Sports > November 13, 2008

By Tori Stewart | Staff writer

Despite a two set lead, the Demon Deacon volleyball team fell to Georgia Tech last Friday, Nov. 7. The Deacs seemed to control the first two sets well, but Georgia Tech dominated the next three to steal the match from Wake.

click to enlarge

Freshman Cambrey Oehler goes up for the ball in a Nov. 8 match against Clemson. The Deacs have four regular season matches remaining. (Kelly Makepeace/Old Gold & Black)

Sophomore libero Megan Thornberry’s career-high 30 digs, 51 assists from sophomore setter Kelsey Jones and double figure kills from all five of Wake’s attackers were not enough for Wake to take the victory.

The first set opened in Georgia Tech’s favor as they ran up a 16-11 lead. Fighting back, two kills from graduate student Natalie Mullikin gave the Deacons a 4-0 run to bring the score to 20-20. Sophomore Lauren McIntyre and senior Ashley Homitz followed with two and one kills, respectively, to tie the score at 24. Finishing the set for the Deacs, Homitz and McIntyre earned back-to-back kills for a 26-24 victory.

The Deacs carried their momentum into the second set, earning a six point advantage at 11-5. Holding the Yellow Jackets behind by at least three points, the Deacs fought through the second set strongly behind junior Sally Fischer’s serves, two of which resulted in overpasses on which sophomore Kristen White and McIntyre capitalized for kills. Freshman Kadija Fornah and Thornberry finished the set with kills at 25-21.

The break seemed to encourage the Jackets as they gained an 8-4 advantage in the third set. Wake would continue to fight for the victory; however, as two Mullikin kills and a White service ace contributed to the Deacons’ 9-5 run to tie the score at 13-13. With a total of 14 ties and four lead changes in this set, the score evened at 20-20. To finish, the Jackets sought their last of 20 kills for the set and Wake’s attack error ended the set in Georgia Tech’s favor at 25-23.

Tied at 8-8 in the fourth set, a 4-0 run thanks to Mullikin and Homitz kills and two Georgia Tech errors gave Wake a 12-8 advantage. However, here the Jackets took control with an 11-1 run, eight points of which came from Deacon errors, to put Georgia Tech ahead 19-13. The Jackets looked to their lead attacker Chrissy DeMichelis with eight straight sets to finish, and Wake fell 25-19.

After a 9-6 lead in the fifth set earned by Homitz, McIntyre, Fornah and Jones kills, the Jackets went on a 5-0 run to gain the advantage at 11-9. Two Jacket kills and a Wake error finished the set 15-12, giving Georgia Tech the match victory.

The Deacons unsuccessfully looked to redeem the loss the following night against the Clemson Tigers in four closely contested sets, ultimately falling 25-23, 25-22, 22-25 and 25-22.

The Tigers jumped to an early 9-5 lead in the first set from which Wake would never recover. Ahead 20-19, three Tiger kills would increase their lead to 23-20, forcing Wake to take its second time out. Mullikin slammed two back-to-back kills after the break to cut Clemson’s lead to one point, but the Tigers defeated Wake 25-23.

The Deacs took the lead in the second set 6-5, but Clemson rallied behind a 5-0 run to put them ahead. Wake futilely attempted to stall the Tigers after its first timeout as Clemson continued to dominate, ahead 18-12. Pulling within four points at 20-16 after the second Wake time out, Clemson was forced to take its own timeout before finishing the set.

Battling for the lead early in the third set, a 4-0 run gave Wake a 5-3 advantage. Back-to-back kills from Fornah led to a 3-0 run, and they extended their lead to a 19-13 advantage. Clemson came out of its second time out with a 7-1 run leading to an even score at 20-20. Two kills from Mullikin and two Clemson attack errors set Wake up for the set point, which Jones earned on a kill to give Wake its first victory of the match.

Freshman Cambrey Oehler and Thornberry opened the fourth set with a pair of service aces to give Wake an early 6-1 lead, but the Tigers rebounded after a timeout with a 6-0 run to overtake the Deacons at 7-6. Scoring eight of the ensuing 12 points, Wake forced Clemson to use its final timeout for the set. Again the Tigers’ timeout benefited as they retaliated with a 5-1 run to once again gain the advantage at 16-15. Fornah’s second pair of back-to-back kills put Wake ahead 19-17. The Tigers regained the lead though and, unable to recover, Wake fell to Clemson 25-22 to end the match.

McIntyre recorded a career-high 16 kills in the match, while Mullikin contributed 14 kills and three blocks. She is now within seven block assists of breaking Margaret Davidson’s career block assists record of 388. Fornah added 11 kills and four digs, Homitz recorded nine kills and three blocks and Thornberry contributed 21 digs and five assists. Jones fired a total of 47 assists for the match while Oehler played a strong match all around, totaling 11 digs, four kills, two service aces and one block.

On Nov. 12 the Deacons traveled to N.C. State to take on the Wolfpack.

The match went to four games and led by redshirt sophomore Kate Rodriguez Wake came out on top, defeating the ACC rivals three games to one. Rodriguez posted four service aces, 11 digs, two assists and kills, all career highs, in the victory. The only set the Deacs lost was the first before outlasting the Wolfpack in the next three.

Mullikin and Fornah both led the Deacs with 14 kills while Homitz contributed 13.

Defensively, Thornberry led the Deacs with 17 digs and Fischer chipped in 10.

N.C. State was able to fence off four straight match-points in the fourth set before the Deacs sealed the deal.

The Georgia Tech and Clemson losses were only the second and third home losses for the Deacons, who are now 8-8 in the ACC and 17-11 overall.

Next up for the Deacs is a trip to Chapel Hill to play the Tar Heels Nov. 16.