UNC women's volleyball earns two wins in Kentucky

A 3-0 loss in a season opener to a No. 13 team could be seen as a daunting omen by superstitious players.

But for North Carolina’s volleyball team, the loss to Kentucky led to a weekend turnaround and a positive outlook for this year’s season.

Coach Joe Sagula spent time talking to individual players, instead of just speaking to the whole team after that loss on Friday.

Those conversations were well received and resulted in two Saturday victories, two players named to the All-Tournament team and a second-place finish in the Kentucky Classic.

“Knowing that we played well with Kentucky means that we should be a top-16 team,” senior Cora Harms said. “We just have to refine some game decisions and clutch plays, make those extra points count when we’re barely losing or tied.”

UNC beat Long Beach State 3-2 on Saturday afternoon and Lipscomb 3-0 Saturday night, improving its game and scoring those extra points.

“To start with a five-set win over Long Beach, who is ranked ahead of us and receiving more votes than us (in the coaches poll), after a draining loss to Kentucky and to win with our youth was really encouraging,” senior Emily McGee said.

McGee marked her first double-double of the season against Long Beach with 10 kills and 22 digs, and sophomore Ece Taner had 28 digs.

McGee and Taner were both named to the All-Tournament team, but were only two of many players Sagula named as weekend contributors.

“(The weekend’s success) really came from the girls themselves,” Sagula said. “We saw Kentucky as an evaluation, a standard, a measuring stick, and we felt that we really played at that level.”

“We were right there, especially in the first two sets — we just didn’t know how to win out at that point. Now we know that we can play there and that we can also win.”

In the Lipscomb victory, Sagula felt UNC served, passed and blocked well, which are three of the basics he feels will help most in the long run.

“I still know we have a long way to go ahead of us,” Sagula said. “We’ve got to go back to work, get back to those basics. It was successful to finish second in a tournament with four very strong teams. We’ve still just got to get better.”

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