Sunday October 15th, 2023
Final NC State 3 Virginia Tech 0
Raleigh, NC- On a day in which NC State honored Breast Cancer Awareness with their annual Pink Match, the Lady Wolfpack(15-4, 5-3) played host to the visiting Virginia Tech Hokies(11-8, 1-7) at William Reynolds Coliseum.
The Pack came in fresh off a win against Wake Forest at home in which Ava Brizard set a new career high with 25 kills. NC State came in winning 10 of the last 11 matches with the Hokies and continued to show their dominance again on Sunday.
The first set started with 2 straight points and the Wolfpack would never trail as they took the first set 25-15 behind 5 kills from Ava Brizzard and 3 more kills from Martyna Leoniak. Kristen McDaniel chipped in 8 assists to aid the Lady Wolfpack in a dominant first set.
The second set started exactly like the first one with 2 straight points by NC State. The Pack continued with four more straight points to take a 6-1 lead leading to a quick Hokie timeout. NC State was led in the second set by Martya Leoniak as she finished the second set with 7 total kills. Virginia Tech scored 4 of 5 points in the middle of the set leading to a Wolfpack timeout with the score 20-15. After the timeout, the Pack rallied for four straight points and earned the set win at 25-16 entering the half.
The Wolfpack started with a quick 4-2 rally to start the third set. The lead was extended to 11-6 forcing the Hokies to take a quick timeout. After the timeout, the Wolfpack continued to put the pressure on the Hokies, extending the lead to 15-7 mid set. The Hokies called another timeout with the score 21-9. After the timeout, the Hokies scored 4 of the next 5 points leading to a timeout for the Wolfpack with the lead still holding at 22-13. The Pack ended the set on a beautiful kill to earn the set victory 25-20 and the match win victory 3-0.
After the game, coach Slabe gave us his thoughts on the effort from his team:
“I thought we prepared well and I thought we executed well. Against Virginia Tech today, I feel like most of the sets we took care of business.”
Next up for the Wolfpack are the 8th ranked Pittsburgh Panthers back in Reynolds Coliseum on Friday night at 7pm.
