North Carolina State University Athletics
Three Pack Volleyball Players Earn All-Tournament Honors
9/8/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
RALEIGH, N.C.—With another edition of the NC State Courtyard Midtown Classic in the books, the Wolfpack women’s volleyball team emerged victorious for a second straight year.
The theme was the same as before, a dominant effort by the team and Rachel Buckley who garnered MVP honors at the tournament for the second consecutive year.
“It feels pretty good to be named MVP, it was definitely a personal goal to try to be named to the all-tournament team for all of our tournaments; so to get the MVP as well is a blessing and definitely is an amazing feeling,” said Buckley.
The Carrollton, Texas, native also felt as if this season will be very exciting if the team continues to play the way they have been lately.
“We did some good things this weekend, but we still have some areas where we need to grow. If this is where we’re starting, then where we’re finishing in my mind is exciting. All we have to do is keep playing hard and working hard in practice.”
But Buckley was not alone on the all-tournament team as two more of her teammates joined her, Alesha Wilson and Morgan Cormier, who along with the rest of the team put on an amazing performance.
Buckley led the team in kills over the weekend with 36 and an attacking percentage of .329, while Wilson contributed 29 kills and a .407 hitting percentage. Cormier recorded the highest attacking percentage of the group at .588 to go along with 11 kills and seven blocks. Wilson paced the team in blocks with 13 and Buckley had seven.
The humbled Cormier said that it felt good to be named to the all-tournament team after not being able to help her team throughout most of last season. “It was my first time back in Reynolds since I tore my ACL, so it was good to get back out there and help the team.” She too was excited for the team’s future and agreed that the team has some growing to do.
“I think we did well, it’s always good to start strong although we had a few letdowns,” Cormier added. “Being able to play well early in the season sets us up to have a great year.”
Wilson, the other senior on the all-tournament team made her statement Saturday as well. She was second on the team in kills for the entirety of the tournament.
“I think we did really well and it was much better than last weekend’s play," said Wilson. "We came out to play from the beginning and we maintained the high energy for the most part. We did a good job of taking care of business.”
Buckley, Cormier and Wilson along with the rest of the Wolfpack women’s volleyball team will try to maintain their winning streak against Harvard on Friday, Sept. 12, at the Georgia Benson Hospitality Invitational hosted by the University of Georgia in Athens at 4 p.m.
Written by Caslee Sims, GoPack.com staff writer
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