Women’s Volleyball Weekly Release

September 28, 1998

This Week’s Matchups

Clemson (9-3, 2-0 ACC) will play host to North Carolina Tuesday at 7 p.m. The Tigers will travel to Virginia Friday for a 7 p.m. match then play at Maryland Saturday at 5 p.m.

North Carolina leads the series 26-11, but Clemson defeated the Tar Heels twice last season. The Tigers hold a 20-5 series advantage over the Cavaliers after beating Virginia twice last year. Maryland leads the series with Clemson 18-16. The Terrapins won both regular-season matchups last year before the Tigers handed then-15th ranked Maryland its first loss of the season in the second round of the ACC Tournament.

Tigers 2-0 in ACC

The Clemson volleyball team, ranked second in District III, defeated N.C. State, 15-9, 15-8, 15-9, to open the ACC season on Friday night at Jervey gym.

The Tigers upset 21st-ranked Florida State, 15-5, 15-13, 6-15, 15-17, 15-13 Saturday night at Jervey gym. This was just Clemson’s fifth win ever over a Top 25 team. The win was also the Tigers’ first win over the Seminoles, currently ranked first in District III, since 1996.

Clemson outhit Florida State .360 to .075 in the first game. Junior Cindy Stern led the Tigers in hitting after tying a Clemson record with 13 kills in game four. For the match, Stern hit .299 with 30 kills, 10 errors and 67 total attacks. Junior Alison Coday had 21 digs and Melissa Kudelka tallied 69 assists to pace the Tigers.

ACC Notes

Entering last week’s matches, the Tigers led the ACC with a .295 hitting percentage and ranked second with 3.03 blocks per game…Junior Cindy Stern led the league with a .402 hitting percentage and ranked second with 1.50 blocks per game…Senior middle hitter Stephanie Schulz was third in the ACC with a .393 attack percentage…Junior Skye Frost ranked third in the ACC with 0.54 service aces per game…The Tigers captured the ACC Championship last season, winning the ACC Tournament in Raleigh, NC. The title was Clemson’s first in the 21-year history of the Tiger volleyball program. Clemson’s victory also marked the first time in ACC history that the fourth-seeded team won the crown. Hoover Seeking Coaching Record

Head coach Jolene Jordan Hoover needs just eight victories to tie former head coach Linda White’s record of 138 wins at the helm of the Tiger program. Hoover has a 130-52 record over her six seasons at Clemson and is 223-83 in her nine years as a head coach. Hoover’s .725 winning percentage entering the season placed her 17th nationally among Division I head coaches. She ranks third among ACC coaches with 52 league wins. Only one other active ACC coach, Maryland’s Janice Kruger, ranks ahead with 75 wins.

Tiger on U.S. National Team

Clemson junior middle hitter Cindy Stern competed on the United States National B Team this past summer in various competitions held in Colorado Springs. The daily schedule for the five weeks Stern trained included five hours of practice each weekday, two hours in the morning and three hours each afternoon. During the last week of training, the U.S. Team hosted Canada’s national team for nightly competition.

Current Tigers Among Career Leaders

With seven block assists last weekend, senior Stephanie Schulz is in third place on the Tigers’ career list with 331 block assists. Schulz is 36 block assists away from Wendy Anderson’s record of 367 block assists. She has 892 career kills, ranking tenth on Clemson’s all-time list. Junior Cindy Stern ranks seventh on the career block assists list with 281 block assists. Stern is in fifth place on the career block solos list with 98 block solos.

Home, Sweet Home

The Tigers are 5-0 in Jervey Gym this season. In the five matches, 4,160 fans have come out to watch Clemson, an average of 832 fans per contest. Clemson was 13-2 at home last season. During the 15 home matches, a total of 10,502 fans gathered to watch the Tigers, giving Clemson the 28th-best home attendance figure among all NCAA schools. Three of Clemson’s 1997 home matches were attended by standing-room only crowds of over 1,000 fans.