This weekend, the Virginia Women’s volleyball team held the Cavalier Classic tournament between Villanova, Hofstra and Liberty. The Cavaliers found great success against Hofstra and Liberty before ultimately falling to Villanova Saturday night, 1-3.
Virginia opened the tournament with an impressive sweep of the Hofstra Pride, recovering from a 1-3 start in the first set to go on and dominate on both offense and defense, outscoring the Pride at every set. The Cavaliers successfully shut down the Hofstra offense, holding the Pride to just a .139 hitting percentage.
“There were some moments we struggled, but we never gave up and didn’t let Hofstra get the momentum,” Smith said. “We were able to keep it for three-straight games. I told the girls we could not let up, and they executed the game plan.”
Vital to this game plan was freshman outside hitter Sarah Billiard. In her first appearance wearing Virginia colors, she led the team in kills and had an impressive .458 hitting percentage. Billiard, along with her teammates, kept the Pride off-balance thanks to a 7-1 run in the middle of the first set and a 3-0 run to secure victory for the Cavaliers.
The hard-fought victory for the first set by Virginia carried over into the other two sets, with the Pride being unable to keep pace with the blistering offensive pace being put out by the Cavaliers.
The following afternoon, Virginia squared off against in-state rival Liberty. Looking to build off their momentum gained against Hofstra, the Cavaliers took down the Flames 3-1 after dropping a set and facing multiple ties.
Contributing to the Virginia victory was the debuting Jelena Novakovic, a sophomore transfer and right side hitter. Novakovic achieved the first double-double of the season and made 20 digs and 16 kills over the course of the match.
Later that evening, Virginia took to the court again — this time battling the talented and proven Villanova Wildcats. The Wildcats, who had also handily won their games against Liberty and Hofstra, proved to be a challenge for the young Virginia team that only has one senior.
“Villanova is a very good team and we knew they would be,” Smith said. “They came out and were the aggressor, it wasn’t anything we were doing. Villanova didn’t allow us to get into a good rhythm.”
Virginia, who dropped the first two sets against the Wildcats, trailed in every key aspect of play — being out-shot by the Wildcats. Sophomore middle blocker Chino Anukwuem, who led Virginia with five blocks, helped contribute to winning the third set and to preventing a sweep.
“It’s a young team that needs to learn how to win and embrace losing sometimes,” Smith said. “Even though we came away with a loss tonight, we learned a lot about ourselves and how we need to compete when times get tough.”
Virginia will compete in another tournament next week in Boone, N.C., this time facing off against ETSU, Towson and Appalachian State before returning the following weekend to play in-state rival VCU at home.
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