UNC volleyball improves to 3-0 in ACC with wins against Maryland, Boston College

The weekend started slowly for the North Carolina women’s volleyball team. It didn’t take long for them to turn things around.

UNC dropped its first set to Maryland on Friday and then won its next six in a row — three against the Terrapins (12-3, 2-1 ACC) and three in a straight-sets sweep of the Boston College Eagles on Saturday.

The Tar Heels improved to 12-4 on the season with the wins. They advanced to 3-0 to open a difficult slate of ACC contests that includes nine road matches as well as Thursday’s matchup against the No. 13 Florida State Seminoles at Carmichael Arena.

North Carolina’s seniors led the way against the Terrapins. Courtney Johnston, Suzanne Haydel and Christine Vaughen each registered double-digit kills, and Haydel chipped in ten digs for a double-double of her own on Friday.

The underclassmen also contributed with sophomore Emily McGee tallying a double-double in kills and digs and sophomore Cora Harms posting a season-high 46 assists.

“I definitely can’t get assists without kills, so obviously I owe it all to (my teammates),” Harms said. “We’ve been working a lot in practice on our offense, and we just had a really good connection.”

North Carolina coach Joe Sagula said the key to Friday’s win was the Tar Heels’ serving and passing games. He also said his team’s serve receive was exceptional.

Saturday’s win was less polished. The Tar Heels committed more errors in three sets on Saturday than in all four sets of Friday’s match and didn’t look sharp against an 8-8 Eagles team that is winless in conference play.

“We knew we had to do a job, and we did it even though it wasn’t as pretty as we wanted it to be,” Haydel said.

“We need to work on eliminating our errors, being consistent and getting better on the first-ball kill. If we can do that, we’re going to do really well.”

The Tar Heels played much of the match without their normal lineup, with starters Johnston and Harms resting. But Sagula said the team’s effort was lackluster.

“It wasn’t a hard-fought match,” Sagula said. “We knew we were going to be the dominant team, but we needed to execute better. We lost focus at times, and we need to pick it up. Everybody has to raise their level from now on. This has taught us an important lesson about how much harder we have to work.”

Sagula said the team also needed to improve its discipline in blocking and its connections between attacking players and make fewer unforced errors. But he said the wins were important nonetheless.

“Every win you get and every win at home we have to take, and hopefully we steal a couple on the road,” Sagula said.

“Starting out 3-0 in the conference, I couldn’t ask for anything better. We’re competing for the conference title and to get our program NCAA-ready. Learning how to win is important, no matter what and no matter how.”

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