Deacs Comeback Falls Short Against No. 22 Panthers

Friday, March 12

Winston-Salem, N.C.

4 P.M.

Wake Forest University

0-9,0-8ACC

No. 22 Pittsburgh

8-4,7-4ACC

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Pittsburgh	25	25	25	3
Wake Forest	12	19	22	0

3/12/2021 6:41:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Wake Forest volleyball team dropped its home opener, 3-0, to the No. 22 Pittsburgh Panthers.

The Demon Deacons were led by sophomore Peyton Suess and freshman Chloe Wilson. Wilson had undoubtedly her best outing as a Deac yet, hitting a match-high .600, finishing with nine kills on 15 swings without an error.

After not recording a hit or attempt in the first set, Wilson totaled four kills on eight swings in the second and five on seven swings in the third.

Suess hit her best of the season at .294 with eight kills on 17 attempts. After just two kills in the first and one kill in the second, Suess recorded five kills in the third set. She also contributed a solo block and two block assists.

How It Happened
After Pitt took the first set 25-12, Wake Forest came out strong to start the second. After going down 5-1, kills from Suess and Wilson and a block by Ashley Slater and Olivia Franke put the Deacs in the match at 5-7. Three consecutive kills after that gave the Panthers the momentum to a media timeout with a 15-8 lead. The Deacs capitalized on Pitt's errors and tallied a couple kills of their own from Wilson and Abby Krueger to get back in the match at 16-20. Pitt was able to get their offense going to take the second set 25-19.

From the start of the third set, Wake Forest was down by more than two points, eventually taking their first lead of the match. Back-to-back kills by Suess gave the Deacs the 14-13 advantage. Two kills from Slater and two kills from Wilson kept the Deacs up by at least two. A big block from Zoe Gonzales gave the Deacs the 21-19 advantage. After a failed challenge by Wake Forest, Pitt took back the momentum and closed the set 25-22, for the 3-0 match win.

Coach's Comments
"After a rough first set, we showed some courage. We never quit or gave up and it showed in the progress we were able to make through the match. The second set was a little better than the first, and the third set is how we need to be playing all the time. If we play every match the way we played the third set, we'll be a pretty good volleyball team.

We still have some things to work on, and definitely need to cut down on our errors. We won't win a match with 10 service errors and it will be even harder to win if that is coupled with eight reception errors. Overall, we showed massive improvements between Louisville and today. I'm excited to see how we bounce back on Sunday against NC State." Head coach Randi Smart.

Up Next
The Demon Deacons return to LJVM Sunday for a matinee match with the NC State Wolfpack.

First serve is set for 4 p.m. and the match will be streamed on ACC Network Extra.