University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
29-3, 19-1ACC
Coastal Carolina
28-5, 15-1Sun Belt
Tar Heels Punch Ticket To Regionals With Four-Set Victory
December 4, 2016 | Volleyball
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| Postgame Infographic |
CHAPEL HILL – The seventh-seeded Tar Heels took down a surging Coastal Carolina team, 3-1, on Saturday night, to advance to NCAA Regionals for the third time in program history. No. 6 North Carolina dropped a tight first set, 25-23, but a late push in the second evened the match, 25-19, and the Heels cruised for the remainder of the match, 25-17, 25-16. With the win, UNC improves to 29-3, while Coastal's record-breaking season comes to an end at 28-5.
“First of all, I want to congratulate Coastal Carolina for having a great year,” said head coach Joe Sagula. “They were really good tonight. That first set was really tough. They came out playing unbelievable defense, and what can I say about Leah Hardeman? She was phenomenal, and she's definitely a force for that team.
“We're just really excited about what happened tonight: we faced a really strong team in the first set, and we just had to stay patient and let our game come around. It comes down to serving and passing, and I thought our serving was tough enough. Our passing was not strong early, but once that started to settle in…we could get our middles involved. We had better balance, without question.”
Senior right-side hitter Hayley McCorkle had a career night, hitting .565 with a season-high 14 kills, making just a single error. Middle hitters Beth Nordhorn and Taylor Fricano were also extremely efficient, as Nordhorn slammed a career-high 11 kills on just 15 swings (.667), while Fricano hit .500 with eight kills and no errors.
“I think the work that [Fricano] and Beth did, and the work on the outside [gave me opportunities to score],” said McCorkle. “They went in with aggressive approaches, and that opened up the right-side attack. Our passers got a lot of balls up to the net, so I think it was a matter of team effort.”
Taylor Leath registered her ninth double-double of the year with 13 kills and 11 digs, and freshman Taylor Borup hit .438 with seven kills and no errors.
Senior setter Abigail Curry put up 30 assists in the match, while freshman Mariah Evans recorded her second career double-double with 18 assists and 10 digs. The pair directed UNC to an impressive .310 clip, Carolina's 14th match hitting .300 or better this season.
Senior libero Sheila Doyle registered her 10th 20-dig performance of the year with a team-high 21 digs, moving her total to 561 on the season which ranks seventh all time in program history.
Carolina out-blocked Coastal, 12.5-5.0, in the match, led by eight stuffs by Fricano. The junior middle stuffed a team-season-high four solo blocks while teaming up on four assists. With back-to-back assisted blocks in the fourth set, she moved past former teammate Paige Neuenfeldt (2014) into third place all time in single-season block assists with 138. She is just four shy of all-time leader Krista Buchholz's 142 from 2000 and two behind Neuenfeldt's 2015 total. Additionally, Nordhorn assisted on four blocks in the match, and Borup stuffed three.
“I've been working on just being more pressed in general,” said Fricano. “Honestly, our serving was really helpful. It gave me the opportunity to see the court better and put them in a tougher position. If you see good blocking numbers, it's definitely because of good serving.”
A pair of kills by Leah Hardeman and Tahleia Bishop gave Coastal Carolina an early 5-2 lead which the Chanticleers extended to 14-10, but two kills and a block by McCorkle tied the score at 14. CCU pushed back in front, 19-16, but UNC came back to tie the score once again at 21 on a kill by Leath. Another Leath kill tied it at 22 and a kill by Nordhorn knotted the score at 23, but Carolina was unable to overtake the lead, and a solo block by Alise Petersone closed it for the Chanticleers, 25-23.
Coastal raced ahead 6-1 to start the second set, but a great service run by Julia Scoles and three kills by McCorkle cut the deficit to one, 8-7. Another McCorkle kill tied the score at 14, but once again, the Chanticleers took the lead right back, 16-14. However, a fantastic service run by Leath, including two-straight blocks by Nordhorn and Borup, gave the Tar Heels a late 21-17 lead, and Fricano and Borup finished it off with consecutive kills to win the second, 25-19, and even the match.
Kills by three different Tar Heels gave Carolina an immediate 3-0 lead as Coastal was quick to call a timeout. The Chanticleers replied with two kills, but a fantastic serving run by Doyle pushed UNC ahead 15-6, and the Tar Heels never looked back. A great tip by Taylor Treacy made it 23-14, and an attack error ended the frame, 25-17.
Carolina opened up a quick 6-1 lead with the help of two solo blocks by Fricano, and the Tar Heels just kept driving. Curry stepped behind the service line with a 22-16 lead and served out the match, as Fricano, Leath and McCorkle each struck kills to end the night with a 25-16 victory and close the match in four sets.
“We're excited that we were able to play and get better as the match went on,” said Sagula. “We can carry this momentum into the next round. I told our team this doesn't come easy, and to be in the top 16 is a big deal. I'm really proud of what they did.”
The Tar Heels, who advanced to Sweet 16 for the second time in three years, will return to the site of the 2014 NCAA Regionals as they head to Minneapolis, Minnesota, for a regional hosted by #2-seed Minnesota. Carolina will face the winner of tonight's match between #10-seed UCLA and Baylor on Friday, Dec. 9, with the winner advancing to face either 2 Minnesota or 15 Missouri.
