Volleyball splits opening games in Gainesville tournament

Going into its match against No. 9 Florida after a season-opening win against Auburn, North Carolina volleyball knew it needed a big upset to leave its first tournament undefeated.

The Tar Heels didn’t get it.

With the win against the Tigers and loss to the Gators, UNC split its first two matches of the year in Florida’s Active Ankle Challenge. The Tar Heels’ first match was a straight-sets win, their second a straight-sets loss.

“We’re disappointed, but not dissatisfied,” UNC coach Joe Sagula said. “We’re disappointed the Florida game wasn’t closer. We should have put more pressure on them to try to change the nature of the match.”

In their win against Auburn, the Tar Heels used a long scoring run to jump out to an early lead. Up 13-10 in the first set, North Carolina closed the set on a 12-5 run.

The second set stayed close, but UNC never gave up the lead after going up 10-9. And with Auburn holding three set points in the third, the Tar Heels rallied, eventually winning the set 28-26 and the match three sets to none.

But after an easy first victory on Friday, Florida turned things around on the Tar Heels Saturday.

In the first set, it was UNC that stayed close but failed to catch up — the Gators took a 3-2 lead and never looked back.

The Tar Heels also had their chances in the second set, holding an 18-16 lead before dropping the set 25-20. This time, it was their opponent that used a big run against them.

“Up 18-16 in the second game, we were exactly where we wanted to be,” Sagula said. “But we made some unforced errors and they made a couple of good plays, and we lost our momentum. We went from 18-16 to down 22-18, and we didn’t have an answer to that run.”

Florida went on another run in the third set to put UNC away. With an 18-13 lead, the Gators won six straight points and seven of the last eight, taking the set and ending the match.

Junior outside hitter Emily McGee said the team showed positive signs even in the loss.

“Our volleyball team showed some great strengths this weekend,” McGee said. “It was our first tournament and you never know what to expect, and we came out really strong. We’re a feisty team and we did a lot of things right. Our blocking, our hitting and our defense were really much-improved from last year.”

McGee was named to the Active Ankle Challenge All-Tournament Team after registering 20 combined kills in the two matches on a .228 hitting percentage. She also had five service aces and twelve digs in the tournament.

McGee said the large audience at Florida energized the Tar Heels.

“Playing in front of such a huge crowd at Florida was really exciting,” McGee said. “We’re just as excited for our first home tournament and we’re hoping for a lot of support from the school.”

North Carolina will play in Chapel Hill for the first time in the 2011 Carolina Classic on Sept. 9. Their first true home match will be against another nationally-ranked team, No. 20 San Diego.

“We have to simulate the game situations a little more and especially train our outside hitters to play at a faster tempo,” Sagula said. “The other part is the players being focused. We need to have the mindset it takes to compete.”

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