Coming into Friday’s match, the North Carolina volleyball team was a perfect 5-0 in the conference.
But tied with the Tar Heels as the No. 1 team in the ACC was their next opponent, Florida State.
The Tar Heels fell to the Seminoles 3-1, earning their first conference loss Friday at Carmichael Arena. On Sunday, North Carolina rebounded with a 3-2 win against Miami.
Both the Tar Heels and the Seminoles entered Friday’s game undefeated in the ACC, and both saw the contest as an opportunity to seize control of the tightly contested conference.
After UNC jumped out to a quick lead and put away Florida State 25-20 in the first set, it looked like the Tar Heels might do just that.
In the second set, however, the Seminoles used UNC’s formula — a fast start and staving off all comeback attempts — to notch their own 25-20 win.
When FSU gained leads in both the third and fourth sets, it continued to kill any momentum gained by the home team en route to 25-19 and 25-18 victories, respectively, and a 3-1 match win.
“We tried to keep it really simple,” coach Joe Sagula said. “(But) after a while (FSU’s) block just became a challenge for us.”
FSU had 20 blocks to UNC’s 7, most of which were emotionally deflating, momentum-killing moves that wore down the Tar Heels just as they started to mount a comeback.