By R.L. Bynum
No. 19 Carolina volleyball needed every ounce of composure it could find Friday night, and Bridget Malone gave the Tar Heels more than enough to work with.
UNC outlasted Colorado State 3–2 in a five-set battle at Carmichael Arena after winning the first two sets but needing to narrowly win the deciding set 16–14.
Malone (top photo), a sophomore outside hitter who is the daughter of UNC men’s basketball coach Michael Malone, was the story of the night, finishing with a career-high 23 kills (more than doubling her previous best of 12), to go with five digs and four blocks.
He became the first Tar Heel since Safi Hampton’s 20-kill night against SMU on Oct. 31, 2025, to collect at least 20.
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The Tar Heels (4–0), who have won their first four games for the third consecutive season, opened in control, claiming set one 25–19 behind junior middle hitter Jackie Taylor’s team-high three blocks and six kills from Malone. Zoe Behrendt ran the offense efficiently, tallying four assists to help Carolina build an early cushion.
Set two is where the match nearly slipped away from the Tar Heels. Colorado State built five-point leads four times, forcing Carolina to claw back from the brink each time. The Tar Heels finally tied it at 19, and from there, graduate outside hitter Chelsea Thorpe and Taylor delivered a critical block to put UNC ahead 20–19 for good. Thorpe, Taylor and Hampton closed it out with kills; Behrendt and Taylor added aces, and Carolina walked away with a 25–21 win.
Colorado State (2–2) wasn’t done, though. The Rams answered by taking set three, 25–21, then flipped the script entirely in set four, building a seven-point lead of their own before closing out a 25–18 win to force a decisive fifth set.
That fifth set played out like a mirror image of the two before it. Colorado State twice built four-point cushions, and twice Carolina refused to fold. A late surge pulled the Tar Heels within two, 12–10, before Malone met the moment, ripping her 23rd kill of the match to tie the set at 14. Hampton followed with another kill, the Rams committed a hitting error, and Carolina escaped with a 16–14 finish and its unbeaten record intact.
UNC faces the biggest challenge of the season so far at 7 p.m. Wednesday (SEC Network) when the Tar Heels visit No. 3 Kentucky, which made the NCAA tournament championship game last season. The Wildcats (4–1) lost 3–1 Aug. 23 to No. 2 Pittsburgh.
Colorado State is back in Carmichael Arena at noon Saturday to face James Madison, which lost at UNC 3–1 on Thursday.
No. 19 UNC 3, Colorado State 2
Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics Communications
