Volleyball downs Duke
By Ben Woolley
Old Gold and Black Reporter

The Wake Forest women's volleyball team followed up their strong, two-win performance in the Black and Gold Challenge, held Sept. 20-21, with an impressive straight game victory over Duke in their ACC Opener. The Deacons beat the Blue Devils 30-28, 30-25 and 30-25 on Sept. 24.

The Deacons dominated the Blue Devils in all aspects of the game. Duke, which boasted a 12-3 record coming into the match and a third- place standing in the ACC, was no match for Deacons.

Statistically the Deacs over= matched the Blue Devils, as they tallied 60 kills and held the Blue Devils to a measly 41. Coach Baker was very pleased with the how efficient the team ran their offense,

"Our ball control was incredible," Baker said. "We did not have one serve receive error the entire match which enabled our setter Ashlee Phillips to distribute the ball to our outsides, rights and middles." Phillips lead the team with 46 assists, most of them to Kim Stern, who had 15 kills.

The Deacons showed a lot of resilience in their victory over Duke. After they suffered a tough loss to San Diego State in the final game of the Black and Gold Challenge, 3-1, they bounced back.

"I was pleased with how the team came together very focused and played as a group to beat Duke," Baker said.

In the first match of the Black and Gold Challenge, the Deacs dismantled the Blazers of UAB with scores of 30-20, 30-23 and 30-25.

Wake Forest had Reynolds Gym rockin' as they cranked out 47 kills in only 90 attempts, while the Blazers could only muster out a .288 kill percentage, tallying a measly 26 kills on 90 attempts.

The Deacons second victory came at the hands of the Winthrop Eagles. Once again the Deacons failed to lose a game, as they swept the Eagles by the score of 30-20, 30-16 and 30-16. The Deacs defense stepped up their performance, as they held another opponent to under 30 kills.

Erin Borhart stepped up again late in the match, as she had 12 assists in the third game. Sophomore middle blocker Morgan Having also came through with three kills in her first action all season.

After the three wins this past week the Deacs have climbed to 6-7, one game under .500. The Deacons will take their perfect conference record on the road this Friday to Tallahassee, Fla., where they will compete against the Seminoles of Florida State. Following the game against Florida State the team has a week off, resuming play Oct. 4 against Virginia.