Thanks to strong contributions from unlikely places Wednesday night, the North Carolina volleyball team took down N.C. State for its first ACC victory. The team eked out three close sets in a row for a 3-1 win.
The win was one of the hardest UNC (5-7, 1-2 ACC) has come by this season, taking three out of the four sets by an average of fewer than three points. The team started slow, as has been the story all season long. It got down to an early eight to two deficit against the Wolfpack (7-6, 1-2 ACC), which proved too large to overcome in the first set.
“Unfortunately I’m not surprised that we started out slowly, we’ve done it all year,” head coach Joe Sagula said. “I don’t want to say I’m accepting it, but I’m realizing if we make it worse than it is, I don’t think we can come back. We plug away and get back in the set a little bit, but it's too much, it's too much against good teams to come back from.”
But the later sets were a different story, and all three followed the same pattern. North Carolina got ahead early, a physical Wolfpack team closed the gap, then the Tar Heels delivered a knockout punch to close out the set.
The surprise of the game came in how the team created looks for itself, including seven kills from setter Hunter Atherton — totaling her number from the previous four matches.
“I’ve always had teammates that have always made it really easy for me to dump (the ball),” Atherton said. “(They) were strong in the middle and strong on the outside, so I think that my team has always made it really easy for me to score points.”
The redshirt sophomore also chipped in 44 assists, seven blocks and six digs in an all-around performance. First-year Ava Bell, who recorded a double-double with 12 kills and 12 blocks, also played a big part in the win.
“I think blocks are huge momentum plays,” Bell said. “When you go up and get a big block, it kind of shuts the other team down and kind of hypes your own team up.”
Momentum was just what North Carolina needed after a less-than-ideal first set, and thanks to contributions from Atherton and Bell, it found it.
