The NC State women’s volleyball team defeated UNC-Chapel Hill 3-2 in its first ACC match of the season in Reynolds Coliseum Friday night.
The Wolfpack (6-6,1-0 ACC) held off the Tar Heels (3-6, 0-1 ACC) comeback attempt in an adrenaline-filled match to win in the fifth set.
“First and foremost, the crowd was huge and awesome,” head coach Linda Hampton-Keith said. “Having that home-court advantage is having that crowd and adrenaline in the building and so when the play is good on our side, it’s really good because the crowd is engaged and invested in it. That’s really always fun and exciting to play in that type of environment.”
The first set began with little separation between the ACC rivals. They each exchanged points early on and sat at 6-6 to start the match.
However, the Wolfpack’s fortunes would soon change. Through the sharp play of senior Julia Brown and freshman Melissa Evans, the Pack pulled ahead to a 13-8 lead. The duo provided the Pack with four kills each to open up the first set.
With this momentum, State was able to charge ahead to a 20-12 lead. However, this did not prevent a late Tar Heels surge. Capitalizing on Wolfpack errors, UNC was able to close the score to a 23-20 Pack lead. Despite this attempted comeback, the Pack refocused and closed out the first set by a comfortable margin of 25-21. A .452 hitting percentage proved to be valuable for State.
“The whole team did really well,” Evans said. “We didn’t have many errors and we had really good hitting percentages. Our defense did really well as well.”
At the start of the second set, the Pack picked up right where it left off and came out firing on all cylinders. The Pack held a 5-2 advantage early on.
Continuing on this trajectory, the Pack maintained a 13-9 advantage midway through the set. Brown continued her stellar play as well; tallying four more kills. Additionally, junior Kylie Pickrell produced seven more assists to bring her match total up to an impressive 19.
“We had really strong setting, so we were able to stay in system a lot,” Brown said. “Kylie did a really great job setting the whole game I thought, and stayed really steady as well and we were able to challenge everywhere; so it left a lot of holes for everyone.”
Utilizing another strong hitting percentage at .438, the Pack went on to comfortably cruise through the second set by a cushioned margin of 25-16.
Leading 2-0 in the match, the Pack was poised for victory. Entering the third set, things looked the same as the Pack continued to dominate. Despite losing the first point, the Wolfpack lept ahead to a 5-2 advantage.
However, determined to prevent a 3-0 sweep, UNC wouldn’t back down without a fight. As quickly as the Pack lept ahead, the Tar Heels brought the score back level to 8-8.
Through senior Beth Nordhorn’s three quick kills, UNC was able to surge and take control of the set. With the score at 15-12, the Tar Heel’s led the Pack by more than a single point for the first time in the match.
Continuing to limit the Pack offensively, the Tar Heels managed to win the third set 25-21 and force a fourth set. Falling to a .294 hitting percentage, the Pack was held up on both sides of the ball.
The fourth set began much as the third set ended. Continuing to frustrate the Pack’s attempt to regain control of the match, the Tar Heels held an early 10-5 lead.
Maintaining this form, UNC went on to cruise through the fourth set winning by a score of 25-18. In total, the Pack made six errors and was limited to its lowest hitting percentage of the night at .121.
“The first two sets, our numbers were really good,” Hampton-Keith said. “We were hitting in the 400s which after the first two sets, which is really phenomenal. But, the reality is that UNC is a really good team and they are a defending ACC Champion, so we knew that they were going to come back and that they were going to push back.”
Heading into the fifth set at 2-2, the match looked entirely different from how it began. Feeding off of the energy of the home crowd, the Pack got back on track. Through a handful of Tar Heels errors, the Pack promptly gained a commanding 7-2 lead.
Holding the Tar Heels to a -.043 hitting percentage, the Pack maintained momentum and closed out the last set 15-11, defeating the defending ACC Champions.
“Our team did a really good job responding when they could have caved,” Hampton-Keith said. “They could have not done that, but they did, that’s really exciting, and they’ve grown so much through this process. That was fun to see our team respond in a way that was confident and aggressive. And then we get the result that we wanted.”
The Wolfpack will be back in action this Sunday as it takes on Notre Dame at home in Reynolds Coliseum.
