North Carolina won Wednesday night’s match against Clemson the hard way.
UNC committed 11 attack errors and four service errors in the second set — literally scoring more points for Clemson than Clemson scored for themselves in that set.
The Tar Heels bookended their 3-1 victory against Clemson with consistent, hard-fought sets. Coach Joe Sagula said the error-filled middle sets were indicative of a group of players still trying to find their places in this year’s deep lineup.
“That’s why we had all of those errors,” he said. “People were trying to freewheel, and we can’t function that way. We have to play within what the system is asking for.”
After taking the first set by 11 points, UNC found itself down early in the second set. The crowd roared during every Clemson serve, but the Tar Heels seemed more distracted than the visitors.
“We’re a team that has a lot of big, physical hitters,” said senior Emily McGee, one of those hitters. “We pass, set, hit like a machine, so when that’s not working, we get frustrated. So we have to find other ways to win, different ways to execute.
“It was definitely frustrating not playing that way after just seeing how we could play.”
Time after time, a Tar Heel attacker would jump and wind up — only to hit the ball into the net or out of play. Someone would make a spectacular dig, but the ball would fall to the floor as players struggled to decide who would make the set.
“We got angry, which always makes us play well,” senior setter Cora Harms said. “We should always beat them — they’re a good team, but we’re better than them in every position, so we should always beat them. We should be angry they took a set from us.”
