UNC women's volleyball destroys Blue Devils

The North Carolina women's volleyball team continued its dominance of the net by allowing only a .093 hitting percentage from conference rival Duke.

The Tar Heels lead the ACC in opponent hitting percentage at .144.

Coach Joe Sagula said playing good defense is three-fold — requiring consistent back row digging" strong blocking and solid serving — and the Tar Heels have done all three well this year.

""A lot goes to the credit of the defense" Sagula said. Brianna Eskola" Kaylie Gibson and Sue Haydel's defense in the back row has been phenomenal.

""If you're digging a lot of balls"" then the other team's percentage is going to go down.""

Eskola currently ranks third all-time in the ACC in career digs.

After racking up 21 more Thursday against the Blue Devils"" she is only 67 shy of the ACC record.

""She is by the far the best defense player in the ACC" in my opinion" Sagula said. Her ability to stabilize our team on defense has been significant.""

UNC also ranks second in the ACC in blocks with 257.5"" averaging 2.58 per set.

Ingrid Hanson-Tuntland leads the Tar Heels in blocks per set with just fewer than two.

""We try to look at the hitters and see their body movements and try to read them" Hanson-Tuntland said.

Basically every time we're in practice we're learning how to block the ball so it's not diggable so there's no chance that there's a dig" and we've been doing a good job of executing that.""

Sagula said the importance of serving is sometimes lost when teams analyze their defensive play.

""If you serve well" you have an advantage to get a block and set up a little earlier and then the defense can be set up Sagula said. We are not a team that leads the conference in service aces" but we serve very tough.

""If we do that"" then our defense has a bit of an edge.""



Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.