Brenden Drumm
Senior middle blocker Kaitlyn Kearney and Junior setter Kylie Pickrell block a spike. The NC State Women’s Volleyball Team went on to defeat #11 UNC 3 - 2.
The NC State volleyball team defeated Virginia 3-0 Friday night in Reynolds Coliseum to pick up its seventh-straight ACC win to start its conference season.
The Wolfpack (12-6, 7-0 ACC) controlled the match to top the Cavaliers (4-14, 0-7 ACC) and keep pace at the top of the ACC standings.
“We just came in and wanted to prepare,” head coach Linda Hampton-Keith said. “We got the outcome that we wanted, but we were mostly just focused on our process. That’s what we kept trying to tell ourselves”
The first set began rather evenly between the two ACC rivals. Early on scores were level with neither team giving in and relentlessly trying to gain ground.
The Wolfpack began to pull away and was able to take the first set by a margin of 25-20. Team leaders consisted of the duo of senior Julia Brown and graduate student Bree Bailey who picked up four and three kills, respectively.
In addition, the Pack held the Cavaliers to a .162 hitting percentage and forced seven errors. Other key individuals were junior Kylie Pickrell with eight assists and junior Teni Sopitan with an individual hitting percentage of .333.
With a 1-0 advantage, the Pack utilized this momentum to amass a quick 6-3 advantage in the second set.
However, despite this early jump, the Cavaliers were determined not to fall behind 2-0. Through a few forced errors, the set was quickly turned on its head, with the Pack down 10-9.
State came back, as Pickrell spiked one of her three kills during the night to boost the Pack to a six point lead at 20-14. A timeout for UVa quickly followed the increasing gap but unfortunately for the Cavaliers, it did not slow down the Pack’s momentum and drive to take the second set.
Unphased by these attempts, the Pack quickly refocused and regained control of the match, pulling back ahead to a 20-14 advantage.
Through Brown’s five kills, one going straight through two blockers, the Pack continued to progress out to a 23-16 advantage and sat on the verge of taking the second set.
Virginia did not go down without a fight. One of their soft servers gained a few points against the Pack in hopes for a comeback but the Wolfpack quickly recovered from the fast moving offense.
The Pack would go on to win the second set by a comfortable margin of 25-19. Brown tallied five more kills and Pickrell tacked on 10 more assists.
After starting out evenly in the third set, the Pack was once again able to regroup and pull away to a 19-15 advantage after strong defensive plays from Brown and senior Kaitlyn Kearney, who had two late blocks in the set.
“I really appreciate the coaches helping me on that because I struggled at the beginning a little bit,” Kearney said.“They just helped me stay low and over and I got more blocks.”
Through four kills from Kearney and the 15 assists of Pickrell, the Pack was able to run a strong offense and complete the 3-0 sweep, taking the set by a cushioned 25-17.
“We did a really good job of coming out and executing all three sets regardless of what kind of offensive Virginia was giving us,” Pickrell said. “We gave it right back to them. I thought we did a good job staying steady the whole way through.”
The Wolfpack returns to Reynolds Coliseum Sunday against Virginia Tech.