University of North Carolina Athletics
October 22, 2013 | Volleyball
CAROLINA: Less Than Perfect Is Still Pretty Good
Redshirt Freshman Duo Helps Tar Heels To Record
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by Amy Hoots
In the world of sports, rarely is a team able to enjoy a perfect season or boast of a perfect player. The greatest teams and the best athletes often must face challenges such as an unexpected loss to identify weaknesses and develop their strengths. Teams, like athletes, are often defined by how they deal with adversity, not how they perform when everything is going right.
For the Carolina volleyball team, their stumbling block in an undefeated season came October 11 against Duke. Prior to that game, they were ranked tenth nationally, the highest in the program's history. The team won 15 games in a row and the loss to the Blue Devils snapped a 29-game winning streak in Chapel Hill that extended back to 2011.
Every team wants to go undefeated, but it rarely happens, and sometimes the breaking of a streak can be a relief, a release of pressure. So much emphasis was placed on Carolina's high ranking, the long winning streak, and the season's successful beginning that Carolina head coach Joe Sagula felt it may have made his team a bit complacent.
While he hates that the wake-up came by way of a loss, particularly to a rival, he recognizes its potential to help the team. "Let's not worry about streaks and records; let's just worry about our team," Sagula told his players. "We need to go back to concentrating just on volleyball."
Student-athletes Taylor Treacy and Hayley McCorkle are no strangers to adversity. Both entered Carolina in 2012 and both were redshirted their freshman year. On paper, it made perfect sense: Each needed time to develop and gain experience and redshirting allowed the players an extra year to improve without using a year of eligibility. But sitting out a year can be frustrating for exceptional athletes accustomed to competing and contributing.
Continue reading this story in this week's issue of CAROLINA.
