Plenty of UNC Olympic sports teams were in action Sunday, as the field hockey and volleyball teams picked up big wins while the women’s soccer team lost at Duke.
In volleyball, the Tar Heels traveled down to Atlanta to face Georgia Tech and came away with their first win against the Yellow Jackets since 2017. The win came despite Georgia Tech taking the first set convincingly, 25-17. In the second set, UNC used a 7-3 run to take its largest lead at 22-16, then earned four set points after a service ace from Hailey Pearce made the score 24-20. After Georgia Tech saved the first two points, a service error clinched the set for Carolina.
In the third set, UNC once again opened up a six-point lead in the late stages and held strong down the stretch thanks to kills from Safi Hampton, Laynie Smith and Lauren Schutter. Smith slammed the door on the 25-19 Carolina win, clinching the set on the first of what would have been five UNC set points.
The Tar Heels flipped the script from the first set in the fourth, this time winning 25-17 after winning seven of the first eight points. The Yellow Jackets never got closer than three points for the rest of the set, and Carolina clinched the match on the back of two straight attacking errors. Hampton led the way with 16 total kills, while Smith and Chelsea Thorpe combined for 22. Zoe Behrendt and Emily Bobbitt combined for 39 of UNC’s 47 assists.
With the win, UNC moves to 13-2 overall and stays unbeaten in ACC play at 6-0. The Tar Heels have won seven consecutive matches and will take that winning streak to Boston College next Friday at 7 p.m.
In field hockey, UNC hosted No. 19 Louisville at Karen Shelton Stadium and held the Cardinals without a single shot on goal – the first time Carolina had done so this season – in a 3-0 win. Overall, the Tar Heels outshot Louisville 23-2, its largest such disparity since outshooting Stanford 34-5 on September 21.
Kara Heck opened the scoring for UNC midway through the first quarter, and Isabel Boere and Sanne Hak would each score in the next two periods to give the Tar Heels the comfortable win. Louisville’s only two shots came in the fourth quarter; through 45 minutes, the shot disparity stood at 19-0 in favor of Carolina.
UNC is now 12-1 overall, 5-1 in ACC play and has won four straight games since falling in double overtime at Wake Forest. Sunday’s game was the only home contest for the Tar Heels in a span of seven matches, which will continue when UNC visits No. 5 Syracuse next Friday, October 17 at 3 p.m.
In women’s soccer, UNC fell behind in a big way at No. 14 Duke and couldn’t find a way back in a 3-2 loss. The match was a scoreless tie at halftime, but the Blue Devils threw a major punch by scoring twice in a span of 4:19 early in the second half, then upping the lead to 3-0 in the 75th minute.
The score stayed 3-0 until the final minute of the game, when UNC scored twice in a span of 34 seconds in the 90th minute to cut the deficit to 3-2. There were only 12 seconds remaining in the match following the second goal, negating any hope of an equalizer.
The 3-2 loss drops UNC to 9-5 overall and 3-3 in league play. The Tar Heels’ five overall losses and three ACC losses match the team’s totals from the entire 2024 season. Its four losses on the road are its most ever in a single season.
The Tar Heels will look to correct their road struggles when they visit SMU in Dallas next Friday at 6 p.m. Eastern time. It’s the first meeting between the Tar Heels and Mustangs as ACC foes.
Featured image via UNC Volleyball on Twitter
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