No. 24 Carolina volleyball survived a long, tense afternoon in Winston-Salem and walked out with a five-set win over Wake Forest, 25-21, 23-25, 26-24, 30-32, 15-9, on Sunday.
Safi Hampton delivered the kind of performance that can carry a team through a grinder. She matched her career high with 22 kills, hit .373 and added 13 digs for her second straight double-double of the season.
But when the match got messy and the fifth set opened up, Hailey Pearce became just as important. The senior entered after an injury in the first set and finished with 11 kills, including a team-high three in the deciding frame.
Carolina’s opening set had the feel of a tug-of-war from the start. There were six ties and two lead changes, with Chelsea Thorpe and Hampton doing most of the damage early.
Each had four kills in the frame, and Thorpe also chipped in three blocks. After taking a one-point lead, the Tar Heels put together a 4-0 burst to move ahead 15-10 before the media break.
Wake Forest answered with a run of its own and trimmed the margin to 15-14, but Carolina never let the Demon Deacons get even. The Tar Heels closed it out 25-21 on a service error.
The second set stayed tight too, with seven ties and three lead changes. Carolina found itself down 23-19, then rattled off three straight points to make it interesting late, but Wake Forest held on and evened the match with a 25-23 win.
Set three was the most frantic of the first four. It featured 16 ties and three lead changes, and neither team could separate for long.
Wake Forest opened with a 4-1 run, only for Carolina to answer immediately and tie it at 4-4. The Tar Heels later used a 4-0 surge to grab a 12-9 edge, but the Demon Deacons came back to level it at 15-15 and then move in front 19-17.
Hampton then stepped in with a kill and an ace to square things again. Wake Forest survived two set points, but Hampton eventually finished it with a kill to give Carolina a 26-24 set win.
The fourth set turned into a marathon. There were 11 set and match points before Wake Forest finally escaped with a 32-30 win to push the match to a fifth.
Carolina made sure the last set didn’t stay close for long. The Tar Heels exploded out to a 9-2 lead and never gave Wake Forest a clean path back in. Carolina finished off the 15-9 set and took the match.
The win extended UNC’s streak to 11 straight against in-state opponents, and Mike Schall improved to 16-4 in North Carolina matchups.
In Other News...
UNC Is Already In An Early Fight For A Massive 5-Star Center
A big man with a growing national market is already drawing plenty of attention, and North Carolina has made sure it is in the mix early. Dylan Betts, a five-star Class of 2028 center and 7-foot-3 prospect at IMG Academy, has taken an unofficial visit to Chapel Hill as part of a recruitment process that is quickly broadening beyond one region or one conference.
UNCs staff has been building a relationship with Betts while schools like Michigan and Illinois have already hosted him, and Alabama is also lined up for a future visit. For the Tar Heels, getting in early matters with a player of that size and ceiling, because the race for elite frontcourt talent tends to move fast once the major programs start pressing their cases. [Read more 🡒]
UNCs New Backcourt Duo Brings More Than Fans Might Expect
North Carolinas newest backcourt pairing arrived with plenty of intrigue during a recent media availability, as transfer guards Angelo Brizzi and Neo Avdalas were introduced to the Tar Heels audience. Brizzi brings a well-traveled resume, but also the kind of reliability UNC needs from a lead guard, having started all 32 games at Buffalo and finished with 14.5 points per game. Avdalas offers a different look entirely, a 6-foot-9 guard whose size and playmaking made him one of the more interesting additions in the ACC last season.
Avdalas started all 31 games at Virginia Tech, averaged 12.1 points and 4.6 assists per game, and earned ACC Rookie of the Week honors twice, which gives UNC a backcourt blend that is both experienced and unconventional. For a program always balancing immediate expectations with roster fit, the bigger question now is how quickly these two transfers can translate their production into chemistry, spacing and decision-making in Chapel Hill. [Read more 🡒]
Belichicks UNC Start Looks Worse As Passed-Over Options Keep Delivering
Bill Belichicks first season at North Carolina has already become a talking point across college football, and not in the way anyone around Chapel Hill would have wanted. As the Tar Heels try to settle in under one of the sports most famous names, the comparison game has only intensified, with other programs taking shape behind coaches who were in the same broader conversation before Belichick landed at UNC.
Those parallel developments matter because the coaches North Carolina did not hire keep stacking up results elsewhere. Jon Sumrall and Jake Dickert, in particular, have continued to build momentum, while Wake Forests early success under Dickert and quarterback Gio Lopez has only sharpened the optics. Even in games with uneven quarterback play, such as Clemsons outing from Tait Reynolds, the broader trend has been hard to miss for UNC fans watching the wider carousel. [Read more 🡒]