The No. 15 North Carolina volleyball team lived up to its Tar Heel name, sticking firm and standing its ground to grit out two victories against Virginia Tech and Virginia Friday and Saturday.
UNC (24-3, 13-3) defeated Virginia Tech (21-9, 9-7) and Virginia (15-13, 8-8) in consecutive home games. The Tar Heels swept the Hokies 3-0 (25-15, 25-21, 25-14) and defeated Virginia 3-1 (25-18, 22-25, 25-19, 26-24).
Three players competed in their final game in Carmichael Arena Saturday, seniors Kaitlyn Anderson and Kayla Berringer and graduate student Jovana Bjelica. Bjelica and Berringer played key roles in the first game against Virginia Tech on Friday, as Berringer recorded a team high 10 kills and Bjelica added eight kills and a team leading nine digs.
Despite falling behind on several occasions, players said they never felt threatened. The youth of the team displayed maturity, as two sophomores supplemented the seniors with stellar performances. Victoria McPherson had nine kills with no errors and Paige Neuenfeldt added four kills and seven total blocks coming at crucial times in the match when Virginia Tech seemed poised to make a run.
“It’s like, alright cool, you got your points, now we’re going to come back and get ours,” McPherson said of the team’s mentality. “(We’re) confident in what we’re doing on our side of the net, so we know that we can get back in bounce, back from any kind of deficit.”
The following day, on senior night against Virginia, the youth shone again with huge performances. Neuenfeldt, McPherson and redshirt freshman Hayley McCorkle scored 11, 14 and 12 kills respectively while junior Ece Taner flew all over the court to record 18 digs and help the Tar Heels gut out the win.
“Right now, it’s all about people wanting to be in the NCAA tournament, so everybody is going to give us their best game and give everybody else their best game,” McCorkle said.
UNC won the first set before dropping the second set to the Cavaliers 22-25. After winning the third set, the Tar Heels battled through an extremely close fourth and final set to earn a 26-24 victory on a block by Neuenfeldt and McCorkle.
“This time of year, you have to find different ways to win, and we found a different way tonight,” coach Joe Sagula said.
