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Volleyball returns from rocky West Coast swing
By Ben Woolley
Old Gold and Black Reporter

A week after their 2nd-place finish in the Deacon Invitational, the women’s volleyball team dropped three tough matches to national powers Southern California, BYU, and Oral Roberts at the BYU Mizuno Classic in Provo, Utah from Sept. 6-7.

The Deacons return to Winston-Salem with a record of 2-4 and are currently in 8th place in the ACC standings.

This weekend the Deacons will hit the road again to head to Lexington, Ky. and take part in the Kentucky Conference Tournament where they will hope to regain the winning formula.

The Demon Deacons began their weekend with a tough four-game loss to the No. 3 Trojans of Southern California. This marked the first time all season that Trojans lost a game in any of their matches.

The Deacs’ victory came in the second game, but couldn’t keep the momentum as they ended up being defeated 30-14, 26-30 and 30-20, and 30-20.

Kim Stern, a sophomore from Cincinnati, Ohio, led the team with four blocks and 14 kills. But despite the team’s effort, Southern California junior April Ross, who earned All-Tournament honors, posed huge problems for the Deacs amassing an incredible 26 kills through the match.

The Trojans went on to keep their undefeated record intact with a win in the tournaments final games against BYU and No. 6-ranked Florida.

Perhaps the most impressive part of the road trip was the Deacons resolve to push the once ranked BYU Cougars to a fifth and deciding game after BYU kept pushing them to the brink throughout the match. After winning the first game 30-24, the Deacs dropped game number two 31-29 out at Smith Fieldhouse.

The third game was a blowout in the Deacons favor, 30-19, but the last two games fell into the hands of the Cougars 30-27 and 15-10.

Despite being out-blocked by the Cougars 18-9, many Deacons had impressive showing. Redshirt freshman Valerie Rydberg contributed 13 kills, as did junior Ashley Fisher. Senior Ashlee Phillips led the Demon Deacs with 50 assists.

After their tough loss to BYU, Wake Forest couldn’t gather up much of a rally to defeat the Golden Eagles of Oral Roberts. Oral Roberts defeated the team in four games; 30-25, 20-30, 30-25, 30-25 to improve their record to 4-2.

All-Tournament star Patricia Menezes led the Eagles with 17 kills, 12 digs and four blocks. Despite their tough West Coast road trip, the Deacons can still pick up some much needed victories in their final two tournaments to get back above .500 before they enter conference. Their first ACC league match is scheduled for Sept. 24 against the Duke Blue Devils, in Durham.

The quest to get back to .500 starts this weekend in Lexington, as the team will take on the Kentucky Wildcats Sept. 13, and the Western Michigan Broncos and the Dayton Flyers on Sept. 14.

The following weekend the Demon Deacons will host the Black and Gold Challenge, to be held at Reynolds Gymnasium.

The University of Alabama-Birmingham Blazers, the Winthrop Eagles and the San Diego State Aztecs will come to town to complete the four-team field. The action begins two weeks from now on Sept. 20 and Sept. 21.