University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
20-8, 17-2ACC
Wake Forest
12-19, 4-15ACC
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | 25 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
| Wake Forest | 16 | 21 | 22 | 0 |
Tar Heels Use Efficient Offense To Sweep Demon Deacons
November 25, 2015 | Volleyball
Winston-Salem, N.C. – North Carolina volleyball kept its hot streak going on Wednesday, capturing its 12th straight victory with a sweep of Wake Forest on the final week of the 2015 regular season. The Tar Heels hit .371 with 12 blocks in the 3-0 (25-16, 25-21, 25-22) victory to secure its sixth consecutive 20-win season, improving to 20-8 (17-2 ACC) while Wake Forest fell to 12-19 (4-15 ACC).
“I thought overall it was a great team effort with our middles who are very dominant players,” said head coach Joe Sagula. “I thought that Wake Forest played hard and never let up. They kept coming at us, and I'm glad that we were able to withstand their efforts and come out with a victory.”
Senior middle hitter Victoria McPherson had a career day, leading the Tar Heels with 11 kills on 13 swings to tie the school record, set earlier this season by classmate Paige Neuenfeldt, with an .846 attack percentage. Neuenfeldt had an impressive performance as well, hitting .500 with seven kills, two aces and eight of the team's 12 blocks. Having already broken the career record for block assists, Neuenfeldt is now 10 total blocks away from becoming Carolina's all-time blocking leading, amassing 557 after today's victory.
Taylor Treacy was second on the team with eight kills, and Taylor Leath and Leigh Andrew each had seven. Treacy, Leath and McPherson each teamed up for four block assists.
“I thought we did some good things, especially offensively,” said Sagula. “Victoria set a record, and we were very balanced after that. We blocked well; keeping that average up is good. We needed to do a little bit better job defensively. I thought our number of digs was low. I actually thought we served very well, we put the ball in places we really wanted and put a lot of pressure on them, but I thought we didn't capitalize a lot of the time on our serving pressure, so that's something we're going to need to do a better job of and focus on for our next match.”
Setter Abigail Curry registered her eighth double-double over the past 10 matches, leading the Tar Heels with 33 assists and 10 digs in the match, while also landing a pair of kills. Tatiana Durr was next with seven digs and an ace, and libero Sheila Doyle put up six digs.
Senior Kody Michal, who was added to the roster earlier this month after two years as head manager, made her first career appearance, seeing time in the back row during the third set.
“It was just a great way to reward her for what she's done for us, helping us throughout the year,” said Sagula. I'm glad she had a chance to get into the box score today.”
A kill and an ace by Andrew gave Carolina an early 7-4 lead in the first set, then a 6-1 run backed by strong serving from Neuenfeldt spotted UNC a 16-9 advantage. A pair of Wake kills pulled the Demon Deacons within four, 17-13, but the Tar Heels did not allow the host to come any closer, as senior middles Neuenfeldt and McPherson closed the set with back-to-back slams to win the first set, 25-16. The senior duo combined for 10 kills on 11 swings in the opening set to lead Carolina to a .500 clip in the first stanza.
Carolina won the first three points of the second set, but the Demon Deacons took five of the next six to claim a 5-4 lead. A series of Wake errors allowed UNC to retake the lead, and soon the Tar Heels were on top, 14-9. Carolina never again surrendered the advantage, and a kill by Curry finished the frame in the Tar Heels' favor, 25-21.
Wake Forest put up a fight in the third set, keeping Carolina within striking distance and tying the score three times after multi-point deficits, but the Tar Heels did not allow the Demon Deacons to overtake them, using a huge slam by Treacy to go ahead, 23-19, and a kill by senior Leigh Andrew closed out the match, 25-22.
“Overall, it was a great victory,” said Sagula. “Getting to 20 victories is always a milestone in college sports, so I think it's a great accomplishment for the team after how we started. The most important match right now is the next one we're going to play, to finish the season with a tough opponent in a difficult environment on Saturday.”
The Tar Heels close the regular season on Saturday, Nov. 28, with a trip across town to rival Duke. Carolina will face off with the Blue Devils at 1 p.m. in the regular-season finale.
