GoHeels Exclusive: Leath Leads Tar Heels Past NCSU

By Pat James, GoHeels.com

The North Carolina volleyball team entered Wednesday's match against N.C. State not seeking revenge.

Instead, the Tar Heels focused on distancing themselves from the feeling of disappointment that followed a five-set loss against the Wolfpack on Sept. 22 in Raleigh.

"We wanted to be on top," said redshirt junior Taylor Leath. "We wanted to dominate."

To do so, UNC likely needed a strong effort from Leath, the team captain and reigning Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year. And she delivered.

Leath's most efficient outing of the season, highlighted by a season-high .442 hitting percentage and 25 kills, helped the Tar Heels hand N.C. State its first ACC loss with a 3-1 (25-20, 22-25, 25-14, 25-22) win at Carmichael Arena.

The performance marked Leath's fifth career 20-kill match and first since she posted a career-high 27 against LSU on Sept. 10. Of the 23 total players who played Wednesday, N.C. State's Bree Bailey finished second in kills with 12.

"I felt like the team just worked really well together," Leath said. "We passed great. A lot of that is our first contact was great and that made it really easy for our setters to get really good balls to the pins and the middles.

"I felt like, honestly, Beth (Nordhorn) has been doing such a great job that she made a lot of openings for me."

After the Wolfpack snapped the Tar Heels' 6-0 run to open the match, Leath's first attack attempt landed in the net. The error, one of her six on 43 total attempts, helped N.C. State trim UNC's lead to 7-5.

But Leath quickly responded. She recorded three kills over the next six points, allowing the Tar Heels (10-7, 7-2 ACC) to regain their six-point edge. The Wolfpack never pulled within fewer than two points for the rest of the set, which Leath finished with seven kills.

"She started the first set with two kills and one error," Joe Sagula said. "And then she just picked it up. We've been working on different shots. I'm just really happy how she's been so open to learning and doing new things in the last two matches. Different angles, hitting sharp cross-court, more line than we've hit before.

"And if she's doing it, then it makes her a good role model for everybody else."

The Tar Heels once again turned to Leath late in the second set, when she tied the score at 20 on back-to-back kills. But N.C. State tied the match by scoring five of the set's final seven points.

Any momentum the Wolfpack had, though, was quashed in the third set.

Leath stepped to the service line for the first time in the third set with UNC leading 8-6. When she finished serving, the lead stood at 14-7, thanks to a swing that ultimately propelled the Tar Heels to a 25-14 win.

"Something we talk about in our locker room is flow of the game, and that's when we're not looking at the score, we're not focused on just results," Holly Carlton said. "We're focused on the feeling. And I felt that all throughout the run and I think my teammates would agree.

"Taylor Leath was putting in a great serve to get them out of system, and we were all just making the plays we needed to make individually."

The momentum from the third set carried into the fourth. Leath registered five kills on the first nine points of the set, giving UNC a 7-2 lead. And although the Wolfpack seized a 15-10 moments later, the Tar Heels rode a 14-3 run, which included three kills by Leath, to their fifth straight win.

For a team that entered this season as the unanimous favorite to repeat as the ACC champion, UNC finally seems to be playing at such a level. The Tar Heels have hit above .300 in three straight matches after not doing so in their first 14.

And Leath, who has hit .408 over the past three matches, keeps pushing them.

"I think we know this team has great potential and we know what this team can do," she said. "We have seen it and continue to be positive that we will attain that potential."

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Holly Carlton

Taylor Leath

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