (6-1, 6-1) at No. 3 singles, but the Deacs fell to No. 10 Georgia Tech.

Wake has the week off before hosting No. 1 North Carolina at noon Sunday.

Men's Tennis Claims Thriller

Bar Botzer delivered in the clutch, winning a three-set classic after falling behind to clinch at Wake Forest men's tennis 4-3 victory at No. 19 Oklahoma State.

The Cowboys took the doubles point via tiebreaker at court No. 3, but the No. 17 Deacs got singles wins by Melios Efstathiou, Eduardo Nava, Rrezart Cungu and Botzer to move to 9-3 on the season.

The Deacs will host Duke at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Women's Basketball Readies for ACC Tournament

Jen Hoover's women's basketball team had the weekend off, but the rest of conference play was concluded in the ACC, setting the bracket for this week's ACC Tournament in Greensboro.

The Deacs will open up play as the No.13 seed at 1 p.m. Wednesday against No. 12 seed North Carolina in the Greensboro Coliseum. Wake defeated the Heels 82-79 in overtime on Feb. 23 at LJVM Coliseum.

With a win, Wake Forest would advance to play No. 5 seed Virginia Tech on Thursday.