After returning home from their final road games of the season, the Miami volleyball team got their revenge on North Carolina with a sweep.
Earlier this season, North Carolina swept the Canes in Raleigh, NC.
The Canes (13-17, 7-14 ACC) tied a school record with 14 total blocks in a three game match.
Miami finished with three players in double digits in kills. Outsider hitters Maria Andersson and Genny Mayhew put plenty of heat on every kill.
The Tar Heels had no answer to stopping the kills and getting the ball over the net.
“I thought we played a great match,” Head Coach Nicole Lantagne Welch said. “We really made some improvements on some things we were working on with our blocks and shutting them down at the net. That was one of our best blocking efforts of the season.”
Three different Canes accounted for double digit digs, led by sophomore Cassie Loessberg. Junior Bridget Bomhack finished with a complete game with 12 kills, 12 digs, four assists and four blocks.
Freshman Katie Gallagher controlled the offense with 36 assists.
Middle blocker Angelica Ellis was forced at the net, tallying seven total blocks.
Senior Ciara Michel added five blocks.
The Hurricanes trailed early in game one but after a Miami timeout, Miami went on a 10-2 run en route to defeating the Tar Heels, 30-25. The defense held North Carolina to only .062 attack percentage.
The Canes came out with the same intensity in game two. Miami completely dominated North Carolina in every aspect in game two defeating them, 30-18.
Ellis wrapped up the game with a powerful kill.
The Hurricanes had 18 kills, accounted for only one error, and had an attack percentage of .486.
Mayhew racked up six kills in the game.
After two games, North Carolina was out of sync.
“It started with our serving. We served tough,” Lantagne Welch said. “We got them out of rhythm a bit and our blocks set up nicely.”
At one point, North Carolina was unable to get the ball over the net four consecutive possessions.
“We did a really good job getting over,” Lantagne Welch said. “Behind that, our defense was able to dig a lot of balls. Good things happen when you play very solid defense.”
In game three, the Tar Heels tried to rally back on the Hurricanes but fell short. Miami smothering defense didn’t allow North Carolina to get anything going and force them to hit a game low percentage of .049.
Bomhack wrapped up the match with an across court kill.
“We put it all out there.” Lantagne Welch said. “After we won two games before the break, we knew they would come back strong in game three. Our resilience in that third game, when it was tight, showed how badly we wanted to get this win.”
The Canes went on to also sweep NC State in their final match of the season.
Lelan LeDoux may be contacted at l.ledoux@umiami.edu.