Following a 3-0 victory over Boston College last weekend, the women’s volleyball team came out flat at home against ACC rival Wake Forest Thursday night. Junior middle blocker Margaret Salata blamed the slow start on the distractions of being at home.

“We all had class today,” Salata said. “If we were on the road today we would’ve been in a hotel as opposed to in class all day. We had other focuses throughout the day.”

The Pack hit just .056 in the first period, leading to a 25-16 first-set win for Wake.

“We have a tendency to come out really slow in any of the home games we’ve had in the past,” senior setter Alex Smith said. “Coach Bunn told us we need to get our minds right before any home game and do things differently than we have before, change things up.”

But after falling in the first game, the team fought back in the second set, before Wake Forest was able to edge out a 25-23 win over the Pack, which hit just .150 for the match.

“We weren’t following the scouting report [in the second game,]” junior libero Kelly Wood said. “It was better, but we were not to the level that we had prepared for.”

And before the third set, referees were afraid the team would literally not show up. With one minute left in the intermission, referees had to call for the team to return to the court, resulting in a warning.

“We were just talking about what we’ve got to do to win,” coach Bryan Bunn said. “We get that break in there and it’s a time for us to refocus. If we need to make any tactical changes, we make tactical changes. If we need to need to make some emotional changes, we try to do that [during the break].”

Wake Forest scored first and jumped ahead 10-4 in what proved to be the decisive third set.

“In the third set, we started making errors again,” Bunn said. “We weren’t ready for some of the things they did. We’ve got to get our minds in the right place for every game.”

Surrendering side-outs on 88 percent of its serves in the set, the Pack was never able to build a sustained rally and fell 25-17 in the third, but has little time to think about the loss.

“Wake is over. They‘re done, it’s in the past,” Salata said. “We don’t see them again until next season. So we’ll get scouting reports on them and make them our focus.”

The team will host Duke tonight night at 7 p.m. in historic Reynolds Coliseum.

“You forget about [the last game],” Smith said. “Duke – different team, different everything.”