University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
29-4
#10 UCLA
27-6
Tar Heels Drop Nail-Biter To UCLA, 3-1
December 10, 2016 | Volleyball
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| Postgame Infographic |
MINNEAPOLIS – Seventh-seeded North Carolina volleyball saw its season come to an end on Friday night, as #10-seed UCLA outlasted the Tar Heels in a hard-fought battle, 3-1 (25-23, 22-25, 23-25, 26-28). The loss was just the fourth of the year for UNC, as Carolina's memorable season came to an end in the NCAA Regional Semifinal with a final record of 29-4. The Bruins (27-6) advanced to the NCAA Regional Final for the first time since winning the National Championship in 2011 and will face host #2-seed Minnesota on Saturday.
“Congratulations to UCLA on moving forward,” said head coach Joe Sagula. “What a great match. I'm really proud of our team. At any point in these sets our team could have easily given up or folded, but they had a lot of fight tonight. I'm really proud of how hard they went to the very end. We needed to get one play here or there that would have made a difference, but once again just proud of how hard they fought and the leadership from Sheila (Doyle) and Abbey (Curry). They were constantly making plays for us throughout the night and really brought us together.
“With this being the last match of the year, there are lots of emotions, but I could not be prouder to be the coach of these young ladies and of the University of North Carolina.”
Redshirt sophomore Taylor Leath led the Tar Heels on both sides of the court, registering her 10th double-double of the season and third 20-kill match with a match-leading 20 kills to go with 16 digs. Freshman Julia Scoles ended her rookie campaign with her 10th double-double, posting 12 kills and 15 digs while adding four blocks. Fifth-year senior Taylor Treacy put up 10 kills in the last match of her career, eight of which came over the final two sets, while classmate Hayley McCorkle tallied nine.
“Every time we needed a kill, it seemed like (Taylor Leath) came up with something,” said Sagula. “The only mistake I remember is she made one bad pass, and that was about it. She didn't let it bother her. If things didn't go well, she came back with another great swing at a different angle. She just matured as a player tonight. I think she really helped Julia (Scoles). Julia got more confident in the third and fourth sets, I think, because of the way Taylor was playing. She was a great role model for all the hitters.
“We've got freshman and sophomore left sides that are going to be great players in the future and they're going to learn from this. Taylor was great. She was the person we've asked to help lead the team with Sheila and Abbey, and I think she stepped up in a big important match on a big stage, and that's all I could ask for.”
Setters Abigail Curry and Mariah Evans dished out nearly-identical assists, as Evans finished her first season with personal bests of 27 assists and 12 digs—her third double-double of the year—while Curry closed her career with 26 assists, six digs and an ace.
“I'm really proud of the hustle and how we never gave up,” said Curry. “Everyone went for it, every single ball, until the end. This team is amazing. We fell short on our goal for volleyball but we created a family and ultimately that's the most beautiful thing about this season. I'm really happy with what we've been able to do, although we did come up short. It's been a great year.”
Senior libero Sheila Doyle led four Tar Heels in double figures with 23 digs. It marked the team co-captain's 21st career 20-dig performance and 11th of the season.
“Our legacy is in our effort,” said Doyle. “I think everybody on our team is ready to run through a brick wall for the person next to them, chase a ball down, whatever it may be. I think that willingness to put it all on the line and compete from the heart is the biggest thing that makes this team special.”
Carolina's blockers finished the season with their 22nd double-digit blocking match of the season, out-blocking the Bruins 14.0-6.0. Sydnye Fields, making her first appearance since sustaining an injury at the end of October, matched Beth Nordhorn and Taylor Treacy with five blocks apiece. Scoles and Taylor Fricano followed with four, and McCorkle put up three.
UCLA pulled ahead 9-5 early, but back-to-back blocks by Nordhorn and Treacy tied the score at 13. Two straight kills by Haley Lawless pushed the Bruins back in front, 20-16, forcing Sagula to take his first timeout. Carolina came back to score two straight, but a kill by Claire Felix led to another timeout, 22-19. Two kills by Leath tied the score at 22, then a block by Fields and Treacy put UNC on top 23-22. Felix slammed another kill, but Treacy followed with a kill to make it set point, and Doyle followed with a perfect serve to win the opener on an ace, 25-23.
The second set was close throughout, with neither team leading by more than three at any time. A block by Fricano and Scoles put UNC on top, 18-17, but UCLA replied with three straight to pull ahead, 22-19, once again. Scoles struck a kill on the next play, and an ace by Greer Moseman cut the deficit to one, 23-22, but Carolina was unable to pull any closer, and a lucky serve by Zana Muno hit the net and crept over for an ace, as UCLA tied the match with a 25-22 decision in set two.
The Bruins raced ahead 5-0 to start the third set then extended it to 17-10 on an ace by Kylie Miller. Carolina did not back down, exploding out of a timeout to win four straight, including back-to-back kills by Treacy which cut the deficit to three, 17-14. Finding themselves in a familiar situation, once again trailing 22-19, the Tar Heels continued to fight, as two straight kills by Leath tied the score at 23. However, a kill by Reily Buechler put the ball in Miller's hands, and the setter served up her second ace of the set to win the third, 25-23, and give UCLA a 2-1 match lead.
