Oct. 3, 2008
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Wake Forest got a season-high tying 16 kills from freshman Kadija Fornah to hold off a feisty NC State team to win its third straight ACC match. The Deacons downed the Wolkpack 19-25, 25-15, 27-25, 25-20. The win is the ninth in the last 10 matches for Wake since it went 0-3 at the Adidas Classic on Sept. 12-13. The Demon Deacons improve to 12-4 overall and 3-1 in the conference. The loss was the first in the conference for the Wolfpack as they are now 8-10 overall and 2-1 in the ACC. Wake beat NC State for the 20th straight match and it was just the first time the Wolfpack have taken a set off the Deacs in the last 11 matches. Fornah led all attackers with her season-high 16 kills and she also registered a season-high with six digs. Senior Ashley Homitz also tied a season-high with 10 kills on 21 attempts. Graduate student Natalie Mullikin chipped in with 13 kills and five total blocks, which moves her to within 12 total blocks of Margaret Davidson's school record of 472. It was another good night for setter Kelsey Jones, recording her tenth double-double this season with 45 assists and 10 digs. Fellow sophomore Megan Thornberry notched her 14th straight match with double-figure digs with 15. Junior Abby Miller matched her with 15 digs of her own. The Wolfpack was led by Aiwane Iboaya's 13 kills and six block assists. Arlee Tamietti and Alex Smith both also posted double-doubles in the match. Tamiette had 10 kills and 14 digs while Smith added 36 assists and 11 digs.
NC State wasted little time in snagging a lead, jumping out to an 8-1 advantage early in the first set. Wake would respond however as back-to-back kills from Fornah sparked a 12-5 run that saw the Deacs tie the score at 13-13. A kill by Tamietti and back-to-back block assists from Tamiette and Iboaya pushed the lead back to 16-13 for NC State and the Wolfpack would not relinquish the lead the rest of the set, winning 25-19. The second set was a different story as Wake jumped out to an 8-4 lead and would not trail the rest of the set. The Deacs used a 4-0 run and a pair of 3-0 runs late to close out the set 25-15. Mullikin had five kills in the second set while Kristen White, Fornah and Homitz all chipped in with three kills apiece. Wake also hit a solid .429 in the set. After the break, NC State jumped out to another quick lead, this time leading 11-9. Wake would then get a pair of kills from Mullikin and another from Jones to even the score at 12-12. The Deacs then went on a 6-3 run, keyed by kills from White, Fornah and Homitz to force an NC State timeout at 18-15. The Wolfpack came out of the timeout scoring three of the next five points to force a Wake Forest timeout at 20-18. The Deacs would have to take another timeout up 23-22 and a Fornah attack error coming out of the break evened the score at 23-23. A Mullikin kill followed by a Tamiette kill kept the teams deadlocked at 24-24 but kills from Fornah, Homitz and White over the next four points gave Wake a crucial third set win 27-25. Despite having the momentum, the Deacs fell behind early in the fourth set as well but would eventually rally to knot the score at 12-12. A kill from White followed by an error from Tamietti and a service ace from Miller gave Wake a 15-12 lead that it would never relinquish. The advantage swelled to as many as five on a couple of occasions and would eventually end that way at 25-20. Wake held a slight edge in hitting percentage and recorded 65 digs to just 59 for NC State. Both teams notched a total of eight blocks and eight service errors but Wake posted seven service aces to just one for the Wolfpack. Up next for the Deacons is a matchup with North Carolina Saturday night at 6 p.m. in Reynolds Gym. The Tar Heels enter the match at 2-1 in the conference after falling tonight in four sets to rival Duke. |
