North Carolina sweeps Carolina Classic

After successfully sweeping the Aggie Invitational on the west coast last weekend, the North Carolina volleyball team returned to the East Coast and did the exact same thing in the Carolina Classic.

The Tar Heels (8-1) opened their first home game of the season with a 3-0 win against Louisiana State, and coach Joe Sagula said a roaring crowd contributed to the team’s success.

“(The crowd) supported the team’s effort and just said that, ‘Hey, we appreciate what you’re doing out there.’”

But Sagula was even more impressed with senior outside hitter Emily McGee.

“The two words I’m going to say about tonight: Emily McGee. Just phenomenal — 14 kills, .379 (hitting percentage), passed great, had 10 digs, scored 14 points,” he said.

The Tar Heels defeated the Tigers 25-18, 25-19, 25-14, and ended the night with 41 kills and eight blocks.

The Tar Heels would keep up their forceful hitting in Saturday afternoon’s match against Western Michigan — finishing the match with 65 kills, the most they had all weekend.

But that win did not come as easily as Friday night’s victory, due in part to a loss of focus.

Senior Cora Harms said the team will focus on short-term scoring to refocus.

“It’s really bad for teams to make runs against us, because it makes us really low and really passive,” she said.

“We do this thing where we do five points at a time so we keep the focus on our side.”

Harms finished the match with 48 of the team’s 63 total assists and played a huge role in chasing down wild balls for the Tar Heels.

Sagula said after winning a dramatic third set 28-26, the team’s excitement should have been much higher than it was.

But the team managed to clinch another set to defeat Western Michigan 3-1, in part due to the efforts of Chaniel Nelson, whom Sagula deemed the MVP of the match.

The Tar Heels finished the tournament with a 3-0 victory (25-14, 25-22, 25-23) against Middle Tennessee State in what Sagula called a team win.

Lauren Adkins and Tia Gaffen stepped up for the Heels and contributed 12 and nine kills respectively, in addition to the 14 from junior Kayla Berringer.

“It was the last match we have going into the next week of practice. So obviously you want it to end on a good note, with a good feeling going into this next week as we start ACCs,” Gaffen said.

The Tar Heels finished the tournament with Nelson and Berringer being named to the all-tournament team — and McGee was named the tournament MVP.

“I think those three were the most stable, go-to offensive players all weekend,” Sagula said.

“Any one of them could have been the MVP. I really felt all three of them were outstanding.”

Contact the desk editor at sports@dailytarheel.com.