The NC State women’s volleyball team took on Syracuse University during Alumni Weekend, with the Pack defeating Syracuse 3-0 at Reynolds Coliseum Friday night.
The first set was controlled by the Pack (16-8, 11-2 ACC) with an easy 25-11 victory. That was the only easy win for the Pack. The second and third sets went to overtime, and the Wolfpack claimed a 3-0 victory.
NC State has had an impressive record in the conference this season with only two losses to UNC-Chapel Hill and Miami. But Syracuse (17-9, 9-4 ACC) was a formidable opponent, only having lost three matches in the conference and performed as such.
“We knew we were going to have a match on our hands for sure,” head coach Linda Hampton-Keith said. “They’re so big and athletic. So we knew we were going to have our work cut out for us, and we did. That was a tough, tough match other than the first set … I’m just really impressed with our team’s ability to settle in and keep grinding it out.”
Sure enough, the game started out with an intense atmosphere as both teams fought hard. The Pack was able to take the lead, 8-4, against the Orange and continued on for a smooth first set advantage.
The Orange took a timeout to try and stop the momentum that the Pack was gaining but their efforts were futile as the Pack’s confidence stayed strong with a 14-5 lead.
The Pack continued to increase its lead by sophomore Kylie Pickrell’s service aces, and kills by sophomore Lauryn Terry and junior Teni Sophitan 20-10.
After a solid block by senior Kaitlyn Kearney and Pickrell, Kearney’s 100th block assist, Kearney followed up with a kill to make it 22-10. Kearney had a .615 attacking percentage for the match.
The Pack took the first set 25-11 with three team blocks, leading by a large margin in attack percentage: 81 percent for the Pack and 36 percent for the Orange.
“We knew these girls were really big [and] really long so our goal was to hit high and deep off their hands and I think everyone on the team executed that well,” Kearney said. “I know especially me just catching the fingers and the sides of the hands. I worked on that in practice all week and it paid off.”
The second set didn’t deter Syracuse and the set started out much like the first with both teams staying close to each other in points at a 5-4 lead for Syracuse.
However, despite the battle for points, the Orange managed to stay ahead and started to take the lead at 13-8.
Seniors Julia Brown and Kearney took leadership in the next two kills for the team, but it was not enough as the Orange continued to rack up more points, up 18-10.
The Wolfpack was undaunted at the point gap and started gaining some points of its own 20-16 and finally closed the gap to one point after a kill by Sophitan 22-21.
Even though Syracuse reached set point 24-21, NC State refused to let its one set advantage slip. Two kills by Brown led the team to 24-23. It almost appeared that Syracuse won the set but an upset call from the referees changed the crowds’ cheer to a roar when the score changed to 24-24 instead of 25-23.
From there it was a battle for two consecutive points. The Wolfpack pulled off a great set win, 31-29. Notably, graduate Bree Bailey executed two kills during the rally for set points out of her 16 kills on the night, only tying with Brown.
“There were moments where we were just grinding, going point for point,” Brown said. “But we were staying confident, we were staying comfortable and that was one thing I was really proud of the team for.”
The Wolfpack returned to the court with a two-set advantage against the Orange. Advantage or not, both teams mimicked the previous sets with close scores. Neither team giving up the lead tied at 11.
The tightly contested set continued when NC State reached set point first at 25-24. After another upset call by the referee tied the two teams 25-25, the Wolfpack broke through and took both the set, 29-27, and the match, 3-0.
“We took it one point at a time,” Brown said. “Don’t think about the future, don’t think about the past just stay in the moment.”
Hampton-Keith echoed Brown’s statement.
“I’m really proud of them for taking it step by step,” Hampton-Keith said. “Giving themselves that opportunity. I think that we’ve done that a lot. It was a fun match to be a part of and play. Obviously it’s fun because we’re on the winning side of that but more importantly it was fun to just watch our team stay in the process and fight.”
It was a great match for NC State not just in terms of winning but for the alumni who returned to watch it happen.
“Awesome to be home after the past two weekends,” Kearney said. “We’ve had a tough two weekends away and having all these people [alumni] here and just meeting them afterward. It was really motivating and getting us going.”
NC State volleyball will serve again Sunday at 2 p.m. in Reynolds Coliseum against Boston College.
