Volleyball (@ClemsonVB) Opens ACC Play This Week

CLEMSON, SC – The Clemson volleyball team will open their 20-match ACC slate this week with trips to Pittsburgh (8-5, 0-0 ACC) and Maryland (8-4, 0-0 ACC). Clemson (6-5, 0-0 ACC) will play the Panthers (@PittVolleyball) on Friday at 4:00 pm at Fitzgerald Fieldhouse, and then will travel to College Park, MD to play the Terrapins (@UMTerpsVolley) on Sunday at 2:00 pm in  the Comcast Pavilion.  Clemson will play Pitt for just the second time ever, with the previous meeting coming in 1997, a Tiger victory. The match will be Pitt’s first-ever league match since becoming an official league member on July 1, 2013. Clemson holds a 37-28 lead in the all-time series over Maryland. Last season, each squad won on the other’s home floor.  Both matches will be broadcast on the opponents’ respective websites, PittsburghPanthers.com and UMTerps.com. Fans can also follow @ClemsonVB on twitter and Instagram for updates and stats throughout the trip.  After this road trip, the Tigers will play six straight home ACC matches, keeping them in Tigertown until and Oct. 25 trip to Boston College and an Oct. 27 trip to Syracuse.  Notes (in 140 characters or less):

• Mo Simmons (@Mo_Money22) leads @ACCVolleyball and is 18th in the nation at 4.38 kills/set
• Simmons tallied 1,000th kill, 800th dig, and 300th block last weekend
• Beta Dumancic ranks 6th in the ACC at 1.24 blocks per set; She led the Clemson Classic at 1.54 per set
• Kamryn Sherman has back-to-back double-doubles, had 2 in career prior to Clemson Classic
• Kristin Faust has had double-figure digs in her last 8 matches, including 26 against Alabama
• Freshman Leah Perri is quietly averaging 2.24 kills/set, hitting .275
• Perri has nine or more kills in eight straight matches
• DS Niki Collier is 187-190 (.984) in serve-receive this season and is 3rd with 100 digs on the season
• Hannah Brenner ranks 6th in Clemson history with 3,124 career set assists; also has 35 car. double-doubles
• Karis Watson (@karisw8) has tallied double-figure kills in 9 of 12 matches this season, and is hitting team-best .300 this season
• Watson also 2nd on team with 2.31 kills/set, 0.98 blocks/set
• #rejected Clemson’s 2.44 blocks/set average is good for 6th in the ACC