University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Wake Forest
Tar Heels Sweep Wake
October 4, 2007 | Volleyball
Oct. 4, 2007
Chapel Hill, N.C. - The Tar Heels picked up their second consecutive sweep Thursday night as they defended their home floor with a 3-0 win over visiting Wake Forest. Carolina took a tightly contested game one 33-31 before taking the next two games 30-28 and 30-25 for the victory. The Tar Heels improve to 7-8 overall and 3-3 in Atlantic Coast Conference play. Duke will be in Carmichael Auditorium on Sunday as the teams will do battle at 2 p.m.
The Tar Heels continued their solid play from Sunday as they took game one, which was a back-and-forth affair. The teams traded the initial points of the game before Wake Forest took an 11-7 lead after a three-point run. Carolina's middle hitters, Christine Vaughen and Heather Brooks, took over as they pulled the game into a tie at 13-13.
The Demon Deacons answered with another run as they rolled off four consecutive points to force a UNC timeout as Wake led 17-13. Carolina was able to battle back once again and regained the lead, taking advantage of back-to-back errors by the Demon Deacons and a momentum turning block by Heather Brooks and Lauren Prussing. The teams traded points once again before another block gave the Tar Heels a 28-27 lead forcing another Wake timeout. The teams would trade points once again as the score would be tied four times down the final stretch before the Tar Heels picked up kills from Heather Brooks and Ingrid Hanson-Tuntland to take the opening game, 33-31.
Game two was more of the same for the Tar Heels as they trailed early at 10-7 before battling back and taking a 2-0 lead with a 30-28 game two victory. The Tar Heels took a 25-21 lead late in the game as Prussing and Hanson-Tuntland dropped kills on Wake to go along with a Demon Deacon error. A Wake Forest timeout seemed to slow down Carolina as Wake rattled off six consecutive points to regain the lead at 27-25. Heather Brooks seemed to take over as the Tar Heels fell behind picking up a kill to pull Carolina within one (27-26), before giving the Tar Heels the lead at 28-27. A Wake Forest error and a Carolina service error made the score 29-28 in favor of the Tar Heels before Joe Sagula took a timeout to settle his team down. Carolina came out of the timeout and delivered a kill via Hanson-Tuntland for the win.
The Tar Heels came out in game three looking for their second sweep in as many matches and insured that the match would not see a fourth game as they hit .312 and led wire-to-wire for the 30-25 win. The game was tied four times but the latest point that the score was even was very early when Wake picked up a kill to make it 5-5. The Tar Heels outscored the Demon Deacons 5-1 over the next six points to pull away as Sue Haydel tallied a kill and Christine Vaughen added a pair. Hanson-Tuntland picked up the final two points for Carolina as the Tar Heels improve to 7-8 on the year and 3-3 in ACC play.
Carolina's middle and outside hitters played equally well on the night as Vaughen and Brooks led the team with 13 and 12 kills, respectively. Prussing and Hanson-Tuntland both reached double-digits in the kill column with 10 apiece. Prussing chipped in 14 digs on the night. Haydel added eight kills for the Tar Heels, picking up the majority of her kills after the first game.
The Tar Heels will host rival Duke on Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Carmichael Auditorium in a battle for half a Carlyle Cup point.
