North Carolina State University Athletics
Wolfpack Volleyball Heads To Duke, Wake Forest This Weekend
9/29/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 29, 2005
The NC State volleyball team returns to action this weekend with a pair of conference road matches. The Wolfpack (6-4 overall, 0-2 ACC) travels to Durham, N.C., to take on Duke (7-3, 1-1) Friday at 7:00 p.m. in Cameron Indoor Stadium before venturing to Winston-Salem, N.C., for a 6:00 p.m. showdown with Wake Forest (7-4, 0-2) Saturday in Reynolds Gym.
Starting senior middle blockers Stefani Eddins and Adeola Kosoko lead the team in kills, attack percentage and blocks again this season as the team captains led the Wolfpack in 3-0 loses to Virginia and Virginia Tech last weekend. Kosoko had a team-best seven kills, a .375 attack pct. and five blocks, including three solo stuffs, to go with five digs against the Cavaliers and added six kills and four blocks versus the Hokies. Eddins led the squad with seven kills at a .389 clip and four blocks against Virginia Tech.
Junior setter Lyssa Ramirez came off the bench against Virginia Tech to lead NC State with 13 assists in two games to go with two kills and two digs. The transfer from Midland (TX) Juco has a deceptive no-look tip in her arsenal that keeps defenses honest.
Sophomore defensive specialist Andrea Bentley has started every match and leads the team with 84 digs. In the last game of both the Virginia match and the Virginia Tech match, she donned the libero jersey.
NC State ranks second in the ACC this week in blocks (3.06 per game) and third in attack percentage (.225). Stefani Eddins leads the ACC a .458 attack percentage and is second with 1.59 blocks per game. Adeola Kosoko ranks eighth in attack percentage and ninth in blocks while Melissa Rabe ranks eighth in assists, third in aces and Kayla Ragan is 10th in aces.
Eddins ranks 4th in the nation for attack percentage,15th in blocks per game and the team ranks 19th in the nation for blocks per game.
With opponent defenses zeroing in on NC State offensive leaders Eddins and Kosoko, the Wolfpack is sending more and more balls to the outside. Starting right side hitter Ashley Wallace hat 24 total attacks against Virginia and outside hitters Karlie Urbaniak and Aiwane Iboaya combined for 33 attempts. Against Virginia Tech Urbaniak took 31 swipes at the ball, while Iboaya and Wallace had 15 attempts each. Wallace tied Kosoko for a team-high seven kills against the Cavaliers and Urbaniak tied Eddins' team-best seven kills versus the Hokies.
