It’s been about eight years since the North Carolina volleyball team defeated Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium, but Friday the team claimed a 3-1 victory to defeat the Blue Devils for the second time this season.
Coach Joe Sagula said he was proud of the Tar Heels’ balanced performance, both offensively and defensively, and he told his team that after the match.
“I like how steady we played,” he said.
“Emotionally, I thought we were up for the entire match.”
But above all, Sagula said he is proud of his seniors.
“I was so excited for the senior class, most importantly. They can leave knowing they’ve gotten two wins over Duke this year,” he said.
And for the seniors, who have, until Friday, been 0-3 in Cameron Indoor Stadium, ending the rivalry on a high note was important.
“Being a senior and not having won at Duke the full four years I’ve been here, it was really important for us to really try hard this year,” Cora Harms said.
“It was our year … It was really important for us to win at Duke one time before we graduated.”
Harms ended the night with 22 assists and ten digs in a match that senior Tia Gaffen said saw strong play from the whole team.
“Everyone really performed well tonight — everyone was such a big part of the win,” she said.
But the Tar Heels consistently turned to sophomore Chaniel Nelson, who led all scorers with 19 points and 17 kills.
“We just went to her,” Sagula said.
“We said, ‘Chaniel we’re going to go to you, and you’re going to need to get us kills,’ and she did. She responded great. I was so proud of how she did that.”
The Tar Heels got out to a quick lead, taking the first two sets 25-14 and 25-18, respectively, but would drop the third set by three points amid hitting and service errors that Sagula said came at the wrong time.
“The third set, I thought we could have played better. We forced Duke in the first two sets to make a lot of unforced errors,” Sagula said.
“Our serving in the third set became a little too easy…. we made a bunch of really crazy, stupid errors.”
Harms said she thought the team came out overconfident in that particular set.
But as Sagula said — and as his team would prove — that set was uncharacteristic of the match as a whole.
Sagula said he is proud of where his team is right now.
But starting Saturday morning, it’s back to the gym.
“Enjoy this win, celebrate it,” Sagula said.
“But starting tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. we’ll watch video and have practice preparation for Wake Forest — at that point, we’ve got to get back to business.”
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