UNC Volleyball Ready For ACC Championship
Nov. 14, 2001 The UNC volleyball team looks to win its third-consecutive ACC title this weekend at the ACC Tournament in Tallahassee, Fla. The second-seeded Tar Heels face seventh-seeded Clemson at 5 p.m. Thursday in the tournament quarterfinals. The winner of the Carolina-Clemson match will play the winner of No. 3 Georgia Tech vs. No. 6 Maryland match Saturday at 4 p.m. UNC arrives in Tallahassee looking to become the first team to win three-straight ACC titles since Duke won four-in-a-row from 1991-94. The Tar Heels have won eight ACC volleyball championships, the most of any school in the conference. Carolina has a 39-13 all-time record in the tournament, which is the most tournament wins of any ACC school. This mark is good for a winning percentage of 75 percent, also an all-time tournament high. Carolina is led into the tournament by head coach Joe Sagula. In his 12 seasons in Chapel Hill, Sagula has compiled a 235-156 overall record and his squads are 112-75 in ACC action. In 1999, Sagula led the Tar Heels to their first ACC title in 10 years and followed it with another ACC crown in 2000. Sagula's teams are 13-9 in ACC Tournament matches, good for a winning percentage of 59 percent, the highest percentage of any active ACC coach. The Tar Heels finished the 2001 regular season in a second-place tie with Georgia Tech, after finishing in a tie with the Jackets for the 2000 crown. Carolina finished the 2001 ACC regular season with a 12-4 conference record and finished one match behind Duke. The Tar Heels made it through the first round of ACC matches undefeated before suffering a 2-3 loss to Maryland Oct. 21. Carolina had its only two-game losing streak of the season when it lost to Wake Forest, 1-3, on Oct. 27 and Georgia Tech, 2-3, on Nov. 2. The Tar Heels rebounded, however, to take their next two ACC matches, at Clemson, 3-0, and vs. NC State, 3-0, before falling to Florida State, 0-3, in the conference finale. Carolina faced three Top 25 teams in its first seven matches of the 2001 season. The Tar Heels carried No. 4 Penn State to five games but lost, 17-30, 30-28, 25-30, 30-28, 9-15. No. 24 Santa Clara had all they could handle with the Heels as well, winning in five games, 24-30, 30-27, 30-22, 24-30, 6-15. Coach Sagula's squad also faced No. 13 UC-Santa Barbara, losing to the Gauchos, 19-30, 15-30, 21-30. The Tar Heels bounced back from these losses to win 13-consecutive matches from Sept. 16 to Oct. 16. Included in this streak were all eight ACC opponents. During this run, only one team, Florida State on Oct. 5, won more than one game against UNC.
2001 ACC Tournament
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