The Virginia volleyball team won two tough five-setters this past weekend against ACC foes NC State and Notre Dame. With the wins, the Cavaliers improved to 8-1 at home. Despite the wins, however, Virginia coach Dennis Hohenshelt said his team played up to its potential.
“I’m happy that we won, but I don’t think we were great,” Hohenshelt said. “I don’t take great pleasure in how we play, but sometimes you take the win and you move on and try to get better on Monday.”
Friday night, Virginia (13-9, 6-3 ACC) came back from a 2-1 deficit (25-20, 24-26, 23-25, 25-12, 15-11) to beat the visiting Wolfpack 12-8 (1-7 ACC).
The Cavaliers started the match strong, with four of their hitters recording at least three kills and all their hitters combining for an overall .379 hitting percentage. They also held the Wolfpack to a .143 hitting percentage to take the first set without ever conceding the lead.
In the second set, the Wolfpack jumped out to a 9-1 lead before the Cavaliers staged a comeback to tie it at 21-21. However, errors would ultimately cost the Cavaliers the set. NC State only had six kills in the set, but Virginia had a total of 13 attack errors in comparison to NC State’s five.
The third set was more tightly contested with two lead changes and four tie scores, but NC State was again able to pull out the win with strong blocking and a better hitting percentage than the Cavaliers. NC State had six blocks in the set compared to the Cavaliers’ two, while also hitting .216 compared to the Cavaliers’ .100.
The Cavaliers finally managed to minimize their errors in the fourth set — only making two attack errors — while holding the Wolfpack to a -.031 hitting percentage to force a decisive fifth set. Virginia also hit five service aces in the set and won eight-straight points with senior outside hitter Tori Janowski serving.
Still carrying momentum from the fourth set, the Cavaliers were able to hit .435 with just one error in 23 attempts to complete the comeback win. Sophomore outside hitter Haley Kole led the Cavaliers with 23 kills, and Janowski recorded a double-double with 16 kills and 12 digs. Sophomore libero Lexi Riccolo also added 18 digs for the Cavaliers, while freshman middle blocker Kaitlyn Kearney led the Wolfpack with 17 kills and nine blocks and sophomore libero Rachel Eppley contributed 20 digs.
“We’ve got to play a little bit faster and we’ve got to push pace in the game,” Hohenshelt said. “We get in stretches where it’s like we’re playing in quicksand and we can’t get out of our way, but at the end of fourth game and that fifth game — that’s how we’ve got to play. I’ve got to figure out how to get these guys to do it for the first three games, instead for about a game [and] then stop.”
Virginia again came back from being 2-1 down Saturday night (25-23, 22-25, 15-25, 33-31, 15-8) to beat Notre Dame (5-16, 2-8 ACC).
“We lost our motivation at times and lost some confidence in ourselves,” Kole said. “But it definitely proved something that were able to get it back and pull out and get two wins, two tough five-matches games. It’s a hump we need to get over and something we need to work on at practice.”
The Cavaliers also jumped out to a solid start against the Fighting Irish. The Cavaliers led for 29 points until the Fighting Irish tied the game up 15-15. The game went back and forth from there until the Cavaliers were able to win the set 25-23.
The second set saw more tie scores before Notre Dame won five of the last seven points to take the set 25-22. Both teams were able to hit .400, but the Irish dominated all statistical categories for a .438 hitting percentage in comparison to the Cavaliers’ .400.
In the third set, Notre Dame held Virginia to a .000 hitting percentage and only allowed the Cavaliers to hold the lead for one point as they once again dominated all statistical categories to win the set 25-15.
In the fourth set, the two teams fought off a total of 10 set points — seven for Fighting Irish and three for the Cavaliers — before the Cavaliers were finally able to take the set 33-31. Junior middle hitter Natalie Bausback hit six kills on seven attempts during the set with no errors for a .857 hitting percentage. She finished with 13 kills.
The Cavaliers only hit .150 in the last set but held the Fighting Irish to a -.095 hitting percentage to finish the weekend 2-0.
“I think our level of competition wasn’t as intense as it was last weekend against Duke,” Janowski said. “I think we sort of played down to the competition, which we really shouldn’t be doing, but it’s good that we were able to pull out this win and win even when we were bad.”
Irish graduate student outside hitter Nicole Smith had 20 kills and freshman libero Natalie Johnson added 23 digs. Kole once again led the Cavaliers, this time hitting 19 kills, including nine integral ones in the fourth set.
“I just wanted to bring a lot of energy to the team,” Kole said. “Every time, I got on the court, I wanted to lift them up and make them better and feed off their energy and I just wanted to win.”
Virginia kicks off a four-game road trip this weekend to face Clemson and Louisville
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