BLACKSBURG – Playing back in the friendly confines of Carilion Clinic Court at Cassell Coliseum for the first time since Sept. 30, the Virginia Tech volleyball team will play host to Wake Forest and Duke this weekend.
The Hokies (12-8, 3-5 ACC) will take on Wake Forest (8-13, 3-6 ACC) on Friday at 6 p.m. ET and will play Duke (10-8, 4-5 ACC) on Sunday at 1 p.m. Both matches will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra.
On Wednesday, the Demon Deacons and Blue Devils played in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and saw Duke come out on top, 3-2, for the lone midweek tilt in league play. Tech owns the all-time series advantage against Wake Forest 32-12, while Duke has the 29-4 advantage versus the Hokies.
WEEKEND SCHEDULE
Fri. | 6 p.m. ET vs. Wake Forest | Stats | Broadcast
Sun. | 1 p.m. ET vs. Duke | Stats | Broadcast
Going 0-2 this past weekend away from Blacksburg, the Hokies fell in straight sets to both No. 21 Louisville (15-4, 8-0 ACC) and Notre Dame (11-7, 5-3 ACC) wrapping up their four-match road swing in conference play.
Sophomore Ester Talamazzi had one of her best matches of the season, tying her ACC-high hitting percentage of .333 with 10 kills. Tech out-blocked UofL 6-4, marking its first loss of the season when doing so to make them 11-1 when it out-blocks its opponent.
Talamazzi picked up where she left off, racking up nine kills. It marked her best weekend of the season, owning 19 kills in the two matches combined. Kaity Smith's six-match streak of having at least 10 kills came to a close, adding seven.
The Hokies are No. 4 in the ACC for service aces per set with 1.46 and are No. 4 in opponent kills with an 11.91 mark. Sophomore Kaity Smith owns the eighth-best average for kills per set (3.57) in the league, as well as the sixth-best aces per set mark (0.31).
Head Coach Jill Wilson and Associate Head Coach John Wasielewski both have ties to Tech's opponents this weekend. Wilson coached at Wake Forest in 2006 as an assistant coach, while Wasielewski was with Duke from 1999-2016 as an assistant coach and associate head coach.
SENIOR PROJECT
The two seniors on Tech's team, Mitchell and Tolbert, have partnered with the Women's Resource Center of the New River Valley for their senior project. The project entails fans coming to home volleyball matches and bringing items to help support these families who are going through domestic violence at the marketing table. For more info on the project and what items to bring, click here.
FAN INFO
Friday against the Demon Deacons is "National Chocolate Cupcake Day" with giveaways of chocolate cupcakes. Sunday afternoon versus the Blue Devils is "Cassell Carnival", "Hokie Kids' Club Day" and "Hokie All-Stars Day" with face painters, balloon twisters and carnival games.
Virginia Tech Athletics is implementing a clear-bag policy at all of its games this academic year. The policy will allow for a better and quicker experience at gates and is also a public safety measure that is being successfully implemented at other large venues including fellow ACC venues. For more info, click here.
SCOUTING WAKE FOREST
• Wake Forest (8-13, 3-6 ACC) is coming off a 3-2 home-contest loss over Duke on Wednesday. Last weekend, the Demon Deacons defeated both Georgia Tech (13-8, 2-6 ACC) and Clemson (10-11, 1-7 ACC), extending their then-three-match winning streak, all of which came from home.
• The Demon Deacons share a common nonconference opponent with the Hokies, when they took on Ohio on Sept. 1. Tech took down Ohio 3-1, but the Deacs fell in straight sets to the Bobcats. Wake has played two ranked opponents this season and fell to both, falling to No. 5 Nebraska (15-3, 6-2 B1G) and No. 21 Louisville.
• Head Coach Bill Ferguson enters his third year in Winston-Salem and owns a record of 30-54 (.357) with Wake Forest. Ferguson has NCAA Tournament coaching experience with USC in 2009 and 2012, as he led the Women of Troy to a pair of runner-up finishes as they advanced through the Final Four.
• Sophomore Madeline Holt ranks among the top six in the ACC in average assists per set, racking up a tally of 9.46.
SCOUTING DUKE
• Duke (10-8, 4-5 ACC) is entering this weekend's matchup after winning in five sets on the road at Wake Forest on Wednesday. The Blue Devils split last weekend's home matchups, defeating Clemson 3-0 last Friday, but fell short to Georgia Tech 3-1 on Sunday.
• The Blue Devils played No. 1 BYU (18-0, WCC 8-0) twice to begin the season, falling to the Cougars twice. They also played two teams inside the top-50 RPI and won both, defeating LSU (7-11, 2-5 SEC) 3-1 and [RV] Cincinnati (17-4, American 7-0) 3-0. Duke fell to No. 21 Louisville in straight sets on Oct. 5.
• Head Coach Jolene Nagel enters her 20th season in Durham as the winningest coach in program history, with a record of 421-193 (.686) at Duke. Nagel has led the Blue Devils to 12 NCAA Tournament appearances, including an ACC record of seven consecutive runs from 2005-2011.
• Redshirt senior Andie Shelton leads the ACC in average aces per set, averaging 0.39 aces, while redshirt junior Leah Meyer ranks in the top seven in both hitting percentage and blocks among ACC competition.
