North Carolina State University Athletics
Volleyball Heads To Florida For ACC Matches
11/3/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 3, 2011
NC State (17-9 overall, 5-8 ACC) at No. 18 Florida State (19-4, 13-0)
Time: Friday, 7 p.m.
Place: Tully Gym, Tallahassee, Fla.
Series record: Florida State leads,38-5.
Gametracker
NC State at Miami
Time: Sunday, 1 p.m.
Place: James L. Knight Sports Complex, Coral Gables, Fla.
Series record: Miami leads, 13-1.
Gametracker
RALEIGH, N.C. - NC State's volleyball team will be looking to spoil Florida State's perfect ACC and home record, as the Wolfpack travels to Tallahassee, Fla., on Friday to take on the first-place Seminoles.
The Wolfpack and Seminoles played a five-set marathon earlier this season in Raleigh, with the Wolfpack taking the first set before ultimately falling 2-3. It was the first televised match in NC State volleyball history.
Florida State controlled the net in that contest, recording 26 team blocks against the Wolfpack. That's the most by any ACC team this season.
The Seminoles (19-4, 13-0) own a two-game advantage over North Carolina in the regular-season ACC standings. They also own a perfect 10-0 record at home this season and are looking for their first undefeated season at Tully Gym since joining the ACC in 1991.
The Pack will be looking for another tight match, since most of its contests go extra sets. The Pack has played a total of seven five-set matches, five four-set matches and 14 three-set matches. The Seminoles have played only two home matches this season that have taken longer than the minimum three sets, a 3-1 win over No. 23 Tulsa and a 3-2 win over Wake Forest.
Following Friday's match, the Wolfpack heads to Coral Gables, Fla., to face third-place Miami on Sunday at 1 p.m. The Wolfpack topped the Hurricanes once last season in Raleigh, and played Miami in a thrilling 3-2 loss earlier this season in Reynolds Coliseum.
With a pair of wins this weekend, second-year head coach Bryan Bunn's squad could move into the upper half of the ACC standings.
After suffering six consecutive setbacks, the Wolfpack has gotten back on the winning track, taking three of its last four matches. Its two most recent victories came last weekend, with four-set victories over Maryland and Boston College. Earlier this season, the Wolfpack established a school record by winning 13 consecutive matches.
Saturday's win over the Eagles assured the Wolfpack its first winning season since the 1996 Pack posted a 21-16 overall record and a 4-12 mark in the ACC. By winning its fifth conference match, the Wolfpack matched its most number of wins in the league since the 1999 team went 5-11 against ACC competition.
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NC State On The Road In The ACC |
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|
Year |
Overall |
ACC record |
ACC home |
ACC road |
|
2011 |
15-8 |
3-7 |
0-4 |
3-3 |
|
2010 |
14-18 |
4-16 |
3-7 |
1-9 |
|
2009 |
8-27 |
1-19 |
1-9 |
0-10 |
|
2008 |
9-26 |
3-17 |
3-7 |
0-10 |
|
2007 |
3-29 |
0-22 |
0-11 |
0-11 |
|
2006 |
2-29 |
0-22 |
0-11 |
0-11 |
|
2005 |
7-23 |
1-21 |
0-11 |
1-10 |
|
2004 |
10-21 |
0-16 |
0-8 |
0-8 |
|
2003 |
7-25 |
0-16 |
0-8 |
0-8 |
|
2002 |
3-32 |
0-16 |
0-8 |
0-8 |
|
2001 |
6-21 |
1-15 |
1-7 |
0-8 |
|
2000 |
9-22 |
1-15 |
1-7 |
0-8 |
|
1999 |
16-19 |
5-11 |
4-4 |
1-7 |
|
1998 |
11-20 |
0-16 |
0-8 |
0-8 |
|
1997 |
12-23 |
3-13 |
2-6 |
1-7 |
|
1996 |
21-16 |
4-12 |
1-8 |
3-4 |
ROAD WARRIORS: NC State's win at Wake Forest was the Wolfpack's third conference road victory of the season. The Pack is 3-4 on the road so far this year, the same as the 1996 team's record in league road matches.
In fact, the Pack won just four ACC road matches in the 14 years since that '96 team posted a 21-16 overall record, which is the most wins in a season since the 1983 team won the ACC regular-season championship and finished with a 23-15 overall mark.
SUPER SENIORS: When middle blocker Margaret Salata and libero Kelly Wood enrolled at NC State four years ago, the Wolfpack had won just three ACC matches in the previous seven seasons. Their first two seasons weren't much better, as the Wolfpack went 1-41 against league competition.
