For a brief moment on Saturday night at Carmichael Arena, it appeared as if the No. 7-seeded UNC volleyball team had its back against the wall.
The Tar Heels dropped a tight first set against Coastal Carolina in their NCAA Second Round match, but then recovered to sweep the rest en route to a 3-1 (23-25, 25-19, 25-17, 25-16) victory over a scrappy Chanticleer squad.
Now 29-3 in 2016, UNC has reached the Regional Semifinals–what would be known as the Sweet 16 in basketball–for just third time in program history.
Coastal Carolina, meanwhile, finishes its own historic season with a highly-respectable record of 28-5.
“We’re just really excited about what happened tonight,” UNC head coach Joe Sagula said afterwards. “We faced a really strong team in the first set, and we just had to stay patient and let our game come around. It comes down to serving and passing, and I thought our serving was tough enough.”
Senior right-side hitter Hayley McCorkle had a career night for the Tar Heels, by recording a season-high 14 kills while making just one error. She was joined by ACC Player of the Year Taylor Leath, who tallied a double-double with 13 kills and 11 digs in the match.
“We’re excited that we were able to play and get better as the match went on,” said Sagula. “We can carry this momentum into the next round. I told our team this doesn’t come easy, and to be in the top 16 is a big deal. I’m really proud of what they did.”
UNC will now head to Minneapolis, Minnesota for its NCAA Regional, where it will take on the winner of No. 10 UCLA and Baylor. That game will be played Friday Dec. 9.
What CRAP, UNC came out cocky and arrogant and lost the first set. They should have won in three. Wait until they play UCLA.