Closing out a weekend of action-packed competition at University Hall, the Virginia women's volleyball team fell to Minnesota, 3-0 (30-15, 30-19, 30-25), on Saturday in the final game of the 2001 Jefferson Cup Tournament.
Earlier Saturday, No. 10 Stanford defeated Radford, 3-0 (30-19, 30-21, 30-28), completing the Cardinals' championship run.
Following a solid defeat of Radford and a rousing match against Stanford on Friday night, the Cavaliers took the floor Saturday afternoon looking to post an upset on their home court. Unfortunately for the hosts, however, a punishing Golden Gopher attack, marshaled by All-Tournament setter Lindsey Berg, exploited Virginia's limp start. Except for a few times in the third game, No. 15 Minnesota never appeared seriously distressed.
"The start today was very slow and I was worried about that," Virginia coach Melissa Aldrich Shelton said. "We did not have a good warm-up. We were very tense, and I was really worried about that."
Senior outside hitter and co-captain Jenny Harmon agreed that the Cavaliers had come out flat.
"Towards the second game we improved a lot," Harmon said. "We started playing more of our game - more of a team game - and our hitting and our blocking started coming as well. I think that the third game was the best."
Katie Synan and Shannon Boyle led Virginia with eight kills each, while Boyle and Jenny Harmon each recorded six digs.
Although the team's hitting and serving needs practice, Shelton said she was mostly pleased with the Cavaliers' performance.
"Overall I'm satisfied with our weekend," Shelton said. "There were two teams here that were as good as any that we'll see all year, so I'm happy with what we did."
Stanford outside hitter Logan Tom was named tournament MVP. The Cavaliers' own Boyle was named a middle on the All-Tournament team.
"Shannon had a great weekend," Shelton added. "This is the first time she's played along the back row and been a defensive digger or a passer; she did a great job. She's just a superstar"
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