Heels Dominate Virginia Tech, 3-0

Sunday, October 10

Chapel Hill

1 PM

North Carolina

13-4,2-4ACC

Virginia Tech

9-9,0-6ACC

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Virginia Tech	8	23	8	0
North Carolina	25	25	25	3

Photo by: Jerome M. Ibrahim

October 10, 2021 | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Freddy Stanley

CHAPEL HILL- The Carolina volleyball team earned its second ACC win of the season on Sunday in Carmichael Arena, sweeping Virginia Tech 3-0, while setting a new-season best hitting percentage (.433).

Nia Parker-Robinson led the team with 18 kills, her eleventh straight game in double-digits.

Skyy Howard, who re-entered the starting lineup after missing the last three games, recorded six kills on 11 attempts for a season-best .545 clip, while adding a team-best three block assists.

Mabrey Shaffmaster set three new career highs: five service aces, which all came in the first set, 20 digs and three assists, to go with eight kills on .368 hitting.

The victory was Carolina's eighth straight set win of the season, and the first time this season that the Heels have held an opponent to single digits in two sets of a match.

How it Happened (25-8, 25-23, 25-8)
Although the first set started out close, the Tar Heels pulled away after a run of nine unanswered points to take the lead at 13-4, which included five aces from Shaffmaster. Carolina didn't let up from there, going on another impressive scoring run of six unanswered to pull ahead 19-5. The Tar Heels won the set 25-8 behind a .429 hitting percentage.

The second set was more closely contested, with nine ties and four lead changes. Carolina pulled away at the end of the set with three consecutive kills by Parker-Robinson to put the Heels up 24-21. Howard clinched the set with a kill to take the 25-23 win. Parker-Robinson finished the set with a team-high eight kills.

Carolina returned to their first set dominance in the third, defeating the Hokies 25-8 to win the match in straight sets. Virginia Tech started off the set strong, but after a run of seven unanswered points, the Tar Heels led 9-4. Another Carolina run, this time 8-0, put the Tar Heels out of reach for the Hokies.

Shaffmaster and Parker-Robinson each had four kills in the final set, with Skyy Howard contributing three kills of her own, including one that sealed match-point. The Tar Heels dominated the set with a .586 clip, the best of the day in a set by either team.

Hear from the Heels:
On today's victory:
"It's great. We challenged the team to play their best. When you look at the stats, winning the first and third set by dominant scores, that was special. It doesn't happen very often. It was important for our team to gain confidence from this win. As far as the ACC (race), I think it will put us back on track." – Head coach Joe Sagula

Up Next
The Heels travel to Boston College on Friday to face off against the Golden Eagles at 8 p.m.