The No. 8 North Carolina volleyball team defeated the Virginia Tech Hokies, 25-21, 22-25, 25-21, 25-17, in Blacksburg, Virginia, on Friday to obtain their 11th consecutive win and remain undefeated in the ACC . This Tar Heel squad now boasts the best conference start in program history.
Coming into the match, the Tar Heels (19-2, 11-0 ACC) had not dropped a set since October 14 at Notre Dame. Conversely, the Hokies (8-14, 3-8 ACC) came into the match in a five-match losing skid.
What happened?
What was supposed to be an easy win on the road for North Carolina turned into a highly-contested match. Virginia Tech remained relaxed when the Tar Heels jumped out to early leads in each of the four sets, and they were also able to capitalize on some Tar Heel passing miscues and attack errors. In the end, however, North Carolina got the job done by relying on its dominance at the net, where the team with 13.5 total team blocks.
In the first set, the Tar Heels lost the first point but won the next six. Virginia Tech crawled back, however, and found themselves behind one late in the set at 19-18. The Tar Heels stayed the course, though, and dialed in two consecutive blocks to clinch the set.
The second set posed a similar narrative. North Carolina jumped out to an early 5-0 lead behind stellar defensive play. The Hokies, however, were able to snag the second set after some crucial mistakes for the Tar Heels in the last five points of the match, including a serve that landed long.
The third and fourth sets proved to be a testament of North Carolina’s depth. The team remained poised, energetic and mentally focused to ride out the victory. In the final set, the Tar Heels tallied 17 kills and only three errors.
Who stood out?
Taylor Treacy came into the match with 171 kills on the season, third best on her team behind first-year Julia Scoles and red-shirt sophomore Taylor Leath.
