After 13 consecutive losses, N.C. State is still looking for its first conference victory — and sophomore Chrissy Zirpolo, the team’s outside hitter, said it’s a matter of the team not having confidence in its ability to finish out matches.

“I feel like we don’t believe in ourselves,” Zirpolo said. “We don’t believe that we can win. We have a lot of young players, and it’s going to take a while for us to come together. I definitely feel like we have the talent and the ability to win. We just need to not get excited at the end of the game and finish out games.”

Although she is just in her second year, Zirpolo is already one of the most experienced players on a young team. As a freshman, she played in 29 matches and started in 25. Her 222 kills in 2006 was the third highest mark on the team and her 230 digs was second most.

This season, she has picked up right where she left off. With 107 kills and 128 digs so far, she is one of the Wolfpack’s leading attacking and defensive players. Zirpolo said the experience she gained last year is starting to pay off.

“Last year I played quite a bit, and I have learned a lot about my strengths and weaknesses since then,” Zirpolo said.

“I’ve really improved on my hitting selection from last year. I’m obviously not the biggest person in the world, so now I know what I can and can’t do. Last year, I had the mentality that I was 6-feet tall when I’m not. Now, I’ve worked more with my shot selection, and I feel like I am making smarter decisions.”

The Pack has struggled at crunch time this year — the team has won just three out of 16 games in situations this year where the opponent has already won two games and needs one more to secure the match. Freshman setter Alex Smith said with so much youth on this year’s team, they need leaders like Zirpolo to set the tone at the end of the game.

“She’s really balanced. She has been through it,” Smith said. “We kind of just follow her lead. She’s relaxed, and she doesn’t get all flustered like the freshman do occasionally.”

Zirpolo, who is from Los Altos Hills, Calif., is a long way from her hometown; however, she is not the only native of the Golden State on this year’s team. Four of the nine freshmen on the team are from California.

Zirpolo said it’s difficult being far from home, but she thinks she is able to help out the freshmen who are in the position she was last year.

“I can talk to them because they are players that I played against in club,” Zirpolo said. “It’s nice because you have a sense of you guys all are in the same position. I think for them, if they get homesick and stuff, I can talk them through it because I’ve been there. It can be tough and hard, but you have other people who are in your same boat. I think that makes it easier for me too.”

Freshman outside hitter Lauren Zaniboni is one of the four freshmen from California on this year’s team. She said having someone like Zirpolo on the team has been very helpful.

“I can always talk to her,” Zaniboni said. “I get homesick sometimes — more than others I guess. She kind of warned me about it in the beginning, which kind of helped too because I was expecting it. I can always talk to her if I ever need anything.”