Sports > November 29, 2007

By Allison Lange | Guest columnist

Sophomore Mekia Valentine and the rest of the Lady Deacs are coming off of one of their first tournament wins ever. The girls upset No. 10 Texas A&M en route to winning the Paradise Jam Tournament Title. Valentine was named to the All-ACC Freshman team last year and set a record for most blocks by a freshman, with 50 for the entire season.

click to enlarge

(Jeff Merski/Old Gold & Black)

This year, she plays a vital role for the Lady Deacs coming off of the bench. The Old Gold & Black’s assistant sports editor Allison Lange sat down with Valentine to talk about beating No.10 Texas A&M, winning the Paradise Jam Tournament, her favorite class at Wake Forest and playing with a year of experience under her belt.

On beating No. 10 Texas A&M: It felt really good to beat a ranked team like Texas A&M. They were one of the colleges I could have played at. So it felt good to finally prove that where I went was the right choice and that we could beat them.

On her favorite class at Wake: Learning to Learn with Dr. Westervelt has been my favorite class at Wake so far. It’s one of those classes where you can really show your personality and talk the whole time, and a lot of my friends were in it.

On the game she’s most looking forward to: I’m probably looking forward to the Duke game the most. Last year in the first half we held them to only a few points and we were only down by about seven at halftime. I really think that this year we can come out and beat them.

On her goals for the season: I think our goal is to beat more ranked teams this season and to become ranked. I think we really want that number next to our name.

On winning the Paradise Jam Tournament: I think that we always knew that we were good enough. But winning the Paradise Jam Tournament really kind of proved to other people that we were good too.

On playing a different sport: I’d probably play volleyball, because they don’t have to move out of their positions.

On having a year of experience on the court: I think that I know my role on the team now. I also know how to balance my time more. I can also focus on the things that are the most important.