The North Carolina volleyball team hasn’t had much trouble getting off the court quickly this season.
The 13th ranked Tar Heels are 18-1, 7-1 ACC, and 14 of those wins have come in three straight sets. They are unaccustomed to having to play four sets to win a match, much less five.
But five sets is exactly what it took for UNC to defeat Virginia Tech (17-5, 5-3 ACC) in Blacksburg on Saturday.
“We really showed a lot of guts and courage in the way we played,” coach Joe Sagula said. “Virginia Tech is a really good team, and always a really tough team to play in their gym… We found a good way to win, a different way than we had. I thought that was really important for this team to understand a little more about our identity this year.”
The Tar Heels won the first set against Virginia Tech, but lost the next two. Another lost set would have cost the Tar Heels the match and given them their second loss of the season, but they fought back and won the fourth set.
With their backs against the wall, the athletes could have easily folded under pressure when they found themselves in a must-win fifth set — a situation they were in during just one other match this season.
Instead, different players stepped up in crunch time. Sophomore Jordyn Schnabl played a key role in the Tar Heels’ comeback, performing well from the service line.
When Schnabl came up to serve in the decisive fifth and final set, her team was winning 8-6. Schnabl served seven straight points, helping the Tar Heels clinch the set 15-6 and win the match. The team also played the final set without committing a single error.
They found a different way to win.
