University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
14-14, 11-9ACC
Duke
19-12, 11-9ACC
Tar Heels Fall at Duke in Season Finale
November 24, 2017 | Volleyball
DURHAM, N.C. – The 2017 regular season came to a disappointing close on Friday night, as North Carolina fell to rival Duke, 3-0 (25-21, 25-22, 25-20) at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The win moved the Blue Devils into a tie with the Tar Heels for eighth place in the ACC standings, each finishing the year 11-9 in conference play. Duke closed out the 2017 season at 19-12 overall, while UNC finished an even 14-14.
The Tar Heels followed a record-setting blocking performance from Wednesday with a 12.5-block match over just three sets, with six block assists by Katharine Esterley and Taylor Fricano and five each by Beth Nordhorn and Holly Carlton. With those six stuffs, Esterley set a new Carolina freshman record by averaging 1.44 blocks per set on the season. She entered the match tied with Lindsay Smith's 1995 freshman record of 118 block assists, setting another new record with a total of 124 block assists. Along with her three solo blocks, the redshirt freshman middle hitter finished third among Carolina rookies with 127 total blocks. Esterley's breakout season ranked among the best all time at UNC, as she finished fifth overall in single-season blocks per set and tied for 10th in total block assists.
Senior Taylor Fricano added six block assists to her impressive total, finishing her Carolina career ranked 11th all time with 1.05 career blocks per set and 284 block assists. The middle/right-side hitter was three block assists shy of the top 10 despite playing just three seasons at UNC after beginning her career at Wisconsin.
Sophomore Taylor Borup led Carolina with 11 kills in the match, followed by junior Taylor Leath with seven and setter/hitter Carlton with five. Nordhorn added four kills, finishing her prolific senior year with a .378 hitting percentage—good for third all time in Carolina history. The middle hitter ended her Carolina career with a .399 hitting percentage—50 points above the all-time record of .349 set in 1999 by Tori Seibert. While her career average will not appear in the record books having taken only 792 swings to come some 200 shy of the minimum 1,000 required attempts, she is the only attacker in Carolina history to take even 30 career swings and hit above .375.
Junior Kendra Koetter closed her first season at North Carolina with a double-double, totaling 13 assists and 11 digs, while Leath led the Tar Heels with 13 digs in the match. Carlton put up eight assists and seven digs, while Maddie Grace Hough, in her first career start at libero, posted nine digs.
While UNC's blockers were strong, the Tar Heels struggled with offensive consistency and serve receive, hitting .096 while siding out at just 47 percent.
North Carolina took an early 5-3 lead on a Carlton-Esterley block, then stretched it to 9-5 on back-to-back kills by Borup. Duke tied the score at 10, then pulled ahead 16-15. Carolina pushed back in front, 18-17, on a kill by Nordhorn, but a 5-0 run by the Blue Devils made it 22-18. A kill and a block by Fricano cut the deficit in half, but kills by Anna Kropf and Payton Schwantz closed the first set for Duke, 25-21.
The second set resembled the first, with back and forth scoring swings from both teams. Carolina used a 5-0 run to take a 15-14 lead, but a 3-0 Duke run made it 20-17 Blue Devils. A kill by Nordhorn made it 22-21 Duke, but the Blue Devils won three of the next four points to secure the second set, 25-22, and take a 2-0 match lead.
The third set was neck and neck until the Blue Devils used a 3-0 run to pull ahead 10-7. Carolina pulled back within one, 10-9, on a block by Esterley and Fricano, but another three-point streak made it 15-10 Duke. Another Fricano block helped the Tar Heels cut the deficit back to two, 19-17, but that was as close as they would come, as a Blue Devil block finished off the third set, 25-20, to complete the sweep.
