Box Score

VT 3, NC State 1

 

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Despite dropping the opening frame, the Virginia Tech volleyball team won its seventh straight match over NC State Saturday evening in Cassell Coliseum. Seniors Jen Albrecht and Amanda Cloyd led the Hokies to a 3-1 (27-30, 30-16, 30-28, 30-17) win over the Wolfpack knocking down 17 kills and collecting 28 digs, respectively. Cloyd is currently 11 digs shy of becoming the first player in program history to record 2,000 digs in a career.

Junior Sarah Muñoz collected her second consecutive double-double landing a season-high 14 kills and 12 digs, while sophomores Taylor Parrish and Jill Gergen picked up 23 and 10 digs, respectively.

Freshman Felicia Willoughby moved into second place on Tech's freshman records chart in collecting eight blocks, putting her at 107 blocks in her rookie campaign. Sophomore Michelle Lang dished out 47 assists and stopped five attacks.

Cloyd, Tech's all-time leader in digs, etched her name into a second category in the program's career-records, landing three aces to push her career total to 113, tying her with Britton Julian for 10^th place.

For the Wolfpack, Chrissy Zirpolo and Lauren Zaniboni each knocked down 16 kills, while Zaniboni completed the double-double with 10 digs. Lindsay Benac had 14 digs and Nikki Sweet had 13. Allison Davis had 29 assists.

Tech used a 5-0 run behind the serving of junior Kristen Cunningham to come from behind and even game one at 14 all, forcing a Wolfpack timeout. Neither team could gain much of a lead from there until NC State took advantage of three late service errors of Tech's and pulled ahead for the 30-27 win.

The Hokies jumped out to an early 7-2 lead forcing the Wolfpack to use a timout early. Tech extended its lead to 19-9 and never looked back, cruising to a 30-16 victory to even the match at a game apiece.

A six-point run early in game three pushed Tech ahead 8-5 and the Hokies extended their lead to eight at 23-15, before State rallied for a 7-1 run, cutting Tech's lead to four by 25-21. The Wolfpack fought to come within one at 29-28, but a block from Munoz and Willoughby put Tech on top 30-28.

Tech, down 1-3 in game four, strung together five-straight points to pull ahead 5-4, and used another six-point run to increase its lead to seven at 13-6, allowing the Hokies to run away with a 30-17 game four, 3-1 match win.

The Hokies (11-9, 5-5 ACC) will play their next four matches on the road, traveling first to No. 13 Duke on Fri., Oct. 19 for a 7 p.m. match time.