North Carolina State University Athletics
Volleyball Prepares For Trip to Wilmington
9/7/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 7, 2011
NC STATE VOLLEYBALL
Week 3
The NC State volleyball squad will play three matches this weekend in the Hilton Garden Inn Mayfaire Tournament in Wilmington, N.C. Last year, in a similar event hosted by UNC Wilmington, the Wolfpack won two of its three matches.
Guided by second-year head coach Bryan Bunn, the Pack has won six consecutive matches, its longest streak since 2004.
Live stats will be available for all games via this link from UNC Wilmington. Live streaming video will also be available at this link for all matches involving the Seahawks. There is a $4.95 charge to watch each match.
NC State (6-1) vs.
... Charleston Southern (0-7)
5 p.m. Friday
All-time series: NC State leads, 1-0
... East Carolina (1-3)
10:30 a.m., Saturday
All-time series: NC State leads, 39-4
... UNC Wilmington (3-3)
7:30 p.m., Saturday
All-time series: NC State leads, 2-1
MVP Merriwether: Sophomore middle blocker Brie Merriwether not only excelled individually for the Wolfpack during the recent Courtyard Midtown Classic at Reynolds Coliseum, she helped pull the team through a difficult match against Wisconsin. Down 0-2, the Wolfpack rallied behind Merriwether’s play at the net to defeat the Badgers in five sets. Merriwether led the team with 14 kills in the match and had nine total blocks at the net.
In the Pack’s four matches in the tournament, Merriwether had 37 kills, four blocks, 14 block assists and 12 points per game to earn Most Valuable Player honors. Senior outside hitter Luciana Shafer was also named to the all-tournament team.
Going for 400: In her four years at NC State, senior librero Kelly Wood has been a mainstay in the Wolfpack lineup. In fact, she’s missed only one of a possible 400 sets in her career, in the third match of her freshman season. Wood did not play in the first set of a 3-0 loss to Kansas at the beginning of the 2008 season, but has been in the lineup in every game since.
Overall, she’s played in 393 consecutive sets for the Wolfpack, as a librero during her freshman, junior and senior seasons and as an outside hitter during her sophomore season. She played in 123 of 124 sets as a freshman, all 125 in 2009, all 127 last season and all 24 so far this season. Juniors Megan Cyr and Alexa Micek are the only other players on the roster who have played in every set this season.
This weekend, assuming Wood is in the starting lineup in Friday afternoon’s match against Charleston Southern, Wood will play in her 400th overall set. She is inching toward the school’s top 10 in total games played and has a shot at breaking Jennifer Patterson’s school record of 510 career sets.
Winning streaks: The Wolfpack has won six consecutive matches since a season-opening loss at Appalachian State, the program’s longest winning streak since 2004, when the Wolfpack won seven in a row early in the season.
Three wins this weekend at the Hilton Garden Inn Mayfaire Tournament would allow the Wolfpack to match its longest winning streak since 1996 and the fourth longest streak in school history. The Pack is halfway to the school record of 12 straight, which was set in 1987 during the Wolfpack’s ACC championship season.
All-time winning streaks
12 1987
11 1980
10 1979
9 1996
1981
1980
8 1979
7 2004
1995
1984
1981
Topping Wisconsin: The Wolfpack stormed back to win the final three sets against Wisconsin, taking a 3-2 victory in its second match of the Courtyard Midtown Classic. It was the Wolfpack’s first win over a Big Ten foe since beating Purdue 3-1 in the NC State Wolfpack Classic in Reynolds Coliseum in 2000.
Freshmen in the lineup: Freshmen Nicole Glass and Rachel Buckley earned starting jobs at outside hitter in the preseason and have been stalwarts in the Wolfpack lineup. Glass has played in 23 of the Wolfpack’s 24 sets, while Buckley has played in 21.
Kills and Digs: Notes of interest from the Wolfpack roster.
• Senior Margaret Salata, a fourth-year starter from Buffaloe Grove, Ill., leads the team with 63 kills in her 21 sets this season.
• Junior Megan Cyr has a team-high total of 266 assists and is averaging 11.1 assist per match.
• Freshman Laura Blab of Wimberley, Texas, is the daughter of former professional basketball player Uwe Blab.
• Becah Fogle, who led the Wolfpack with 197 before suffering a season-ending knee injury against Wake Forest on Oct. 8, has yet to see action this season, while still rehabilitating from knee surgery.