Since last season, however, the two have been part of Bunn's reconstruction of the program, providing valuable veteran leadership to a team that has seen significant roster turnover and significant overall improvement.
Salata leads the team - and is one of the ACC's most productive frontline players - with her steady scoring and her vastly improved blocking skills.
Wood, a four-year starter at libero, is one of the league's steadiest players. She's missed only of a possible 457 sets in her career with the Wolfpack and is second all-time in career digs. She's also chasing the school record of most games played.
So they both celebrated following the Wolfpack's win over Boston College, which assure the team of its first winning season since 1996.
In the last two seasons, Salata and Wood have helped their team win a total of nine ACC contests - more than twice as many as the program won in its previous nine seasons (4-162).
SALATA'S KILLS: Senior middle blocker Margaret Salata of Buffalo Grove, Ill., recorded a career-high 19 kills in Saturday's 3-1 victory over Boston College. That's one more than her previous career best of 18, set last season in five sets against Illinois State.
Salata leads the Wolfpack with a career-high 283 kills this season, and her 3.04 kills per set ranks ninth in the ACC. She has recorded 845 kills in her four seasons with the Pack. Her 373 career blocks ranks seventh in school history.
She also ranks fourth in the ACC with 117 blocks and eighth in the league with a .334 hitting percentage.
SOLID WOOD: Senior libero Kelly Wood of Yadkinville, N.C., is one of two ironmen for the Wolfpack this season. She and junior setter Megan Cyr are the only two players on the roster who have played in all 97 sets this season.
On Oct. 14 against Virginia Tech, Wood had a season-high 27 digs for the Pack, nearing the career high she set two years ago as a sophomore. She had 29 in a four-set loss to George Mason. She matched that total last year against Clemson.
Wood leads the Wolfpack with 358 digs this season, or 4.02 digs per set. She has led the program in digs three of the last four seasons and currently ranks second all-time in career digs with 1,705.
Jennifer Peterson, who played for the Pack from 1994-97, recorded 1,767 digs in four seasons. Wood needs to average less 10 digs in the Wolfpack's final seven regular-season matches to break Peterson's school record.
Wood, who has missed just one set in her four seasons with the Pack, recently entered the top 10 for career games played. She's played in 456 of a possible 457 sets in her four-year career. Peterson also owns the school record with 510 games played, followed by Amy Lemerman with 509.
Wood is now eighth all-time in games played, one behind seventh-place Patty Lake (1985-88). She can move into the top five this weekend if the Wolfpack stretches its two matches into five sets, as has happened seven times this season.
GOING HOME: NC State's roster features players from all over the country and one from Canada, but only sophomore Brie Merriwether will be heading to her home state this weekend as the Wolfpack travels to Florida. Merriwether played at Oviedo High School in Orlando, leading the team to the district championship and a 26-4 record her senior season.
SWEET MUSIC: Meredith Richardson, a sophomore middle blocker from Brentwood, Tenn., has become the Wolfpack's designated pregame national anthem singer. The talented civil engineering major began singing "The Star Spangled Banner" for the Florida State match, which was televised regionally by the ACC's Regional Sports Network.
She did the same prior to the Virginia and Virginia Tech matches.
Richardson, designated by an overwhelming majority of her teammates as the best singer on the team, has competed in NC State's annual "Athletes With Talent" competition and performed with other student-athletes at the athletics department's holiday party.
Her post-athletic career ambition?
"To be on Glee!" she says.
IN THE HOPPER: Heading into the Oct. 7 match against Miami, freshman Dariyan Hopper of Minooka, Ill., had not recorded a double-digit kill match this season. The closest she had come was nine kills and 10 points in the Wolfpack's 3-1 victory over Charleston Southern in the Hilton Garden Inn Mayfaire Tournament in Wilmington, N.C., on Sept. 9.
But starting against the Hurricanes, Hopper recorded five consecutive contests with double-digit kills. She had 11 against the Hurricanes, 16 against Florida State, a career-high 21 against Virginia Tech and 14 against Virginia. She added a team-high 10 against Wake Forest on Wednesday.
Hopper has played in every set for the last eight matches, a total of 37 straight sets out of the 58 she has played in her inaugural season with the Wolfpack.
