South Raleigh News

The NC State volleyball team is preparing for two significant matches in Florida as part of their conference play. The Wolfpack will face Miami on Friday, November 8, at 7 p.m., followed by a match against the 24th-ranked Florida State on Sunday, November 10, at 1 p.m. Both games will be available for streaming on ACC Network Extra.

Friday's game marks the 22nd meeting between NC State and Miami. The teams have evenly split their last ten encounters, with Miami winning two of the previous three matches. When playing four sets, NC State has a record of 3-6 against Miami and is 1-2 when extending to five sets. In their last matchup in Coral Gables, Ava Brizard led NC State with 19 kills while Courtney Bryant contributed 15.

On Sunday, NC State will meet Florida State for the 54th time. The Seminoles lead the series with a record of 46-7 and have claimed victory in seven of the last ten meetings. Since rally scoring began in 2001, NC State is winless in four-set matches against Florida State but holds a balanced record of 2-2 when going to five sets. In their most recent contest in Tallahassee, Ava Brizard achieved a career-high of 25 kills on 53 attempts with three errors, finishing with a .415 hitting percentage.

A victory or victories this weekend would mark the program's 211th and 212th ACC wins and bring them closer to significant milestones: it would be the team's overall wins number to reach 813 and 814 and increase head coach Luka Slabe’s tally to his 75th and potentially his 76th conference wins.

Several players are approaching personal achievements as well. Ava Brizard is just shy of reaching her milestone with only "170 kills from [reaching] her goal of '1,000'", Martyna Leoniak needs "86 kills from [achieving] '500'", Jada Allen requires "16 blocks from [attaining] '400'", and Amanda Rice is aiming for "76 kills from [hitting] '1,000'".

With eight matches remaining in the regular season for this year, NC State aims to secure its place in the NCAA Tournament. Despite having an RPI that seemed sufficient last year, they were listed among the "first four out" due to a lack of quad-one victories. Currently ranked at "39 in this week's RPI rankings," they face a challenging schedule ahead as four out of their eight remaining games involve ranked opponents; notably, Miami received votes in this week's poll.