Brown’s 1,000th kill highlights 3-0 weekend for Pack

Ethan Barry, Correspondent • September 11, 2017

Junior outside hitter Julia Brown leaps for a ball in the Wolfpack’s 3-2 loss against UNC-Chapel Hill on Sept. 22, 2016. Brown led the team with 17 kills and grabbed 21 digs in the loss at Reynolds Coliseum.

The NC State volleyball team rebounded from a rough start to the season to collect three wins this past weekend while senior Julia Brown became the 11th player in school history to record 1,000 kills over the course of her Wolfpack career.

The Pack competed in the High Point Tournament on Saturday afternoon and evening, held at Millis Center on the campus of High Point University. The Pack defeated UNC-Wilmington 3-2, before taking down the host Panthers 3-0 in the evening session. The team returned home on Sunday afternoon and defeated LIU Brooklyn 3-0.

Against UNC-W, State won the first set 25-15 before dropping the next two sets, 26-24 and 25-22. State rebounded from those close sets and dominated the next two sets, 25-7 and 15-6, to win the match, which was the team’s first win of the season. The team collected 69 kills, led by Brown with 22. Sophomore Grace Irvin paced the team with 25 digs.

The Pack returned to the court at 6 p.m. on Saturday to take on the host Panthers. State rolled to a 3-0 sweep 25-15, 26-24, 25-21. Freshman Melissa Evans and graduate Bree Bailey contributed 11 kills each. Brown added another 10 kills and 13 digs. Juniors Kassie Kasper and Kylie Pickrell recorded 10 and eight digs respectively.

Sunday afternoon, the Pack returned to Reynolds Coliseum and defeated the Blackbirds from LIU Brooklyn in straight sets, 25-19, 25-14, 25-10.

During the game, Brown recorded seven kills, the fifth of which was the 1,000th of her career. Brown is the eleventh player in program history to reach the milestone. She is also the third active player in the ACC with 1,000 kills, joining Kylie Long from Wake Forest and Olga Strantzali from Miami.

Against the Blackbirds, Bailey had 12 kills, while senior Kaitlyn Kearney had 11. Irvin collected 13 digs, while Pickrell and Brown had eight and seven respectively.

Sweeping the weekend schedule puts the Pack back at 3-5 overall, after getting off to a rough start against an extremely difficult schedule. State travels to Ann Arbor, Michigan, this coming weekend, which is their final nonconference action of the season.

The Pack will face Cincinnati and no.21 Michigan Friday, before concluding the Michigan Tournament Saturday against Milwaukee.