Taylor Treacy provides energy for UNC in Carolina Classic victories

The North Carolina volleyball team needed a spark.

Down 8-7 in the fifth set Friday at Carmichael Arena against No. 16 Kentucky, the No. 17 Tar Heels were staring down the barrel of a heartbreaking defeat after clinching the first set, dropping two sets in a row and fighting back to force the deciding fifth set.

As the Tar Heels switched to the opposite side of the net, only one thing was running through the mind of coach Joe Sagula.

“I knew we had to come up with two positive plays right away,” Sagula said.

And on the first play after the switch, like the team did throughout the night and in sweeps of Georgia Southern and Virginia Commonwealth on Saturday, the team turned to redshirt sophomore Taylor Treacy to bring the vital energy needed to seize the 3-2 win over the Wildcats.

As sophomore setter Abigail Curry received the pass from the back row, she curved her back and set the ball backward to Treacy, who stepped toward the ball in perfect rhythm, rose from the floor and blasted the ball through the hands of the Wildcat blockers.

The ball ricocheted off the blockers and landed out of bounds in front of the UNC bench to knot the score at eight apiece. The kill accounted for Treacy’s 13th of the night, which set a career high.

Junior middle blocker Paige Neuenfeldt said Treacy’s kill was exactly what the Tar Heels needed in that situation, and it ignited the team for the remainder of the set.

“She brought so much energy,” Neuenfeldt said. “When Taylor gets angry, she is not one you want to go against. She goes out, and she swings hard. She tries to fire everyone up. As soon as Taylor got that ball, you knew this was our game. Taylor was in it.”

On the following play, the two teams were in the middle of a protracted rally when Treacy once again made her mark on the match’s final set.

As the Kentucky outside hitter slung her arm back to put the ball away, Treacy leapt from her feet, flung her arms up in the air and thwarted the Kentucky attack by sending the ball straight back to the floor on the Wildcat side of the net with a huge block.

And as quickly as the ball flew off her hands and down to the floor, Treacy bent her knees and sprinted back to the UNC huddle with a wide grin across her face as she shouted in jubilation with her teammates.

Treacy said the energy she plays with is a crucial part of her game, but it’s not something she has to force herself to bring to each and every match.

“I think it’s just how I play. I always played like that in club,” Treacy said. “I’m a pretty energetic person — just off the court, too. It’s not like it’s forced or anything. It’s fun. It’s just sort of a natural thing.”

Treacy wasn’t finished. After putting the Tar Heels up 9-8 with her block, Treacy and junior Victoria McPherson formed a wall to block another Kentucky spike, which gave UNC a two-point lead and forced the Wildcats to call a timeout.

The two-point cushion proved to be a necessity for the Tar Heels, as the Wildcats would fight back to tie the score at 14 before dropping the final two points of the match to hand the Tar Heels a 16-14 win.

Treacy, who tallied 14.5 points off the bench for UNC, said that by the time the fifth set rolled around, she knew exactly where she was going with the ball.

“I think I was just looking for what shots were open,” Treacy said. “At that point, we knew what they were going to do, and we knew what to expect. So just finding my shots, playing good disciplined volleyball, really focusing on getting blocks — that was my focus for that set.”

Treacy’s success on Friday carried over to Saturday afternoon in the Tar Heels’ rout of the Georgia Southern Eagles.

After UNC blew a 9-3 lead in the first set, Treacy broke a five-point run by the Eagles with a kill. And after the Eagles once again fought back toward the end of the set, Treacy put the set away with a kill down the line in front of the GSU bench.

Despite limited playing time in the Tar Heels’ final match of the weekend against VCU — which sealed the Carolina Classic title for UNC — Treacy finished the tournament with 21 kills and registered 24 points to capture All-Tournament team honors.

Sagula said the energy Treacy brings to the floor is a primary ingredient for the Tar Heels’ potion for success.

“Taylor just gets pumped up,” Sagula said. “When she terminates and gets a kill, you can see the enthusiasm she has, and it just inspires other people. And I love it. It inspires me.”

And this weekend, it was Treacy and her energy that proved to be the spark the team needed.

sports@dailytarheel.com