Heels notch eighth consecutive win stay atop ACC

The last time the North Carolina women's volleyball team (19-9 13-4 ACC) won eight games in a row the Tar Heels went on to win the ACC Championship.

Sunday the team won its eighth match in a row (25-20 25-19 25-20)" sweeping Wake Forest and avenging an earlier 3-0 loss to the Demon Deacons in Winston-Salem.

""I think we're in a good place right now" coach Joe Sagula said. We had great leads in that match and (at times) we let them dwindle a little bit" but I think we were still in control the whole way.""

Lauren Prussing"" Heather Brooks and Sue Haydel finished with eight kills each. Prussing and Brooks finished errorless while Brooks led the team with a .444 hitting percentage.

""Sweeping these teams is a big confidence-builder" and I feel that's what we need going into tough matches this weekend" Brooks said.

As a team, the Tar Heels continued their defensive dominance, only allowing a .056 attack percentage by the Deacons (17-12, 8-9 ACC).

We knew that Wake Forest was a team that plays really good defense and we had to out-hustle them" and we did" Sagula said. That's what our team is about —   playing great defense.""

After spending much of the year in the middle of the pack" the Tar Heels now find themselves a game up on second-place Duke and Miami after the Hurricanes took down then-second place Clemson on Sunday.

The Tar Heels have delivered payback in two consecutive games handing Duke and Wake Forest losses after falling to them on the road earlier in the season.

Their next big test will come Thursday against Miami to whom they lost in four sets in October.

The Tar Heels haven't won nine in a row since 2002" when they won 13 straight.

""We just need to beat Miami right now" because they're the team that's closest to us in the standings Sagula said. Streaks are fine after you finish them off; let's talk about it after the last one" I hope.""

Sagula said he is looking at their final three regular season games as a tournament.

""We're playing in a three-match tournament coming up"" he said. We've got three matches to win.

""Win Thursday to get to play Friday. We play Friday" then we get to play the next game" and we could win the whole thing.""



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