The NC State volleyball team fell twice in the last week in ACC play, losing Wednesday to UNC-Chapel Hill and Saturday to Virginia at Broughton High School.
With the losses, the Pack moves on to 12-6 (1-5 ACC) on the year but has the bulk of the conference schedule still to come.
Wednesday night’s “white out” marked the first midweek contest of the season for the Wolfpack, which faced off against the Tar Heels. UNC-CH entered the contest 6-7 (3-1 ACC) but emerged 3-0 victors, defeating NC State 25-18, 25-19 and 25-22.
“We battled hard until we got close to the end, and then we made errors,” head Coach Bryan Bunn said. “We made serve receiving errors; we made attacking errors. At the end, you can’t do that against a good team like that.”
Sophomore Kaitlyn Kearney had 11 kills, freshman Becky Porter had 28 assists and junior Rachel Eppley had 17 digs to lead the Pack.
“I think as a team we learned that we really need to push in crucial points at the end,” Kearney said.
The issues came down to not executing the fundamentals, for Eppley.
“I think we did well defensively,” Eppley said. “We just didn’t pass the ball, and our outsides couldn’t take care of our system passes, and that just starts with the first ball contact, whether it’s the serve or the pass.”
Saturday night, NC State pressed to get back to winning ways in conference play but fell to the Cavaliers (12-5, 4-2 ACC).
Junior Maggie Speaks returned from an injury after missing the UNC-CH and Duke matches. She collected 20 assists, three kills and two digs in the match.
The Pack tied the score with Virginia 21 times throughout the game.
Freshman Becky Porter started again as setter for the Wolfpack and, with a kill, brought the early score to 4-3. Fellow freshman Blayke Hranicka had a kill to bring the score to 10-7. Virginia tied it at 11 before NC State pulled away to 17-14, forcing a Cavalier timeout.
Sophomore Julia Brown tallied her fifth kill of the set to bring the score to 18-14. Hranicka’s third kill had the Pack at 20-18 before Virginia tied it at 22. Despite having control of the first set, a three-point run allowed the Cavaliers to take it 25-22.
The Cavaliers came out to an early lead 3-2 in the second set. Hranicka tied it at 4 with a kill. Sophomores Kearney and Perry Ramsey blocked Virginia at the net to tie the score at 6. NC State took a timeout at 8-15 before Ramsey blocked the Cavaliers to edge the Pack to 12-17. The Wolfpack prevented a set point several times, but Virginia pulled away to take it 25-18.
NC State and Virginia tied it early at 1 in the third set. Speaks and Hranicka blocked the Cavaliers to tie the score again at 2. Speaks had a kill to bring the Pack up 3-5. After a Wolfpack timeout at 7-10, NC State had back-to-back kills to trim the lead 10-12. The score tied at 14 before a back and forth rally ensued. Virginia continued with the lead until the Pack took a timeout at 16-19. A kill by Brown, a block by Kearney and senior Morgan Cormier and a kill by Ramsey brought the score within one, 21-22. Virginia took the third set 25-23.
Wolfpack volleyball returns to the court Friday against Miami in Broughton High School’s Holliday Gym.
