NC State Volleyball Places Three on All-ACC Team
11/26/2018 1:58:00 PM | Women's Volleyball
Three Wolfpack players named to the second team
GREENSBORO, N.C. – For the third consecutive season under head coach Linda Hampton-Keith, the NC State volleyball team had multiple student-athletes collect All-ACC honors, as Melissa Evans, Kylie Pickrell and Teni Sopitan secured the accolade on Monday afternoon.
All three were selected to the second team, as Evans and Pickrell earn their second All-ACC selections and Sopitan achieved the first of her career. The last time NC State placed multiple student-athletes on the All-ACC in three consecutive seasons was 1986-88.
After receiving All-Freshmen honors last season, Evans tallied 349 kills, the second most on the team to garner All-ACC honors. The sophomore opposite hitter averaged 3.17 kills per set, recording double-digit kills in nearly every match.
She charted a season-high 20 kills in the Wolfpack's season-opening win against VCU, the 2017 Atlantic 10 Champions. Evans put down 18 kills in NC State's 3-0 victory versus Wright State, which was the most by any player in the ACC in a three-set match at the time and ended the year as the fifth most.
Evans also finished the season with the second-most aces on the squad with 18, highlighted by a season-high three on two occasions during the year. The Lone Tree, Colo., native logged 191 digs and notched double figures six times to tally five double-doubles.
Pickrell averaged 10.81 assists per set in her senior campaign to finish the regular season ranked second in the ACC and among the top 40 nationally. She handed out a season-high 53 assists against Utah Valley and reached the 50-assist mark in seven matches.
Hailing from Coppell, Texas, Pickrell logged at least 25 assists in each match and collected 10 or more digs on 12 occasions to record 12 double-doubles. Her 54 assists against Florida State were the fifth most in a four-set match and her 47 assists in the Wolfpack's 3-0 sweep against Syracuse were the third most in a three-set match by an ACC setter this season.
The senior captain led the Pack with 24 service aces, tallying at least one in 15 of the squad's 28 matches. Pickrell finished the season with 267 digs, second most on the team and also added the third-most blocks on the team with 57.
Pickrell finished her career with 3,686 assists, 878 digs, 169 kills and 167 blocks. She saw action in 431 sets and 120 matches. Both Evans and Pickrell were Preseason All-ACC Selections.
Despite switching positions nearly every season during her tenure with the Wolfpack, Sopitan tallied a career-high 391 kills as a senior outside hitter. The Laurel, Md., native was fourth in the ACC with that mark and was third in the conference with 3.62 kills per set.
Sopitan's 391 kills are the third most in the rally-scoring era of the program for a single season. This year, she tallied double-digit kills in nearly every match headlined by a career-best 21 in wins against Boston College and Duke.
In a position that she had never played in her volleyball career, the senior proved to be one of the Pack's offensive options.
She was also great defensively with a team-high 23 solo blocks, highlighted by a career-best five against Pittsburgh.
For her career, Sopitan finished with 987 kills, only a few shy of reaching 1,000.
NC State ended the season with a 15-13 overall record and a 9-9 mark in ACC play. The Wolfpack finished the year strong by winning five of its six matches during the month of November.
All three were selected to the second team, as Evans and Pickrell earn their second All-ACC selections and Sopitan achieved the first of her career. The last time NC State placed multiple student-athletes on the All-ACC in three consecutive seasons was 1986-88.
After receiving All-Freshmen honors last season, Evans tallied 349 kills, the second most on the team to garner All-ACC honors. The sophomore opposite hitter averaged 3.17 kills per set, recording double-digit kills in nearly every match.
She charted a season-high 20 kills in the Wolfpack's season-opening win against VCU, the 2017 Atlantic 10 Champions. Evans put down 18 kills in NC State's 3-0 victory versus Wright State, which was the most by any player in the ACC in a three-set match at the time and ended the year as the fifth most.
Evans also finished the season with the second-most aces on the squad with 18, highlighted by a season-high three on two occasions during the year. The Lone Tree, Colo., native logged 191 digs and notched double figures six times to tally five double-doubles.
Pickrell averaged 10.81 assists per set in her senior campaign to finish the regular season ranked second in the ACC and among the top 40 nationally. She handed out a season-high 53 assists against Utah Valley and reached the 50-assist mark in seven matches.
Hailing from Coppell, Texas, Pickrell logged at least 25 assists in each match and collected 10 or more digs on 12 occasions to record 12 double-doubles. Her 54 assists against Florida State were the fifth most in a four-set match and her 47 assists in the Wolfpack's 3-0 sweep against Syracuse were the third most in a three-set match by an ACC setter this season.
The senior captain led the Pack with 24 service aces, tallying at least one in 15 of the squad's 28 matches. Pickrell finished the season with 267 digs, second most on the team and also added the third-most blocks on the team with 57.
Pickrell finished her career with 3,686 assists, 878 digs, 169 kills and 167 blocks. She saw action in 431 sets and 120 matches. Both Evans and Pickrell were Preseason All-ACC Selections.
Despite switching positions nearly every season during her tenure with the Wolfpack, Sopitan tallied a career-high 391 kills as a senior outside hitter. The Laurel, Md., native was fourth in the ACC with that mark and was third in the conference with 3.62 kills per set.
Sopitan's 391 kills are the third most in the rally-scoring era of the program for a single season. This year, she tallied double-digit kills in nearly every match headlined by a career-best 21 in wins against Boston College and Duke.
In a position that she had never played in her volleyball career, the senior proved to be one of the Pack's offensive options.
She was also great defensively with a team-high 23 solo blocks, highlighted by a career-best five against Pittsburgh.
For her career, Sopitan finished with 987 kills, only a few shy of reaching 1,000.
NC State ended the season with a 15-13 overall record and a 9-9 mark in ACC play. The Wolfpack finished the year strong by winning five of its six matches during the month of November.
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