Heading into its weekend series against ACC foe Virginia, the North Carolina softball team was facing signs of its earlier season — a losing streak.
After losing four games in a row, including suffering their first series sweep by No. 9 Florida State , the Tar Heels were struggling to find a way to stop the bleeding.
“Anytime you lose a few games in a row it can be hard to bounce back,” freshman Kendra Lynch said. “But we never give up.”
The Tar Heels' resiliency proved to be the bandage they were looking for.
UNC (21-16, 12-5 ACC) swept the series with Virginia (4-32, 1-16 ACC ) and discovered that the key to halting its losing streak at four was to do something it has been working hard to do all season: put together a strong performance in all phases of the game.
“At points in the season we’ve struggled to put all cylinders of our game together, but this weekend I thought the girls did a fantastic job in all aspects,” coach Donna Papa said. “Our hitting was great, our pitchers did a great job, and defensively we were very solid. We really put it together this weekend.”
Papa said while she believes the team has been excelling defensively this season, its performances at the plate and in the circle have been slightly less consistent. She said the patience and focus the hitters and pitchers displayed in their performances this weekend shows signs of good things to come.
“(Our performance) infused us with a little more excitement and confidence,” Papa said. “We proved to ourselves that when we play smart and do all the little things, we can beat anybody.”
The Tar Heels posted two shutouts over the weekend, taking games one and two 7-0 and 3-1, respectively, before finishing out the series sweep with an 8-0 victory in game three on Sunday .
