RALEIGH — After yet another dominant, 3-0 shutout, this time against conference rivals N.C. State, it appears that few teams are able to find a solution to stop the balanced offensive attack the No. 14 North Carolina volleyball team brings to the court each night.
“Our goal tonight was to be balanced and I thought we were,” UNC coach Joe Sagula said.
The stat sheet proved Sagula correct. All but two players on the Tar Heels’ active roster recorded a point tonight, and five different players had six kills or more for the Tar Heels (25-3, 14-3 ACC).
“Volleyball’s a team sport so you can’t rely on one person to win the game for you, so that was part of our strategy: get the ball, move the ball around, create splits in the blocks so we can use that to our advantage,” freshman setter Abigail Curry said..
That advantage clearly went in favor of the Tar Heels, who swept the Wolfpack 25-17, 25-14 and 25-20 in front of a tough crowd in Raleigh in yet another “team win” for the women in Carolina blue uniforms.
“That’s what makes it tough for other teams to stop is because we can set any hitter at any time and they can put the ball away,” senior Kayla Berringer said.
Individually, not a single member of the ACC’s No. 2 Tar Heels rank in the top ten in the ACC in individual kills, assists or aces, and there’s just one person each barely sneaking into the ten spot in individual blocks and in digs.
As a team, however, the Tar Heels rank second in opponent hitting percentage, assists, kills and aces, as well as fourth in hitting percentage and in blocks.
“It’s easy when you play against a team who has one or two good players to defend against them,” Sagula said. “We don’t wanna be that easy to defend against.”
