Sept. 20, 2008
Charlotte Box Score | NC A&T Box Score NC A&T Box Score in PDF Format
BOONE, N.C. - Wake Forest picked up wins over Charlotte and North Carolina A&T on Saturday to claim the Appalachian State Invitational title with a perfect 3-0 record. The Deacons downed the 49ers in four sets and finished off the tournament with a sweep of the Aggies. The Deacons have wrapped up non-conference play at 9-3, the best start for the team since 2003. Charlotte drops to 8-3 with a match tonight against Appalachian St. and NC A&T falls to 1-14 on the season. Senior Ashley Homitz had a solid all around weekend, recording 18 kills with a .433 hitting percentage. She also had seven assists, five digs and five total blocks. Her solid performance earned her tournament Most Valuable Player honors. Graduate student Natalie Mullikin led the Deacon offensive attack on the day with 12 kills against Charlotte in the morning and 13 more against NC A&T. She hit .600 against the Aggies finished the weekend 35 kills, tying her with Sharon Harnsworth for fourth all-time in school history with 1,162 career kills. Mullikin also ended the weekend with a team-high 12 total blocks, including four block solos. Last night, sophomore Kelsey Jones and Kristen White each recorded a double-double in a win over App. St. and the duo matched that feat again this morning against Charlotte. Jones dished out 41 assists and had 17 digs while White had another solid match, posting 12 kills and 13 digs. For the weekend, Jones had a total of 122 assists and averaged 3.73 digs per set. White tied Mullikin with 35 kills for the three matches and finished one behind Jones with 40 digs. Freshman Kadija Fornah had her second straight stellar tournament. One week after being named to the All-Tournament team at the Black & Gold Challenge, the West Palm Beach, Fla., native had a total of 29 kills and seven digs on the weekend. Defensively, junior Abby Miller had a career-high 25 kills last night and responded with 15 more digs in the two matches today. Sophomore libero Megan Thornberry led the team with a total of 54 digs this weekend, including a match-high 23 against NC A&T. Wake opened play this morning with a four-set win over Charlotte. The Deacons won the first two sets rather easily 25-14 and 25-18 but dropped the third set 22-25 before rebounding to win the fourth set by the same score 25-22. Against NC A&T, all 15 Deacons saw action in the match, led by Mullikin's 13 kills and freshman Carlin Salmon's 10 kills. Wake jumped out to an early lead and rolled to an easy 25-9 victory in the first set. The second set was more of the same, as the Deacs used a 14-4 run in the middle of the set to pull away for a 25-17 victory. After the intermission, Wake continued the momentum as three kills from both Mullikin and White keyed a 16-6 run to open the set. The Aggies could never get on track, hitting -.050 in the set and the Deacons eventually took the match 25-12. The sweep of NC A&T was the eighth straight and improved the Deacs all-time record against the Aggies to 12-2. The three tournament titles this season are the most for any Deacon team in a single season. Mullikin's 12 total blocks this weekend brings her within 27 total blocks of tying Margaret Davidson (1998-01) for the most career blocks in school history. Along with Homitz and Mullikin, Appalachian State's Kasey Sauls, Jordan Jesberg and Charlotte's Kat Hicks and NC A&T's Aundia Gray were also named to the All-Tournament team. Wake Forest will open ACC play with a pair of home matches this week, hosting Florida State at 7 p.m. on Thursday and Miami at 7 p.m. on Friday.
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