After being swept by Florida State and Miami on a road trip, the N.C. State volleyball team responded with a 3-0 victory over the Clemson Tigers. 

Head coach Bryan Bunn said he was happy to get the win on Thursday night.

“It’s good to win at home,” Bunn said. “Last weekend, we didn’t play as well as we could have. It was a good win.”

With the win, the Wolfpack (18-7, 9-4) strengthens its standing in the top four in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Before the game, State was tied for fourth place with Miami.

State’s attack was on fire all night, with three players recording double-digit kills. Among these was junior offensive hitter Dariyan Hopper. Hopper recorded a game-high 15 kills with an outstanding .419 kill percentage.

The Pack focused on spreading out its attack. With three players having over 24 kill attempts, State’s offense kept the Tigers off balance all night.

“Our setter [sophomore Tanna Aljoe] did a really good job on setting the outside and inside,” Hopper said. “We took advantage of their blocking scheme and saw how that could benefit us and what we could do.”

The first set was back-and-forth at the beginning, with neither team gaining separation until halfway through the set. After forcing Clemson into a timeout at 15-12, State kept up the pressure and closed out the set 25-20.

Junior offensive hitter Nikki Glass had a monster first set, hammering nine kills on twelve attempts. Glass maintained her aggressive play for the remainder of the match, finishing with 11 kills, eight digs and a game-high three service aces.

The Pack’s stifling defense kept the Tigers’ offense in check, with State recording four blocks in the second set. Clemson was limited to 15 points in the set and had a kill percentage of just .121.

“All of our [designated servers] did a great job of watching Clemson’s hitters and recognizing what their tendencies were,” Hopper said. “All the pins tonight did a great job of setting up the block up well for the middles to close.”

Clemson reenergized itself at the start of the third set, jumping out to a quick 10-7 lead, but State’s attack quickly tied the game at 15-15. The Pack won the next point on an outrageously long volley, one of four that occurred during the night. 

“When you win those balls, especially in a home crowd, everyone gets pumped,” said junior offensive hitter Rachel Buckley. “It sends all of us on a positive ride, and our team does really well on positive energy.”

The Wolfpack used the momentum from that point, closing the match on a 10-3 run.

The biggest improvement for State was its service game. The Pack recorded five service aces and zero service errors during throughout the contest. On Sunday against Florida State, 17 percent of N.C. State’s serves were errors. This was the first time all season that State recorded no service errors.

“[Errors are] a huge momentum killer,” Glass said. “If you’re on a run, even if you miss long, which is a good miss in our system, it just brings everybody down.”

Thursday’s game was the first match of a five-game home stand for the Pack. N.C. State’s next match comes Saturday against Georgia Tech.