Wakefield volleyball sweeps Wake Forest High

What better way to send off your seniors than a win over your rivals in their final game.

That’s exactly what took place when Wakefield swept Wake Forest 3-0 (25-15, 25-19, 25-16) Thursday afternoon. The two schools, separated by a short trip down U.S. 1, have no love lost, and despite a rough year for both in Cap-8 play, all that mattered was who came out on top.

Wake Forest (0-22, 0-13) was swept for the 16th time this season. But the scoreboard doesn’t indicate how hard the Cougars battled, typical for a rivalry game.

“It’s kind of a microcosm of our season,” Wake Forest coach Scott Love said. “We have moments when we look like we can be as competitive as anybody in the conference, we just can’t consistently string them together.”

The Cougars held leads in each set, only to watch the Wolverines (10-11, 5-8) battle back and eventually pull away. Wakefield trailed early in the first set, only to go on a 7-2 run and cruise to a 10-point win.

The Wolverines came out on fire in the second set, going ahead 9-3, but Wake Forest made it interesting down the stretch, pulling to within four, but that’s as close as they got. The third set was tied six times before the Wolverines put the nail in the coffin.

“I think we played pretty well,” Wakefield coach Cynthia Terrell said. “We have to control the game. We kind of got out of sync (at times) and we just had to take it one play at a time and things should fall into place, and it did.”

The Wolverines were led by sophomore Ade Owkoniran, who made play after play for Wakefield, more times than not, when they needed it most.

“I think my role at the net is to invigorate the team,” Owkoniran said. “I think when our energy gets low we play bad. I just like to have fun out there.”

Turning point

In the third set the Cougars jumped out to an early lead, but then Owkoniran made an insane play at the net that lit a fire under the Wolverines. Owkoniran got the first hit and fell to the ground. One of her teammates got the second hit. By this time Owkoniran had gotten up, just in time to tip it back over. Wake Forest couldn’t counter. That pulled Wakefield to within one, and suddenly, the Wolverines were back in control.

Three who mattered

Ade Owkoniran, Wakefield: A dominant force at the net, verbal leader, all-around floor general for the Wolverines. Owkoniran was a blocking, killing, tipping machine for Wakefield. She finished with a team-high five blocks and eight kills.

“When Ade is on, she is on,” Terrell said. “She lights up the team. She is phenomenal when she is on. Her energy carries the team.”

Gabbi Ingram, Wakefield: Ingram came off the bench in the first set and gave the home team a much needed spark. When she entered the game, the Wolverines trailed, 4-2. Three kills later, the set was all tied up.

Erin Fox, Wakefield: The senior was impressive from the service line all night, getting some easy points for the Wolverines in all three sets. She finished with a team-high 92.3 serving percentage.

By the numbers

8: The number of kills by Owkoniran and Ingram.

86.5: The team serving percentage for the Cougars.

6: The number of ties in the final set before the Wolverines took over for good.

Needs improvement

Inconsistency killed the Cougars. Wake Forest showed flashes, but could never put together a complete set.

“We would get a good pass, then we would get a marginal set,” Love said. “Or we would get a good pass, then we would get a hitting era.”

They said it

“We do some good things,” Love said. “We just don’t do good things consistent enough for us to win games.”

This story was originally published October 15, 2015 at 11:32 PM with the headline "Wakefield volleyball sweeps Wake Forest High."