All season long, Virginia volleyball coach Melissa Aldrich Shelton has been looking forward to one thing -- the start of ACC play.
Shelton's young team got its first taste of ACC action last weekend, splitting matches against Wake Forest and Duke. The Cavaliers (11-3, 1-1 ACC) will once again travel to the Tar Heel state this weekend to play two more conference foes, North Carolina (7-7, 2-1) and N.C. State (10-5, 0-2).
"We've really advanced in the four weekends we've been playing," Shelton said. "The team is coming together."
Virginia is looking to build upon the early success of non-conference play. During that part of the schedule, the Cavaliers at one point had a seven-match win streak and never lost consecutive matches. Virginia, coming off of a defeat at the hands of the Blue Devils, will hope to avoid its first losing streak of the season.
This weekend's first match-up comes tonight against North Carolina, a team that was picked to finish third in the preseason ACC poll.
"UNC has always been a respectable team, but we match up very well against them," senior co-captain Alexis Geocaris said. "We usually have some of our season-best games against them so we're very excited. We know it can be close regardless of rankings."
The Tar Heels have two scoring threats on offense, co-captain Molly Pyles and junior Dani Nyenhuis. They are 1-2 on North Carolina in kills with 201 and 178, respectively. The Tar Heel attack is also anchored by co-captain Katie Wright, who has 126 kills and nine service aces.
Shelton has had her team working on defensive skills in practice to stop the North Carolina offense.
"Only one of them [Pyles or Nyenhuis] is at the front at a time because they play opposite each other in their rotation," Shelton said. "We're concentrating on stopping outside hitters and being ready to defend against their fantastic players."
The Cavaliers are not without scoring options of their own. Freshman Sarah Kirkwood, fresh off of a school record 83 kill attempts against Duke, leads Virginia with 269 kills for an average of 5.38 per game. Kirkwood also leads the team in aces with 22. Sophomore Lindsay Osco is proving to be a complete two-way player as she is second on the team in both kills and digs with 151 and 184, respectively. Geocaris rounds out the Virginia attack with her 142 kills on the season. Geocaris could also be crucial in stopping the Tar Heel attack as her 56 block assists lead her team.
Tomorrow's matchup against N.C. State pits two young teams against each other. The Wolfpack, like the Cavaliers, have several freshmen in their rotation.
"N.C. State has been playing surprisingly well," Geocaris said. "We don't really know what to expect from them, but I'm pretty sure we're all confident we can handle them."
N.C. State is led by junior Adeola Kosoko, who has 192 kills. Shelton also mentioned Wolfpack setter Lauren Markowski, a freshman, as a player to watch.
"They've got a new setter this year, so we've only seen her a bit on video," Shelton said. "They've also got a great athlete in Adeola Kosoko. We've been getting ready to defend against Kosoko because we know she can put the ball anywhere she wants to from anywhere on the court."
The Cavaliers will be playing for the third consecutive weekend on the road. The last time Virginia played at Memorial Gymnasium was on Sept. 14 in a victory over Towson. Despite not playing at home in almost half a month, the Cavaliers insist they are ready for conference play.
"The whole time we've known the ACC is pretty much up in the air this season, all of the teams are doing really well," Geocaris said. "And I think our preseason prepared us very well."
The young Virginia team will get a chance to see how well prepared it is in its second weekend of ACC play, a part of the season they have been looking forward to all year.
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