The volleyball team will get their first shot of the season at UNC-Chapel Hill tonight at 7 p.m. in historic Reynolds Coliseum. The Wolfpack and the Tarheels enter the match with identical conference records.
State is 3-3 in the ACC and 9-12 overall while the Tarheels are 3-3 in the ACC and 9-8 overall. The Pack is riding the momentum from a weekend win against Virginia, which defeated the Heels in five sets on Friday. Coach Charita Stubbs said that the recent conference wins will give the team extra drive for Tuesday’s match.
“Confidence is something that this program has lacked for a long time,” Stubbs said. “So by getting these wins, it’s boosted our confidence tremendously,” Stubbs said.
State has fallen to Carolina every year since 1997 and hasn’t won a set against the Tarheels since 2005 when the Pack lost in five games.
While the Carolina game is one of the biggest matches of the year, freshman Kelly Wood knows the team cannot get caught up in the rivalry and get ahead of themselves.
“We take every opportunity we get to play very seriously and we stay pumped for every match,” Wood said.
But there is still an underlying excitement when State meets the Tarheels, and this will be the first time that Wood will experience that feeling from down on the hardwood.
“The game is going to be fun,” Wood said. “It’s our rival school, and it’s my first time up against that kind of rivalry. I’m not going to lie, I’m very excited.”
Coach Stubbs has been using strategy and scouting in practice to prepare the players for their opponent in addition to correcting things that went wrong in previous matches.
“We’ve been watching the videos, scouting what Carolina’s tendencies are so we can see what we need to do to be successful,” Stubbs said. “And we throw in some things that we weren’t successful with in our last match.”
Wake Forest recently took down both State and Carolina, and Stubbs has used the Deacons’ success as a tool to ready her team for the match.
“We also go over whatever match [UNC] had as well – so they had a match against Wake Forest, and we didn’t play well against them, so we’ve been working on that in practice,” Stubbs said.
Sophomore co-captain Alex Smith said although the team does not focus on the long-standing rivalry, they have been preparing for the Tarheels tactics in practice.
“We still focus on what we know about UNC, so we’re going in determined, because we know what we have to do to win,” Smith said. “We’ve been practicing with one side of the court as us, while the other side mimics what Carolina does so we can play against [UNC-Chapel Hill] and get comfortable with it.”
But just as Wood is ready to take her first shot at the Heels, Smith is eager for the newcomers to get a taste of what it’s like to be so loud in Reynolds that you can’t hear your teammates or yourself.
“I can’t wait. It’s going to be a huge crowd,” Smith said. “Our freshman just don’t know how crazy it’s gonna be.”
Stubbs is ready to see a raucous home crowd tonight, as the fans have played an important factor in home wins this season.
“I expect the fans to be just as they were when we played Boston College, Maryland and even Virginia,” Stubbs said. “The crowd has gotten into the game, they understand the dynamics. They’re cheering and celebrating, and we love it. Home court advantage this year in the ACC has been huge, so I take every chance I can to make sure the fans know we appreciate it, we feel it, we know it and we just ask them to continue.”