Character and confidence are what coach Joe Sagula said his team showed this past weekend in Athens, Ohio, after the No. 24 North Carolina volleyball squad swept the competition and came away with the title at the annual Bobcat Invitational.
“It gave us a lot of confidence that this team can do some great things this year,” Sagula said.
The Tar Heels went 3-0 for the second weekend in a row, improving to 6-0 on the season and clinching their second straight tournament title after winning the Blue Raider Bash the previous weekend in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Starting off the weekend strong, the Tar Heels flew out of the gate with a 3-0 sweep of Dayton in the first matchup Friday morning, thanks to an impressive 12 kills and six digs from newcomer Jovana Bjelica, a graduate student who previously played for Florida International.
“I really liked the tenacity and the experience that Jovana brought in,” Sagula said.
North Carolina won the three sets 25-14, 25-19, and 25-23.
“We were able to keep pressure on them, take the lead early and never let Dayton back in the match,” he said.
Game two proved to the be the defining moment of the weekend for Sagula’s squad, falling behind by two sets to Ohio before roaring back to take the next three sets in front of a packed crowd of 3,874 people on Ohio’s home court.
“One of our team goals is to always win the third game, and we won the third game, and that’s when it started,” sophomore outside hitter Leigh Andrew said. “After we won the fourth game, there was no doubt we were going to win the fifth,” she said.
