Whenever the playoffs come around, fans automatically try to find a player who will step up and help lead his or her team to victory.
Fans of the Virginia volleyball team didn't have to search far to find that player for the Cavaliers. It was senior co-captain Alexis Geocaris.
With the score in the fourth game tied 26-26, Geocaris helped score on three consecutive points to lead the Cavaliers to a 3-1 (30-18, 27-30, 30-20, 30-27) win over the No. 11 seed N.C. State. First she scored on a kill that spilt the Wolfpack defense. On the next play, Geocaris and junior co-captain Kristin Chaney combined to block a shot from N.C. State outside hitter Emily Bertrand. Finally, Geocaris hit one more kill to make the score 29-26 and put the game and match out of reach.
Geocaris led the sixth seeded Cavaliers with a match-high 22 kills while hitting .474 with eight block assists.
"That's what we want from our seniors," Virginia coach Melissa Aldrich Shelton said. "She's a great middle, one of the best in the conference. We want to give her the ball and when our ball control is on like it was tonight we can do that. She came through."
The night, however, did not start out belonging solely to the senior from Wilmette, Ill. In the first game, the Cavaliers built an impressive 10-1 lead behind the strong serving of freshman Melissa Caldwell and sophomore Emily Kirkwood. Kirkwood's younger sister, Sarah, led Virginia in the first game with seven on her 17 kills, while Geocaris tallied five of her kills.
"It was a key tonight to have a good serve," Sarah Kirkwood said. "If our service wasn't here, then I don't know what the outcome of the match would have been."
The Cavalier offense and service cooled down in the second game of the match as N.C. State compiled seven team blocks to limit Virginia to a .047 team hitting percentage. The Cavaliers were able to keep the Wolfpack offense at bay as well, but could not overcome the 11 attack errors and four service errors accumulated in the game.
In the third game, Geocaris began to take over, dropping in seven of her kills in that game. Geocaris was helped by outside hitter Lindsay Osco, who had four of her 14 kills in that game. Osco also played well in the final game, tallying five kills. Despite the Cavaliers having three players register double digits in kills, the Wolfpack was able to block 17 shots from the Cavaliers.
"N.C. State is the second best blocking team in the conference, so we knew they were going to give us some trouble there," Geocaris said. "But we always need to work on spreading our offense as much as we can."
Despite not spreading the offense around as much as they would have liked, the Cavaliers will move on to the second round and a matchup against Duke. Virginia split the season series with Duke, 1-1, with both teams winning at home. But, there is a good chance the Cavaliers would not be playing today against the Blue Devils if they hadn't had the outstanding game from Geocaris.
"Lex came in [during the fourth game] and they got a few points, but she was like 'Guys we have to calm down, we're the better team,'" Sarah Kirkwood said. "And we ended up coming out winning."
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