“When we were down in the third set, I remember Sheila saying, 'This isn't us. We're not playing Carolina Volleyball,' and then we really put the pressure on them,” said Sagula. “I talked to Taylor Treacy and said, 'You need to make a statement here,” and she made the set close again. Abbey was making some great decisions, Sheila was making great digs, Taylor Leath and Julia Scoles were swinging away on the outside. I thought we did everything we could against a really tough team tonight. It was one of those matches I think could have gone either way, but congratulations to UCLA. They played well.”
It was Carolina that had the early edge in the fourth set, pulling ahead 8-5 on an ace by Leath. UCLA tied it at nine, but the Tar Heels pushed right back ahead, 12-9, on an ace by Curry. The Bruins fought back once again to tie the score at 13 then used the momentum to march in front, 19-17. A block by Fields and Scoles tied the score at 20, but consecutive kills by Jordan Anderson made it 22-20 UCLA. Another block by Fields tied the score at 22, a kill by Leath knotted it again at 23.
Anderson struck a kill to make it UCLA match point, but a tip by Leath tied the score at 24. A block by Fricano and McCorkle—Fricano's record-tying 142nd of the season—wiped off yet another match point, tying it at 25. Scoles slammed a kill to tie the score at 26, but Carolina was unable to take the lead, and senior Anderson finished off the match for the Bruins with her 15th kill of the night to win the fourth, 28-26, and send UCLA to the Regional Finals.
The 2016 Tar Heels left their mark in the record books this season, earning the highest AVCA (6) and RPI (5) ranks in program history, matching their best seed for the NCAA Tournament (7), winning their ACC-record 13th conference title, and punching their ticket to their third NCAA Regional.
As a team, Carolina shattered the single-match and single-season records for block assists, posting a total of 661 block assists on the year which surpasses the previous record set in 2014 by a whopping 62 stuffs. The 2016 Tar Heels put up the fourth-most total blocks (373.5), a rally-scoring record, as well as the fourth-highest blocks per set average (2.99).
Carolina's defense held attackers to just .165 hitting, while posting the second-highest hitting percentage in program history at .273.
“We had a lot of young girls come in this season, but each of them brought something different to the team,” said Curry. “We have great friendships, a lot of trust and respect for one another. There's a tremendous amount of talent, but we've really set our minds to working hard. Work ethic was the thing this year that we really focused on, and I think that's what got us through everything. We've had some really great points this season. That dynamic and the depth that we had are what we thrived off of.”
Individually, Taylor Fricano tied a 16-year-old single-season record with her 142nd block assist late in the fourth set. The right side-turned-middle hitter finished the year with a total of 158 blocks, averaging 1.34. Redshirt freshman Sydnye Fields, who broke a 30-year-old single-match record for block assists early in the season, finished the year with an average of 1.38 blocks per set, which ranks ninth all time at UNC and second among Tar Heel freshmen.
“I think it's been remarkable,” Sagula said of Fricano's record-setting season. “We took her from a right-side hitting player and made her a middle. In preseason, she played so hard that she became probably one of the best players in the gym. I think her future is outstanding. The last six or seven weeks of the season, she was one of the top players in our conference without question, and that's a great lesson for her. I think she could have another season like this, probably even better, because she was a different kind of player the first half of the season. I'm going to remember the second half of the season, most importantly.”
Senior Abigail Curry, who played in an unprecedented 460 consecutive sets, finished her spectacular career ranked eighth at UNC with 2,816 assists, averaging 6.12 per set. The Plano, Texas, native ranks ninth all time with 128 career matches played and appeared in every single set of her four-year career.
With 23 digs on Friday night, Sheila Doyle jumped up two spots into fifth with a total of 584 digs on the season and ranks seventh all time with a single-season average of 4.67 digs per set. Despite not becoming Carolina's libero until partway through her junior year, Doyle finished her career ranked fourth all time with a career average of 3.54 digs per set, totaling 1,027.
Taylor Treacy slammed her 300th career block in the match and finishes her career ranked 10th all time with 287 block assists. She totaled 674 kills for her career, while classmate Hayley McCorkle finishes with 463 kills and 181 blocks.
“I'll remember this senior class by how they've developed as players over their careers and the improvements they've made, but also what they've done as people,” said Sagula. “The leadership that they've provided to us, the consistency in their effort. They're going to leave a great legacy behind, and we'll talk about this senior class, what they've given to the program and how future teams can live up to what they've done.
“Volleyball is very important to them. They're model student-athletes, they're outstanding students in the classroom, they've given it their all, and I will tell stories of the 2016 team and what it's meant—putting us on a national stage, to have a high ranking, to win an ACC Championship, and to always have the fight that they've had. When we were down, we always found ways to stay competitive, and that's a hard thing to do. They've added to the culture of Carolina Volleyball for years to come.”
NCAA Minneapolis Regional All-Tournament Team
Sarah Wilhite - Minnesota - Most Outstanding Player
Samantha Seliger-Swenson - Minnesota
Molly Lohman - Minnesota
Jordan Anderson - UCLA
Taylor Formico - UCLA
Carly Kan - Missouri
Taylor Leath - North Carolina
