Tar Heels fall in tight match

DURHAM - It couldn't have been a more devastating loss.

Perhaps the only thing that could have made it worse is if such a tough loss were suffered on its home court.

The North Carolina volleyball team dropped its first ACC match of the year to Duke (30-26, 27-30, 30-22, 27-30, 15-11) in Cameron Indoor Stadium on Thursday, snapping the 11-match winning streak the Tar Heels had held against Duke since 1999.

"We learned some things about ourselves today," UNC coach Joe Sagula said. "Things we need to work on and things we can get better at."

Duke came out running in game one, scoring the first point and allowing UNC only one of the next seven scores.

North Carolina finally answered the onslaught with a kill by outside hitter Dani Nyenhuis to make the score 7-2.

Duke would dominate most of the game, holding the Tar Heels to baby steps of one point at a time while the Blue Devils rained kill after kill over the net.

UNC never took the lead in the first game, allowing Duke to coast to an easy win.

"We didn't serve as tough as we usually do," Sagula said. "And we didn't put pressure on the team so that our defense could set up and our block could be better.

"So it's not one dimension of it, one thing is related to the other."

Game two was more evenly matched. This time, the Tar Heels scored the first point, but Duke was not slow to match the point and raise them one.

The game remained close, and tied at 18, UNC called a timeout to regroup. After both teams had a chance to confer, the score stood tied six times throughout the rest of the game.

But the Tar Heels would only tie one more time before running away with game two.

"I have to give credit to Duke, they served really well, played really good defense," outside hitter Camilla Ihenetu said. "They were going to give us their best because it's Duke. Duke-Carolina is always a big match."

The team's hustle was clear as several players approached personal bests and school records, but Duke remained relentless.

In game three, North Carolina suffered its worst point deficit of the match, trailing by up to eight points.

North Carolina again scored the first point, but the Blue Devils took the lead early and kept it for the rest of the game, ultimately decided at 30-22.

The beginning of game four was also riddled with ties. A win for Duke would mean one more game, and the Tar Heels did what they could to stop that from happening. UNC struggled to stay in the game, but the Blue Devils began to pull away after tying at 5-5.

When UNC began to creep back into the game at 17-14, one fan encouraged the Duke players to "keep digging in." And they did - though not hard enough. The Tar Heels came back to tie the game at 21, then got their chance to win the match by taking the game.

Neither team wanted to give up the first point in the match-deciding game, but Duke took the honor of scoring the first two points after several attempts.

"Our hitting was not as positive as it should have been tonight and we're going to have to do better for tomorrow," Ihenetu said. "But Duke did play a very nice game. It's disappointing, but what can you do?"

Nyenhuis said the school record in kills she achieved was overshadowed by the loss.

"I'd say there's not much joy in it at all," Nyenhuis said. "It doesn't really matter if you can't get the win. No one really cares how many kills you have."

The senior hitter said she hopes the close ones go a different way the next time around.

"They just kept pressure on us. They're a good team and they definitely played awesome. We just couldn't get the job done."

 

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