Oct. 25, 2000

Chapel Hill - The University of North Carolina volleyball team will face the Duke Blue Devils Friday (Oct. 27) and the Wake Forest Deacons on Saturday (Oct. 28) for two away ACC matches. The Tar Heels are on a four game win streak and lead the ACC with a 10-1 record and are 20-4 overall. Carolina also ranks 17th in the NCAA with a .833 match won-lost percentage.

Last Time Out

UNC will match up against Duke at 7:30 p.m. at Cameron Stadium in Durham, N.C. The Devils are 4-6 in ACC action and 15-9 overall. The Tar Heels defeated the Devils 15-8, 15-13, 11-15, 15-8 at their last meeting on Oct. 15. Casey Simpson led the team collecting 23 kills and a career-high 19 digs. Malaika Underwood and Lisa Fryer chipped in 19 digs and 16 digs respectively. Krista Buchholz registered a match-high 10 block assists and one solo block along with nine kills.

Carolina will travel to Winston-Salem to meet the Deacons at 7:00 p.m. in Reynolds Gym. The Deacons are 14-7 overall and 5-5 in the ACC. Wake Forest is the only ACC team to beat the Tar Heels this season as they edged out a five game win at their Oct. 13 meeting at Carmichael Auditorium. Four Carolina players posted double-doubles and tacked on career highs as well. Greene rallied career highs in both kills and digs with 27 and 31 respectively. Casey Simpson registered 23 kills and 18 digs. Krista Buchholz notched a career high 19 kills and a match-high six block assists. Eve Rackham recorded a match-high 70 assists and 16 digs.

Milestones

Eve Rackham posted her 500th career dig in the match against Virginia (Oct. 17) and has a career 2,491 assists. Rackham leads the ACC in assists averaging 13.24 per game. Laura Greene crossed the 500-career mark last week in kills and digs with 565 and 507. Casey Simpson who already has a career 1, 356 kills is nearing the 1,000 mark in digs with 888. Liz Feldman follows closely with 861 career digs. Feldman leads the team in service aces with 25 this season surpassing her previous three-season career record of 22.

Triple Threat

Offensively, the Tar Heels have three players averaging over 3.50 kills per game. Reis, ranked third in the ACC, leads the Tar Heels with 4.38 kills per game and 254 season kills. Simpson follows closely, averaging 4.16 kills and 287 for the season and Greene posts a 3.77 average with 298 kills. Greene eclipsed last year's season best of 187 kills.

In the Middle

Defensively, Carolina middle hitters Krista Buchholz and Holly Strauss lead the Heels in blocks posting 94 and 87 respectively. Buchholz is second in the ACC averaging 1.24 blocks per game. Offensively for the Tar Heels, Buchholz ranks fourth on the team in kills (199) and Strauss is fifth (161). Freshman middle blocker Aletha Green should also play a role in the upcoming games posting a season high 11 kills and three block assists against Maryland (Oct. 22)