Eagles to Challenge Wake Forest, Duke on the Road

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Boston College volleyball is looking at another weekend full of ACC action. The Eagles will travel to Wake Forest on Friday at 6:30 p.m. On Sunday, BC will then head over to Durham N.C. to take on Duke at 1 p.m., which will be streamed on ACC Network Extra.

In their first ACC matchups of the 2017 campaign, the Eagles fell to both Syracuse and Pittsburgh in four sets. After second-set successes in both matches, the home teams won the following two sets to take the victories. Sophomore Cat Balido led in kills with 26 on the weekend. Sophomore Jane DeJarld registerd 47 assists while sophomore Jill Strockis notched 27 digs.

Head coach Chris Campbell believes the team continues to grow, even in adversity.

"The process is to try and keep getting a little bit better every week," said Campbell. "Those things are starting to add up and you're starting to see some of our recent results. You're seeing things happen that haven't accumulated in wins, but they're the necessary steps that we have to take to get us there."

To open the weekend, the Eagles will face off against Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons hold an overall record of 9-5, while splitting their ACC record, 1-1. They lost on the road to Duke in their first conference matchup, but rallied to beat Clemson on home turf. Wake Forest had four players with over 100 kills: senior Kylie Long (176), sophomore Caroline Rassenfoss (122), sophomore Caitlyn Della (104) and freshman Caroline Kuhn (101). Rassenfoss has a registered 20 service aces thus far, and freshman Madeline Holt has a team-high 313 assists. The all-time series between the two squads is led by the Demon Deacons, 13-6.

"Wake is a bit like us in that they're a bit younger," said Campbell when asked about the pairing. "They have a few more veteran players on the team so there's a little bit more experience. That one is going to be a dog fight. That'll be a real competitive match for us."

Duke will play Syracuse Thursday before they meet the Eagles, but is currently 10-3 overall. The Blue Devils are undefeated in conference play, notching home wins against Wake Forest and Georgia Tech. Freshman Payton Schwantz paces Duke with 156 kills on the season and was named ACC Freshman of the Week on Sept. 11. Defensively, the Blue Devils have two players above 100 digs: seniors Nicole Elattrache (193) and Cadie Bates (131).

"Duke is probably a little more experienced, although they lost a couple of key players last year," said Campbell. "I think that's there for us. They're still kind of getting used to each other, it looks like. But both of those places are pretty tough environments to play in. It's great ACC action. They're both challenges, they're both winnable matches for us."

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Eagles to Challenge Wake Forest, Duke on the Road

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Players Mentioned

Cat Balido

Jane DeJarld

Jill Strockis