UNC volleyball coach Joe Sagula earns 700th win

It didn’t look like it was going to happen.

Down 14-13 to Maryland in the fifth set, the North Carolina volleyball team stared defeat right in the eyes.

With just one mistake, the Tar Heels would have left College Park with their fourth ACC loss, a chance at the regular season title gone and coach Joe Sagula still sitting on 699 career victories.

But instead of wavering in their closest game of the season, the Tar Heels remained firm and improved to 26-3 overall and 15-3 in ACC play.

UNC staved off five Terrapin match points in the final set to hang on for a dramatic 20-18 win to take the match (29-27, 25-19, 26-28, 19-25, 20-18). The Tar Heels delivered Sagula his 700th career win and kept themselves firmly entrenched in the ACC title chase.

“It was a crazy match,” Sagula said. “I didn’t think it was going to be that close. We stared into the depths of ourselves so many times and came out on top. I am just so proud at how well the team played and hung in there.”

It was a back and forth match, and the Terrapins appeared to have the momentum heading into the deciding fifth set.

But the Tar Heels kept fighting, and managed to pull out what Sagula said was one of the team’s gutsiest wins of the year.

And the team’s scrappiest player was not a veteran who had been in these situations before. Instead, it was redshirt freshman Hayley McCorkle.

Down 18-17 in the fifth set — one of the matchpoints for Maryland — setter Jordyn Schnabl set up McCorkle to tie the set at 18. The next point: Schnabl to McCorkle for a kill to give the Tar Heels a shot at the win.

And the clincher? You guessed it — Schnabl to McCorkle.

“I was just fired up that entire fifth set,” McCorkle said. “We were just taking it point by point. Everyone on the sidelines was just saying, ‘One point, one point, tie it back up.’ We couldn’t just be like, ‘ Oh no, we’re down,’ we had to take it one point at a time and that’s how we kept our focus.”

After McCorkle’s final slam hit the ground, Sagula was able to celebrate a momentous win for his team, and — although he doesn’t want to take any credit — a personal milestone for him: win 700 in his 33rd year of coaching and 24th in Chapel Hill.

“I’m just so thankful,” he said. “I’m thankful to be coaching at Carolina. I’m thankful for this team. To get 700 wins is nice, but to get the 26th win of the year with this team is awesome. It’s really not me.”

But sophomore Leigh Andrew said her team wouldn’t be where it is without its record-setting coach.

“We couldn’t do this without him,” she said. “He deserves every single one of those 700 wins. We didn’t win tonight just for us, we did it for him.”

sports@dailytarheel.com