Two ACC wins bolster Tar Heels' title dreams

The North Carolina volleyball team faced its toughest weekend of the season and came out on top defeating Clemson and Georgia Tech at the Smith Center.

UNC played host to the top two hitters in the conference in Clemson's Danielle Hepburn and Georgia Tech's Talisa Kellogg.

Players credited their success to effective scouting by the coaches.

First the Tar Heels had to figure out how to beat the Tigers on Friday. Their strategy was to not worry about Hepburn who leads the conference in blocks per set.

Clemson called Hepburn's number early" and she recorded four kills in the first seven points.

""We knew that Hepburn" their big stud was gonna be good and get kills and she did coach Joe Sagula said. And we didn't have to stop her necessarily. We had to concentrate on the other players" and other people there ­— role players — we took them out of their game.""

Hepburn finished with 15 kills" more than her average" but UNC still swept Clemson in three sets.

""Their go-to was to the outside" so we were really focused on making sure we had two blockers on the outside" sophomore outside hitter Sue Haydel said.

Tiger outside hitters made 10 attack errors, only one fewer than all of the Tar Heels combined.

Haydel and senior outside hitter Lauren Prussing fared better, combining for 22 kills and four errors.

We knew what systems they were running defensively" so we knew which zones on the court were going to be vulnerable to attack" Prussing said.

After beating Clemson, UNC turned its attention to Kellogg and Georgia Tech on Sunday.

The Tar Heels contained Kellogg to just one kill in the first set, which they took, 25-21.

We did a better job against Kellogg than we did against (outside hitter Chrissy) DeMichelis overall" and I thought it would be the other way around Sagula said.

Junior middle hitter Ingrid Hanson-Tuntland led UNC with five assisted blocks in the match.

We just recognized what (Kellogg's) shots were and were able to stop her" Hanson-Tuntland said.

The Yellow Jackets fought back to take the second set, 25-17. The third set was tightly contested, but the Tar Heels pulled away at the end to take it 25-23.

With Steph (Jansma) coming in" Ingrid Hanson-Tuntland the two of them just changed the nature of the game enough for us to kind of create an edge" Sagula said.

Ga. Tech led 19-18 in set four before senior serving specialist Kelly Davies rallied for seven points in a row to end the match. Hanson-Tuntland had two kills, a block and an assist in that stretch.

To have a great comeback" you have to have one or two players who have a special game" Sagula said. Davies had a special game for us.""

To put away the final point of the match" Prussing hit the ball off the head of blocker Alison Campbell putting an exclamation point on a weekend that saw UNC climb within one game of first place in the ACC.



Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.