Coming off one of their best performances of the season on Friday against Duke, Georgia Tech Volleyball fell to #23 North Carolina 3-1 (17-25, 25-22, 25-19, 25-17). Tech falls back below .500 to 7-8 (2-4 ACC, T-11th) on the season while UNC remains undefeated in conference play at 6-0.
Tech was without the same group of players as they were on Friday (Lopuyo, Mendes, Mogridge, Boezi), relying on Mimi Mambu, Anna Fiedorowicz, and Bianca Garibaldi for the bulk of their offense.
It was not going to be
easy for Tech as North Carolina came in as the 5th best serve receive team in the country per Evollve, scoring 65.8% of their receive points. Today, they won 65.5% of those points.
Tech played their best set in the first, hitting .567 with 18 kills on a season’s best 16-3 run. From there, the Heels controlled the rest of the match. Tech kept themselves in striking distance in the following three sets to make North Carolina nervous, but the Heels steadily had the scoring pacing needed to put Tech away without having to stress at the end of sets 2-4.
Anna Fiedorowicz and Bianca Garibaldi led Tech in kills with 13 and 10 respectively. Mambu hit a flat .000 with eight kill and eight errors after hitting a career high 20 kills on Friday.
Tactically, the fourth set saw the return of head coach Michelle Collier’s standard 6-2 rotation, but with Lopuyo unavailable inserted Annika Groom into the rotation. She finished with two kills and two errors in her one set of action.
Considering the opponent and lack of weapons, this was not a disappointing showing. Despaigne and Mambu have improved over the season when it comes to error-proneness and Garibaldi has come into her own as the primary blocking threat for Tech. Getting set wins against ranked teams are a win in the grand scheme of where this team is in their development.
The Jackets will have two great opportunities to get back over .500 with games at Wake Forest and NC State next weekend.
How It Happened
Set 1
North Carolina crushed Tech’s defense over the first seven points, going on a 6-0 run, and then following the run with near impeccable performance on side out winning 75% of those points to go up 14-9. Tech’s first run of any kind came from Mambu, Pierce, and Fiedorowicz to make it 14-12 UNC. After the first TV timeout down 15-12, Tech’s run went another five points with two kills from Fiedorowicz and a Despaigne kill to force UNC’s first timeout down 17-15. Tech’s run went for another three points, for an 8-0 run and 10-1 over the previous 11 points to go up 20-15.
At 21-16, Sofia Velez dug a ball that glanced off the top side of one of the hanging light fixtures then fell to Heloise Soares who landed a backwards flip kill into UNC’s noman’s land. [LINK HERE]
That started the five point run finished by a Fiedorowicz ace to win the set 25-17, a 16-3 run to close the set.
Set 2 (1-0 GT)
North Carolina again took the early lead at 5-3 on a block on Fiedorowicz. Tech got it back to 6-5 on a rare Soares block plus Garibaldi kill. Tech tied it at 8-8 on some insane defense by Velez and Laura Bieleski, but the Tar Heels countered with a three point run to go up 11-8. Their lead grew to five with three straight Laynie Smith points, prompting Tech’s first timeout down 18-13. Tech climbed back a little bit including a great deep corner kill by Despaigne, but didn’t create that much momentum to where Tech called another timeout down 21-16. The previously sought run after timeout came this time, with a three point run to force UNC’s first timeout up 22-19. Down 24-20, Tech got a couple points back but stopped themselves on a Despaigne service error to fall 25-22.
Set 3 (1-1)
Tensions were considerably higher in the pivotal set, beginning with Tech receiving a yellow card for arguing a failed challenge by Collier on the first point. UNC got the early break point on a massive kill by Chelsea Thorpe to make it 5-3 going into a string of sideouts that held UNC’s lead between 1-2 points. Back to back Garibaldi kills gave Tech the break back to make it 10-10 before UNC hit a 5-2 run to go up 15-12. After Tech’s first timeout, the Heels hit a key four point run to go up 19-13, effectively putting the set away. Danielle Tansey came in late in the set for some defensive reinforcement down 22-18, but made little impact before UNC took the set 25-19.
Set 4 (2-1 UNC)
The fourth started in the same vein as the first set with a six-point run to go up 6-1, but this time without the immediate response by Tech who began running a 6-2 rotation (Annika Groom/Heloise Soares primary, Noemi Despaigne/Sara Toth backup) but didn’t shrink the lead down much down 12-7 by the time the first full rotation ended. Tech’s passing was nowhere near their standard of play, hitting in the negatives for most of the set. A block of Despaigne put the Tar Heels up 19-11
Stats & Game Leaders
Kills: Safi Hampton (UNC): 16
Assists: Heloise Soares (GT): 39
Digs: Sofia Velez (GT): 14
Blocks: Lauren Schutter (UNC): 9
Hit% (min. 10 attempts): DeAndra Pierce (GT): .417
