Nine matches into ACC play, the volleyball team has already lost seven conference matches by a score of 3-0. The latest two defeats came on Friday and Saturday at Clemson and Georgia Tech, respectively.
Both defeats came without freshman outside hitter Chrissy Zirpolo, who is second on the team in kills this season with 148. Coach Charita Stubbs said Zirpolo was not hurt, but Stubbs had no comment on a specific reason why the freshman, who had started the team’s previous 16 matches, didn’t play. Zirpolo was not available for comment.
N.C. State (2-16, 0-9 ACC) remained competitive early in the first game on Friday against the Tigers (12-4, 7-1) and trailed 15-10 before allowing Clemson to score the next six points to take control. The Tigers won that game 30-16.
In the second game, Clemson continued that momentum when after leading only 14-12, it pulled away for a 30-19 victory.
After a 14-14 tie in the third and final game of that match, the Tigers scored 11 of the next 15 points to take a 25-18 lead on the way to a match-clinching 30-24 win.
Junior outside hitter Ashley Wallace said mistakes caused the team to lose the match.
“[It] was just simple mistakes that we could control that we didn’t — free ball passing, keeping the ball in the court when you hit,” Wallace said.
Sophomore outside hitter Kelley Blakewood led the team with 11 kills in the loss against Clemson.
Then Saturday against the Yellow Jackets, the Wolfpack got off to a slow start in the first game, falling behind 7-2 en route to a 30-20 defeat.
In the next game, State got off to a more competitive start, but eventually fell behind 16-6 before rallying to lose the game by a score of 30-22. The third game also started off with Georgia Tech taking a 16-6 lead, but the Yellow Jackets would hold on for a more decisive 30-18 win to seal the match.
Wallace said the team’s execution led to the deficits early in the matches.
“It was just service errors. We couldn’t get the ball to the setter, and then when we did, we couldn’t terminate,” Wallace said.
Sophomore middle blocker Jessica Williams led the team with 12 kills in the defeat, but 23 attack errors and seven service errors were too much to overcome.
Stubbs said she was pleased with her team’s performance against Georgia Tech (10-8, 2-6).
“The competition that we played on Saturday night was the most athletic team we’ve seen so far. So we were actually going toe-to-toe with them,” Stubbs said. “However, it was at key points we’d make an error, and then they’d capitalize on our error.”
Despite the team’s 42 total attack errors and 15 total service errors in the two weekend matches, Stubbs added her team is cutting down its errors, but that it’s just not getting enough blocks, kills and aces.
“When you look at the number of points we’re scoring in relationship to the number of errors that we’re making, not that we’re making a tremendous amount of errors, it doesn’t average out,” Stubbs said.
And even though the team didn’t win either match, Stubbs said her players are not getting down on themselves.
“We’re staying positive. We’re working hard every day,” Stubbs said. “And the kids walked out with their heads up high [Saturday] because they know that we are making strides to get better.”