UNC women’s volleyball sweeps the Western Michigan Invitational, takes tournament title

The North Carolina volleyball team won all three of its matches at this weekend’s Western Michigan Invitational and claimed the tournament title.

UNC started the weekend by beating Western Michigan 3-0 on Friday, and the Tar Heels went on to beat Seton Hall 3-0 and Liberty 3-1 on Saturday.

Junior Emily McGee was named the tournament’s most valuable player while teammates Kayla Berringer and Tia Gaffen joined her in being named to the All-Tournament team.

McGee earned her honor by notching double-digit kills and assists in each of UNC’s wins in the tournament. Berringer claimed a career-high 23 kills in the championship match against Liberty.

Gaffen marked 11 kills against the Flames to add to the win and weekend success.

Additionally, the team hit more than .300 in each of the weekend’s matches, including a season-high .443 against Seton Hall.

Both Berringer and McGee recognized that much of the team’s success was motivated by a specific focus on hitting in practices last week after Florida shut out the Tar Heels the previous weekend.

“Florida really motivated us all week in practice,” McGee said. “We put a lot of emphasis on all of our hitting positions and it showed.”

Head coach Joe Sagula said he was most encouraged by the fact that his team adapted well to three different types of opponents and how it showed tenacity after a loss in the third set against Liberty to pull off the tournament win.

“We thought Western Michigan would be a lot like us, with good ball handling and many solid players,” Sagula said. “We were prepared for Seton Hall to be bigger, with really good blocking, and Liberty was going to be different still.

“(Liberty) was a scrappy team — not as big, but physical and good at just keeping the ball in play no matter what.”

The team posted a .316 hitting percentage against Liberty, the lowest for the tournament, but the Tar Heels still had an impressive showing by their own standards.

“We were just really aggressive all weekend on passing and serving,” Berringer said. “We improved a lot percentage-wise, especially against Seton Hall. I’d love to see that continue, but if we were to just keep the percentage where we are right now after this weekend, that’d be awesome consistency for the season.”

The weekend set a standard that players and Sagula agree would be good to follow for the duration of the season, but Sagula said there are definite areas for improvement before next weekend’s Carolina Classic.

“Following through in matches from practices is something we’ll have to continue to do every time. We definitely haven’t fixed everything,” Sagula said. “This was a big weekend for hitting, but it was more that when we put efforts into something, we can see the results in the success as a team.”

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