The Bruins fought their way through the anxiety of the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.
They now face the challenge that ended their season in each of the last two years: the round of 16.
“We’re good at playing with nerves, we’re good at playing without nerves,” said coach Michael Sealy. “My experience has been that there’s never a lot of nerves in the 16. Getting there, yeah potentially sometimes. But once you get there, there’s a freedom to it that’s pretty liberating.”
No. 10 UCLA women’s volleyball will take on the No. 7 seed North Carolina (29-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) this Friday in Minneapolis following their sweep of Baylor last weekend.
[Related: Women’s volleyball sweeps Baylor to advance to the round of 16]
The Tar Heels advanced after taking down Coastal Carolina in four sets to earn the third round of 16 berth in UNC’s program history.
Senior pin hitter Jordan Anderson said that the team has been working on its offense, particularly tooling off a big block, which will be vital against UNC’s height at the net.
Assistant coach Tony Ker said that UNC is a physical team with several players over six feet who jump well. The Bruins will need to be wary of a fast offense when the Tar Heels are in system, but also try to serve tough to keep them out of system as much as possible, Ker said.
“Out of system they’re good, but they’re not great,” Ker said. “That’s one of their downfalls, and if we can exploit that … I think we’re gonna have a good weekend.”
The Bruins suffered a four-set loss in Austin when they faced Texas at this point in last year’s tournament.
Anderson said that the Bruins will be in a more relaxed state with this year’s neutral crowd in Minnesota. Anderson also noted that the match is set to start at 7:45 p.m. Pacific Standard Time but 10:45 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, which North Carolina is accustomed to.
“We’re gonna try and use stuff like that to the best of our advantage.” Anderson said. “We all know that it could potentially be our last game … All the underclassmen want to win it for the upperclassmen.”
Seniors Taylor Formico and Jennie Frager, along with freshman Torrey Van Winden, were named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association First Team on Tuesday, with senior Jordan Anderson and junior Reily Buechler earning Honorable Mention accolades.
This year’s five AVCA All-Region awards are tied for the most in school history with those earned in 1989.
The winner of this game will advance to the regional final to face either No. 2 seed Minnesota or No. 15 seed Missouri on Saturday. Either way the match will be in Minnesota’s Sports Pavilion.