The volleyball team hit the road during Thanksgiving weekend, losing 3-0 at Maryland on Friday and 3-0 at Boston College on Saturday. Earlier in the season N.C. State had taken Maryland to five games and Boston College to four, but the team didn’t fare as well this time. It finished the season 2-29 overall and 0-22 in the ACC. It is the fourth time in five seasons the team has gone winless in ACC play.
Even though first-year coach Charita Stubbs said not having injured sophomores Keshia Raibon and Aiwane Iboaya in the lineup continued to hurt the team, she said her players did a good job of not using it as an excuse.
“The girls just kind of decided that they just weren’t going to worry about it and were going to try to play to the best of their ability,” Stubbs said.
Friday’s loss came after the Wolfpack gave up an early 7-6 lead in a 30-15 opening-game loss. State then fought to a 12-12 tie roughly midway through the second game against the Terrapins, but in the end, Maryland held on for a 30-28 win to move within one game of winning the match. Finally, in the third game, the Terps never trailed as they earned a 30-20 game victory and 3-0 match triumph. Maryland only had 10 attack errors compared with 21 for the Pack. Sophomore outside hitter Kelley Blakewood led the team in defeat with nine kills.
Saturday’s match featured only nine ties and two lead changes for the whole match, as the Eagles won by scores of 30-25, 30-17 and 30-26. State’s largest lead of the match came at 2-0 in the second game, and the team once again never led in the final game. Sophomore middle blocker Jessica Williams led the team with 10 kills in its season finale.
Blakewood and Williams each had 18 kills during the weekend to lead the team.
Despite the effort by Blakewood and Williams, Stubbs said her team still wasn’t where it needed to be in the two matches.
“For us it’s always a combination of things. How many errors can we avoid making, and then how often can we put ourselves in a position to actually terminate? And so any time your errors are down and your kills are up, that’s a good thing,” Stubbs said. “But I’m not necessarily sure that was the case this weekend.”
