Nov. 7, 2008
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Wake Forest won the first two sets but the resilient Georgia Tech attack rebounded to win the next three-sets and pull off a key five-set road victory. The Yellow Jackets took the see-saw battle 24-26, 21-25, 25-23, 25-19, 15-12. The win pulls Georgia Tech into a four-way tie for first in the ACC at 10-4 and 18-6 overall. The Demon Deacons drop to 7-7 in the conference and 16-10 overall. After Wake won the opening two sets and looked to have the momentum in the third, the Yellow Jackets came together and rallied to pull out a 25-23 victory in the pivotal third set. Tech then used a large run to win the fourth set and a 5-0 run in the fifth allowed the visitors to earn the hard-fought victory. Sophomore libero Megan Thornberry led all defensive players with a career-high 30 digs for the Deacs. She topped her previous career-high of 29 which she set back on Sept. 12 against Western Michigan. All five of Wake Forest's offensive attackers finished the match with double-figure kills led by graduate student Natalie Mullikin's 15. Senior Ashley Homitz played a very solid match, posting a career-high 14 kills and had a hitting percentage of .273. Sophomore middle blocker Lauren McIntyre matched her career-high with 13 kills and sophomore Kristen White and freshman Kadija Fornah each chipped in with 11 kills apiece. White also recorded her seventh double-double of the season with 14 digs while junior Abby Miller chipped in with 12. Sophomore setter Kelsey Jones dished out a total of 51 assists on the night to go along with her eight digs.
The Yellow Jacket offensive was led but the ACC's leading setter in Allie Niekamp. The senior recorded a double-double, dishing out 62 assists and collecting 10 digs. Chrissy DeMichelis led all attackers with 50 attempts and 19 kills for the Jackets. Talisa Kellogg and Callie Miller each chipped in with 16 kills and Brittany Roderick added 11. Defensively for the Jackets, libero Michelle Kandell recorded 20 digs as Jordan McCullers chipped in with 15 and Alison Campbell added 14. Georgia Tech took the early lead in the first set and opened up a five-point advantage at 16-11. Wake slowly chipped away at the lead and went on 4-0 run to tie the score at 20-20. Mullikin had a pair of huge kills in the middle of the run. The Jackets retook the lead 23-21 but a kill from McIntyre, followed by a kill from Homitz would tie the score again at 23 all. McIntyre's fourth kill of the set forced a GT timeout at 24-23 and after the break, DeMichelis would again tie the set at 24-24. Homitz and McIntrye then teamed up again for back-to-back kills to close out the first set 26-24 in favor of the Deacs. Both teams played well in the first set as Wake hit .424 and Tech hit at a .375 clip. The Deacs continued the momentum into the second set and opened up an 11-5 lead. Tech cut the lead to three on a couple of occasions but with the score 18-14 in favor of Wake, junior Sally Fischer stepped to the service line and unleashed a pair of sharp, driving serves. Both serves resulted in over passes that White and McIntyre took care of to give Wake a 20-14 advantage. Georgia Tech would cut the lead to four at 23-19 but kills from Fornah and Thornberry finished the set 25-21. Thornberry collected a total of eight digs in the second set. After the break, the Jackets jumped out to an 8-4 lead but Wake evened the score at 13-13 thanks to a 9-5 run which was highlighted by a pair of kills from Mullikin and a service ace from White. The teams traded the next 14 points to find the set tied at 20-20. There were a total of 14 ties and four lead changes in the third set alone. Georgia Tech then went on a 2-0 run to force a Wake Forest timeout and the Deacons would come out the stoppage and score the next two points to even the score again at 22 all. After a kill from each side, DeMichelis added her sixth kill of the set to give Tech a set-point and an attack error from Wake gave the Jackets a 25-23 third set victory. GT hit a solid .364 in the set with 20 kills as Niekamp assisted on 19 of them. The fourth set started out even but with the score tied at 8-8, kills from Homitz and Mullikin sandwiched a pair of Yellow Jackets errors to give Wake a 4-0 run and a 12-8 lead. But that was when Tech took the momentum of not only the set but perhaps the match. The Yellow Jackets went on an 11-1 run that forced Wake to use both of its timeouts. The Deacs helped the Jackets with eight errors during the run. With Georgia Tech now up 19-13, the Jackets turned the DeMichelis to close out the set. Niekamp set the junior eight straight times and she converted on four of them to give GT a 25-19 victory. Both teams struggled offensively in the fourth set as the Jackets had 11 kills on 11 errors while the Deacs managed just eight kills and had 12 errors for a -.090 hitting percentage. Unfortunately, the story was much the same for Wake in the fifth. The Deacs got kills from Homitz, Fornah, McIntyre, Jones and solid serving from Thornberry to take a 9-6 lead at the midway point. However, Georgia Tech then went on a 5-0 run, sparked by a kill from Roderick and she would later cap the spurt with her lone service ace of the night. Despite the two-point deficit, Wake got a big kill from Homitz and forced an attack error from Kellogg to tie the score at 12-12. Kellogg, however, would bounce back with a kill to give Tech a 13-12 lead. DeMichelis' final kill of the night was followed by a Wake Forest attack error to end the set and the match at 15-12 in favor of the Yellow Jackets. Georgia Tech came into the match as the ACC's top hitting team and the Jackets didn't do much to hurt their average, as they finished with a .232 percentage. After the torrid start, the Deacs cooled off and finished the night with a .198 hitting percentage. The task doesn't get any easier for the Demon Deacons as another of the ACC's co-leaders come the town tomorrow night in the form of the Clemson Tigers. Clemson had a one-match lead enter play on Friday night but fell to Duke in four sets. The match is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. |