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Consecutive 5-Set Matches |
||
|
School |
Streak |
Year |
|
NC State |
6 |
2011 |
|
Virginia Tech |
5 |
1999* |
|
North Carolina |
5 |
1992 |
|
Boston College |
4 |
2004 % |
|
Virginia |
4 |
2003 |
|
Maryland |
4 |
2003 |
|
Georgia Tech |
4 |
2002 |
|
Clemson |
3 |
2010 |
|
Duke |
3 |
2010 |
|
Florida State |
3 |
2010 |
|
Miami |
3 |
2009 |
|
Wake Forest |
3 |
2006 |
|
*Member of Atlantic 10 |
||
|
% Member of Big East |
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MARATHON MATCHES:NC State's school- and ACC-record stretch of six consecutive five-set matches came to an end last weekend in a 3-1 loss to Virginia at Reynolds Coliseum. The night before, the Wolfpack went five sets against Virginia Tech, breaking the ACC mark the Wolfpack shared with North Carolina.
The Tar Heels played five consecutive five-set matches in 1992, four against ACC foes and one against a non-conference opponent. Virginia Tech, as a member of the Atlantic 10, played five consecutive five-set matches in 1999, four against conference opponents and one against a non-conference opponent.
But the Wolfpack's streak was comprised of six consecutive conference matches, an unprecedented and grueling streak that amounted to more than four additional matches on the schedule.
In the Pack's first 15 matches, it played a total of 49 sets in 29 days. That includes three days with two matches during early season tournaments.
In its next seven matches, in a span of just 16 days, the Wolfpack played 34 total sets, including the six consecutive matches that went to a maximum of five sets and one match that went four sets.
WINNING WAYS: After losing its season-opening match to Appalachian State, NC State reeled off 13 consecutive wins to break a 24-year-old school record. The previous record of 12 was set by the 1987 Wolfpack en route to the ACC championship.
ACES: For the second time this season, senior libero Kelly Wood recorded three service aces in the match against Virginia. She also had three against North Carolina A&T on Sept. 2. Freshman Nicole Glass also has a pair of three-ace matches this season (against East Carolina and Charlotte) and freshman Alston Kearns had three against North Carolina A&T. The Wolfpack had a season-high 12 aces in the match against N.C. A&T.
SECOND GLASS ACT: For the second time this season, Wolfpack freshman Nicole Glass of Colorado Springs, Colo., was named the ACC Volleyball Freshman of the Week, following her performances against the league's top three teams.
In three matches, the outside hitter recorded 50 kills and 53 points. Against No. 21 Miami, Glass recorded a career-high 21 kills and 22 points for the Wolfpack, while notching a hitting average of .286. She added another 19 kills against the Seminoles and 10 against the Tar Heels.
Her previous career high was 16 on Sept. 10 in a 3-0 victory over UNC Wilmington.
Glass also added three aces in the three matches, giving her a team-high total of 19 for the season.
Glass also won the Freshman of the Week award on Sept. 12 after being named most valuable player at the Hilton Garden Inn Mayfaire Tournament in Wilmington, N.C., where she led the Wolfpack to three straight wins with three consecutive matches of double-digit kills.
MVP THREESOME: Junior setter Megan Cyr was named the Most Valuable Player at the Wolfpack's own Courtyard Midtown Invitational at Reynolds Coliseum, making her the Pack's third tournament MVP in as many weeks.
Cyr had the Wolfpack's balanced offense clicking, with three consecutive 3-0 victories over Liberty, The Citadel and Towson. In nine overall sets, the transfer from Colorado had 104 assists and nine kills.
She was joined on the all-tournament team by teammates Margaret Salata, a senior middle blocker from Buffalo Grove, Ill., and Kelly Wood, a senior librero from Yadkinville, N.C.
Sophomore Brie Merriwether was named the MVP of the Wolfpack's first tournament of the season, the Courtyard Midtown Classic on Sept. 2-3. Teammate Luciana Shafer was also named to the all-tournament team.
Freshman Nicole Glass was named the MVP of the Hilton Garden Inn Mayfaire Tournament in Wilmington on Sept. 9-10, with senior Margaret Salata and Merriwether joining her on the all-tournament team.
ROOKIES GALORE: Following her MVP performance, freshman Nicole Glass was named the ACC Freshman of the Week for Sept. 12, becoming the first Wolfpack rookie to win the award since its inception in 2010.
Glass is one of four freshmen who have started for the Wolfpack this season, along with Rachel Buckley of Carrollton, Texas; Dariyan Hopper of Minooka, Ill.; and Alston Kearns of Apex, N.C.
In all, the Wolfpack has nine true freshmen among its 11 newcomers. Others who have seen action this season are Ana Asher of Crozet, Va.; Laura Blab of Wimberley, Texas; Rachel Frick of Charlotte; Hannah Thompson of Henderson, N.C.; and Alesha Wilson of Keller, Texas.
NC State also has one redshirt freshman, Cal-Poly transfer Katie Ryan of Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.
