North Carolina State University Athletics
NC State
Virginia (ACC Tournament)
Cavaliers Eliminate Wolfpack in Opening Day of 2004 ACC Tournament
11/18/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 18, 2004
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Three players finished with double-digits in kills, but it wasn't enough as the NC State volleyball team fell to Virginia, 3-1 (18-30, 30-27, 20-30, 28-30) during the last match of the opening day of the 2004 Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament at Memorial Gym Thursday night. The loss marked the last match of the season for the Wolfpack, making its record 10-21 overall, 0-16 in conference play. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers (19-10, 8-8) now advance to face Duke on Friday night.
In the first game, Virginia jumped out to a 5-0 lead, and quickly built that to a 23-12 advantage. The Wolfpack would manage to come back off a pair of blocks by junior middle blocker Stefani Eddins and freshman middle hitter Ashley Wallace that allowed NC State to cut the lead to nine at 24-15. But that would be as close as the Cavaliers would let the contest get, going on to win, 30-18. Game two started off a little differently, with NC State taking the lead early on, 7-3. Before long, the Wolfpack was up by six at 13-7 and would go on to lead as much as seven (24-17). A few minutes later, and State had tied the match at 1-1 with a 30-27.
NC State continued to keep the momentum on its side in the third contest, taking a 4-2 lead. But a 7-0 run by the Cavaliers put Virginia up 9-4. Before long the score was 15-9 in favor of the Cavaliers. Virginia continued its dominance in the game from there on out, closing the door on the Wolfpack, 30-20. In the fourth game, both teams came out firing, with the score favoring one and then the other. Then, the Cavaliers managed to separate themselves a little, putting the score at 20-17. NC State clawed its way back to tie the game at 26-26, only to suffer another heartbreaker, 30-28.
Junior middle blocker Adeola Kosoko led the way for NC State with a team-high 15 kills off a .281 attack percentage. Eddins and freshman outside hitter Emily Bertrand also stepped up, recording 13 and 11 kills respectively. Eddins also notched 10 total blocks on the night, tying her for the third-most blocks in a single ACC match in school history. Kosoko tacked on another seven blocks for the Wolfpack. Freshman setter Lauren Markowski dished out 42 assists on the night, while also grabbing 13 digs. Fellow freshman and libero Andrea Bentley recorded a team-best 14 digs against Virginia.
Virginia was led by senior middle Alexis Geocaris, who recorded a match-high 22 kills. Also contributing offensively for the Cavaliers were freshman outside hitter Sarah Kirkwood and sophomore outside hitter Lindsay Osco. Kirkwood added 17 kills, while Osco tacked on another 14 kills of her own. Freshman libero Melissa Caldwell led the team in digs with 14, and setter Emily Kirkwood anchored the offense with 55 assists.
For more information regarding the 2004 ACC Volleyball Tournament, please visit the ACC at www.theacc.com.
