Just one day after being blown out in the season opener against No. 9 Wisconsin, the UNC volleyball team put up a much better effort on Saturday in a 3-1 loss to the No. 4 Minnesota Golden Gophers in Minneapolis (16-25, 24-26, 30-28, 23-25).

The Tar Heels (0-2) struggled in the first set, but gave the home side all it could handle throughout the rest of the match–as each of the final three sets were won by the two-point minimum.

Destiny Cox led the way once again for UNC, posting 22 kills and 15 digs. Hunter Atherton also added a double-double for the Tar Heels with 45 assists and 11 digs.

Although the result on the scoreboard was the same as on Friday, it was a much-improved Tar Heel team that showed up on Saturday–much to the delight of head coach Joe Sagula.

“I’m really pleased to see us playing at this level against the No. 4 team in the country,” Sagula said. “It was a great improvement in the last 24 hours. We out-dug them tonight thanks to our back line which is hard to do against a good, well-coached team like Minnesota.”

The coach later added that, “Maybe a month from now, playing the same team at home, maybe the outcome is different. We had huge growth in the first 48 hours of the season.”
 

 

 

 

Photo via UNC Athletics

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