VIDEO: NC State Defeats UNC in Volleyball 3-2!

RALEIGH, N.C. – The NC State volleyball team put together one of its most complete efforts this season to earn a five-set (3-2: 25-21, 25-17, 21-25, 18-25, 15-11) victory against the preseason favorite and defending Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Champion UNC-Chapel Hill Friday night inside Reynolds Coliseum.

The Wolfpack cruised to a 2-0 lead in the match, but the Tar Heels countered to even the match and force a decisive fifth set. In the fifth set, NC State raced out to a 3-0 lead and never trailed en route to the five-set victory.

NC State moves to 6-6 on the year and 1-0 in ACC play, while UNC-Chapel Hill falls to 3-6 and 0-1 in conference action.

#ClosingSTATEment!!!!!!

NC State takes down UNC in five sets, here’s the FINAL POINT!

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— NC State Volleyball (@PackVball) September 23, 2017

#STATEment made!

This @jkbrown14 kill gave @PackVball the 3-2 win over UNC. What a way to open ACC play! #GoPack pic.twitter.com/JPCSPxXyPw

— NC State Athletics (@PackAthletics) September 23, 2017

Maybe the support of the NC State Swimming/Diving team in their speedos was a good luck charm…

Worth Noting

– The Wolfpack’s win snaps a streak of nine consecutive victories in the series by the Tar Heels, as NC State had not beaten UNC-CH since Sept. 14, 2012.

– NC State opens league action with a win for the first time since 2014 when the Wolfpack defeated Syracuse.

– Freshman Melissa Evans notched her third 20-kill performance of the season in the first ACC match of her young career.

– Senior Julia Brown also reached 20 kills and tallied 15 digs to record her fifth double-double of the year.

Match Rewind

– Both teams started the match strong, as it was even early until Teni Sopitan swatted a kill to give NC State a 7-6 lead and the Wolfpack led the first set from that point.

– A 6-1 run extended the NC State lead to 12-7 and a kill by Bree Bailey forced a UNC timeout at 15-10.

– The Tar Heels made a late comeback, but the Pack won the opening frame, 25-21, highlighted by a .452 team attacking percentage.

– In the second set, NCSU raced out to a 4-1 lead following a service ace from Grace Irvin.

– Three unanswered points helped the Wolfpack grab a 16-9 advantage, forcing a timeout by the Tar Heels.

– Evans capped the set with a kill from the right side to give NC State a 2-0 lead in the match with the 25-17 second-set win.

– The Wolfpack owned a .444 attacking percentage after the first two sets, thanks to a .438 clip in the second frame.

– The third set was tightly contested, as there were six ties in the frame. With the score knotted at 16, UNC won five of the next six points to take a 21-17 lead and NC State was unable to recover.

– The Tar Heels started to get into a rhythm in the fourth set and won the frame, 25-18, to force a decisive fifth set.

– In the final frame, NCSU jumped out to a 3-0 advantage following a UNC attacking error, kill by Brown and a block assist from Melissa Evans and Kaitlyn Kearney.

– Four consecutive points helped the Wolfpack gain control of the set at 8-2 after a block from Kearney and Kylie Pickrell.

– Brown gave NC State match point at 14-9 and finished it off a few rallies later to lift the Wolfpack to the five-set victory.

Top Performers

– Brown and Evans each tallied a match-high 20 kills in the contest, as Evans recorded a team-high .429 attacking percentage.

– Bailey put down eight kills and Kearney had seven and did not commit an error.

– At setter, Pickrell led all players with a season-high 55 assists to go along with seven digs and five blocks.

– Defensively, Brown paced the group with 15 digs to record her fifth double-double of the season. Emily Harris also pitched in with a season-high 13 digs.

Up Next

NC State returns to action at home Sunday afternoon when Notre Dame visits Reynolds Coliseum. First serve is slated for 1 p.m.

Quoting Hampton-Keith

Overall thoughts…

“Clearly, we’re very excited and happy about the outcome of that match,” said head coach Linda Hampton-Keith. “I don’t even know if the gravity has even hit me yet in terms of really changing the course of some history. Our seniors had never beaten North Carolina before, so that’s really exciting. To do that now – at the front-end of conference [play] – is really confidence-building for sure.”

On the crowd…

“First and foremost, the crowd was huge and awesome. Obviously, a home-court advantage is having that crowd and having that energy in the building. When a play is good on our side, it’s like, really good because the crowd is involved and they’re invested in it. That’s always fun and exciting, to play in that kind of environment. We’re just so thrilled, and hopefully everyone keeps coming back. Hopefully we have that kind of crowd every night. I hope what they saw was a really exciting, fast-paced match – regardless of who our opponent was – and that our team was just fun to watch.

On the fifth-set adjustments…

“In the fifth set, we made a few small changes, but more importantly we just talked about executing each play as it came, and staying with the mission. You know, focus on the mission at hand. I thought our team did a really good job responding when, they could’ve caved. They didn’t have to keeping fighting, but they did, and that’s really exciting. They’re growing so much through this process, so that was fun. It was fun to see our team respond in a way that was confident and aggressive. We just played one step at a time, then we get the result that we wanted.”