The No. 22 North Carolina volleyball team entered Wednesday night's match against N.C. State looking for their 10th straight win.
The Tar Heel faithful showed up to Carmichael Arena to cheer on UNC, even applauding the ball boys for drying up the floor after players laid out on it. They were ready to see the Tar Heels beat one of their instate rivals.
And in their final home match of the regular season, the Tar Heels delivered, defeating the Wolfpack 3-1 (25-19, 25-18, 20-25, 25-14).
The Tar Heels (18-8, 15-2 ACC) pulled out a win in the first set behind error-less performances by seniors Paige Neuenfeldt and Leigh Andrew. N.C. State (15-14, 4-13 ACC) tried to make a late comeback, but Andrew silenced the move with a kill to give UNC a 24-19 lead. Neuenfeldt went on to record a serving ace for the win.
The second set was more of the same. Outside hitter Taylor Treacy hit a thunderous spike to give the Heels an early 9-4 lead. The Tar Heels eventually won the set on two straight kills, one from redshirt sophomore Taylor Fricano and one from redshirt first-year Taylor Leath.
The Tar Heels dropped the third set to the Wolfpack, who served well to disrupt UNC's passing. The Tar Heels struggled offensively in the set, recording seven attacking errors as opposed to only two each in the first and second sets.
The fourth set clinched the win for the Heels. The longest rally of the match swayed the momentum toward UNC early on, setting the score at 8-4. The Tar Heels recorded a match-high 16 kills in the set on the way to a 25-14 final set victory.
Quotable
“I think State’s playing really well. They run a really good slide, and we had a hard time stopping their right side attack. Overall, my feelings are that the fourth set is what I’m going to remember. How we came back where we could have made it a longer match.” — Coach Joe Sagula on his team's performance.
