Wake Forest Volleyball Team Will Travel to Florida to Take on No. 24 Florida State and Miami
Deacs will face Seminoles on Friday at 7 p.m. and Hurricanes on Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – The Wake Forest volleyball team is set to travel south to Florida to play No. 24 Florida State before taking on Miami.
The Demon Deacons are scheduled to play the Seminoles on Friday at 7 p.m. at Tully Gymnasium and the Hurricanes on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at the James L. Knight Sports Complex.
Wake Forest has alternated wins and losses over the last seven matches, with the last contest ending in a 3-1 victory for the Demon Deacons over Virginia last Sunday.
The win over the Cavaliers pushed Wake Forest’s ACC record over .500 at 5-4 on the year, while the Deacs are 12-7 overall.
Junior middle hitter Carlin Salmon led the Demon Deacons against Virginia with a season-high 16 kills. Senior libero Megan Thornberry also had her best performance of the year with a season-high 29 digs.
Another Deacon who played very well against the Cavs was freshman Kylie Hargreaves who entered the match in the middle of the second set. She ended the match with career-highs of 10 kills, a .348 hitting percentage, three aces and three total blocks.
On the season, junior Kadija Fornah and sophomore Andrea Beck lead the Deacon offensive attack. Fornah has a team-high 214 kills, while Beck is second with 209 kills and first with a .345 hitting percentage.
Senior setter Kelsey Jones leads the team with 526 assists on the year and moved into second place on Wake Forest’s all-time assists list in a loss to Virginia Tech last Friday. She currently has 3,968 career assists and only trails Ashlee Phillips who recorded 4,668 assists during her time as a Deacon.
Wake Forest will be looking to snap a pair of losing streaks this weekend, as the Deacs have lost nine straight to Florida State and two in a row to Miami.
The Seminoles own a 23-6 all-time advantage over the Demon Deacons and are 13-2 in matches played in Tallahassee. Wake and Miami have a far less extensive history, as the Hurricanes are 7-4 all-time against the Deacons.
Visnja Djurdjevic leads Florida State with 243 kills and 25 aces on the year. Her numbers also put her near the top of the ACC, as she is fifth in kills (3.28 k/s) and tied for third in service aces (0.34 sa/s). Lauren Young provides much defense for the Seminoles, ranking second in the conference at 1.23 blocks per set.
For Miami, Katie Gallagher quarterbacks the offense with 757 assists, and her 11.13 assists per set are tops in the ACC. Her favorite target is Lane Carico who has 259 kills and is third in the ACC at 3.50 kills per set. Carico also contributes greatly on the defensive side of the ball, coming in at 10th in the ACC with 3.68 digs per set.
After the weekend, the Demon Deacons will have played every team in the ACC one time and will begin the second round with ACC teams next Friday when Georgia Tech visits Reynolds Gym at 7 p.m.
