Oct. 21, 2009

Wake Forest Volleyball Weekly Release

WINSTON-SALEM, NC - The Wake Forest volleyball team will continue its four-match road trip this weekend with matches at Georgia Tech and Clemson. Wake currently has a 3-3 record in road contests this season.

The Demon Deacons will open the weekend with a 7 pm match on Friday evening in Atlanta, Ga., against Georgia Tech. Tech is tied for second in the ACC with a 7-2 mark and are a perfect 10-0 at home this season. Wake will then travel to Clemson, SC, for a 7 pm match against the host Tigers on Saturday. The match was originally scheduled for 6 pm but has been moved to accommodate Clemson's Dig For a Cure Night. Wake and Clemson are one of four teams tied for fifth in the conference with a 5-4 record.

Junior setter Kelsey Jones has led the Deacons over the past few weeks, posting double-doubles in four of the last five matches and currently leads the team and is tied for first in the ACC with nine double-doubles on the year. She is also just seven assists away from reaching 3,000 for her career. She will become just the fourth Demon Deacon to reach that plateau, joining school-record holder Ashlee Phillips (4,668), Erin Borhart (3,893) and Julie Crowley (3,777).

Senior defensive specialist Abby Miller is also nearing a milestone. She is just 21 digs away from reaching 1,000. So far this year, Miller has collected a total of 257 digs and has eclipsed the 20-dig mark on three different occasions. She's notched at least 10 digs in 16 of the 20 matches this season.

Offensively, the Deacs are led by sophomores Kadija Fornah and Carlin Salmon. Fornah has notched a total of 186 kills and is averaging a team-best 2.74 kills per set. Salmon is close behind her with 165 kills and tops the squad with 71 total blocks and 210 points.

Junior outside hitter Kristen White has three double-doubles on the year and narrowly missed another two last weekend. She finished with eight kills and 13 digs in Wake 3-0 win over NC State and then notched a career-high 16 digs to go along with nine kills at North Carolina two days later. For the year, White is averaging 2.13 kills per set and 2.39 digs per set.

As a team, the Deacons are second in the conference in digs at 15.79 per set while in the nine ACC matches, they are fifth in the league in kills (13.74) and attack percentage (.232). Also this weekend, Wake is looking for its 500th victory all-time. The program currently has an all-time record of 498-464 for a .518 winning percentage in this its 30th year of competition.

The Yellow Jackets come into the weekend with a 13-6 overall record and are tied for second in the conference at 7-2. Tech also started the season 7-2 before dropping a pair of tough matches at Denver and to No. 9 Minnesota. GT then handed No. 17 Florida State its only conference loss but fell two days later in a hard-fought five-set match at Miami. The 7-2 start in the conference is the best for the Yellow Jackets since 2005.

Offensively, Bailey Hunter and Monique Mead lead the way with 247 and 228 kills, respectively. Hunter has had at least 10 kills in each of the last 15 matches and is hitting a modest .230. Mead also leads the team with 22 service aces and defensively, the freshman is second with 55 blocks and is averaging 1.99 digs per set. Senior Chrissy DeMichelis is third on the squad with 206 kills and has a remarkable 25 block solos.

Setter Mary Ashley Tippins has been one of the main reasons that the Yellow Jacket offense has enjoyed so much success as she leads the ACC with 11.22 assists per set. She has dished out a total of 819 assists and is second on the team with 21 service aces.

In the back row, libero Jordan McCullers is eighth in the ACC at 3.90 digs per set while Mead follows her with her 1.99 digs per set. As a team, the Yellow Jackets have out-dug their opponents in each of the last 13 matches.

Behind Tippins, Tech leads the conference in assists per set at 12.78 and is second in kills per set at 13.73. The Yellow Jackets have also tallied 50 or more kills in 11 of their last 14 matches.

Tech has dominated the all-time series with Wake, winning 17 of the last 19 meetings, including the last five in-a-row. Last year, the Yellow Jackets won 3-0 in Atlanta and then in the return visit to Winston-Salem, they fell behind 0-2 before battling back to win the match in five sets. Wake Forest has not beaten GT in Atlanta since 1999 and Tech is a perfect 10-0 at home this season.

Clemson comes into this weekend's matches with a 15-6 record overall and a 5-4 mark in the conference. They started the season with a tough 3-2 loss to rival South Carolina but then won eight of their next nine. Five of Clemson's six losses this season have come in five sets with the only non five-setter coming in a 3-0 sweep at the hands of North Carolina.

Clemson leads the ACC in blocking and are among the top in hitting pct. and hitting pct. allowed. Alexa Rand is in the top-ten nationally in blocking and hitting percentage, and has already recorded the third-most blocks by a freshman in Clemson history with 108. Her 1.37 blocks per set are also tops in the ACC.

Senior Lia Proctor is second in the ACC in kills per set at 3.63 and has a team-best 287 kills. Freshman Natalie Patzin is second on the squad with 225 kills and 2.85 kills per set. Procter is also getting it done defensively, averaging 2.68 digs per set, which is second-best on the team.

Senior defensive specialist Didem Ege leads the team and is second in the ACC with 4.86 digs per set this season. She has 2,065 digs in her career, which ranks her fourth all-time in the conference and she is leading the league in career digs per set at 4.88.

Setter Kelsey Murphy is third on the team in digs with 186 and tops the squad with 830 assists for an average of 10.51 per set, which is third in the conference.

As a team, the Tigers lead the ACC and are ninth in the country in blocks per set at 2.86. They are also second in the ACC in opponent hitting percentage at .159 and have held their opponents to under a .100 hitting percentage in a match nine times this season.

Clemson leads the all-time series with Wake Forest 24-9 dating back to 1981. The Tigers won 14 of the first 15 meetings before Wake then won eight of the next 12. But recently, Clemson has won each of the last six matches between the two schools and have not lost to Wake Forest at home since 2004.

Live scoring of both the matches will be available through CSTV's Gametracker.