North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Gets Second Crack At Virginia Tech, Virginia
10/27/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 27, 2005
NC State begins its second lap through the double round robin ACC volleyball schedule this weekend when the Wolfpack (6-12, 1-10 ACC) travels to the Commonwealth of Virginia for rematches with Virginia Tech (10-10, 5-6 ACC) and Virginia (13-7, 8-3 ACC). Losing to both by scores of 3-0 last month at home, NC State is looking for revenge when it enters Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg, Va., on Friday for a 7:00 meeting with the Hokies before an appointment with the Cavaliers at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday at Memorial Gymnasium in Charlottesville, Va.
Earning its first conference win of the season last week at Boston College, NC State defeated the Eagles in four close games of the inaugural match. The Wolfpack put away 66 kills, the most for NC State since the inception of 30-point rally scoring games (2001), and held Boston College to a .190 attack percentage, while hitting .230. The score was tied at 25 or later in each of the first three games and the Wolfpack was able to put two away. With a one point lead at 23-22 of game four, the NC State seniors led a 7-2 run to capture the ACC win, as Stefani Eddins and Kayla Ragan had three kills between them, Casey Wyatt provided a block with Eddins, and Adeola Kosoko aced a serve in that final stretch.
Leading the ACC and ranking eighth in the NCAA this week with a .424 attack pct., Eddins is on pace to finish first or second in the school records for season attack pct., career attack pct., season blocks and crack the top five for career blocks. The Irving, Texas native battered Boston College last week with 19 kills, a .581 attack pct. and nine blocks and then led the squad with eight kills to go with three blocks at Maryland. She leads the team and ranks third in the ACC with 1.47 blocks per game and leads the team, ranks seventh in the ACC with 3.77 kills per game.
Kosoko reached a major milestone at Maryland last week when she recorded her 300th career block. The senior co-captain from Glendale, Md., by way of Omaha, Neb., now ranks eighth in the school records with 303 career blocks. Kosoko helped lead NC State to victory at Boston College last week with 15 kills, a .375 attack pct., nine digs, four blocks, three assists and one ace. She also added five kills, six digs and four blocks at Maryland. Eddins celebrated her 22nd birthday on Wednesday.
Leading the team with 631 assists this year, setter Melissa Rabe is averaging 9.86 assists per game and also leads the squad with 29 service aces. The junior from Greensboro, N.C., is coming off another tremendous weekend, this time at Boston College where she tied career highs of 54 assists and five kills to go with six digs and a block before adding 28 assists, six digs, three blocks and two aces at Maryland. In her first season as the starting full-time setter, Rabe has already recorded more assists this year than in the previous two seasons combined.
