University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
NC State
Ficker and Benorden Lead Bulldogs Past NC State
09.04.2009 | Women's Volleyball
The victory is UNC Asheville's (4-2) third straight of the season and marks the second straight over NC State (4-2). Last season, the Bulldogs defeated the Wolfpack 3-2 in Raleigh.
Asheville used a balanced attack with Jenna Dover posting a season-high 10 kills and Rachel Guinane recording a career best nine kills along with four blocks and 42 assists. Raquel Miotto led all players with 24 digs.
"I am obviously pleased with our performance today," said head coach Julie Torbett. "Any time you beat an ACC team is big for your program and to have two-straight wins against NC State shows that we are consistently playing well. I thought we responded very well after the first set and we got outstanding production from our right-side players. We are going to need that help on the right-side to take pressure off our outsides and middles. A number of players stepped up and played well. It was a true team victory."
NC State was led by Kelly Wood who led all players with 17 kills. She added 12 digs for a double-double. The Wolfpack hit .293 in the opening set and held the Bulldogs to a .272 percentage. Asheville's lowest attack percentage in the final three sets was .308 in the fourth set while State didn't hit higher than .233 after the opening set.
The Bulldogs continue to serve tough. Asheville had eight service aces on Friday. Asheville is averaging 2.3 aces per set which is double their average from a year ago. The Dogs also won the battle at the net out-blocking State 7-2.
Miotto continues to move closer to the Big South Conference career dig record. She moved her career dig total to 2,080 which is 99 shy of the all-time school and conference mark.
Benorden recorded her 44th career double-double and now has 1,044 career kills and 857 career digs.
Asheville will play two matches on Saturday facing the Citadel at 1:30 p.m. and USC Upstate at 4:30 p.m.
