There was a volleyball practice early this season, before any of the preseason tournaments, whose conclusion provided a small window into some of the characteristics that would come to define Virginia’s team this year.
First there was coach Lee Maes pushing the players through five sets of a strenuous running drill. All year long, Maes has preached that repetition is the key to building strength and technique.
Next there were the players, despite being exhausted from the practice, eagerly talking and joking during stretches. The team’s camaraderie and positive attitude has remained constant throughout the up-and-down season.
But perhaps the most striking example characteristic of the season happened as the team was cooling down. One player spoke to the team as a confident leader, and each of the other players listened intently. It was senior middle blocker Shannon Davis, a captain and four-year starter for the Cavaliers, who has remained an experienced and vocal member of this year’s squad.
“[Shannon’s] been a constant leader on and off the court for us,” Maes said. “One of the things we always can count on is that she always makes others around her better.”
Davis, hailing from Austin, Texas, is the smallest of the team’s middle blockers and does not have the type of frame to allow her to put up the type of explosive numbers that players like junior outside hitter Lauren Dickson or sophomore middle blocker Sydney Hill do. Instead, Davis’ skill on the court comes from efficiency, technique and dependability. She leads the team in hitting percentage and is one of only five players in the program’s history to hit both 1,000 kills and put up 400 blocks during her career. She has offered production on the court throughout the years, but her production off the court, through mentoring underclassmen, will be felt by the team for years to come.
Her role is “to keep being a leader and to keep setting a good example to keep the program going well,” Davis said, “and just to have fun, just to enjoy every moment of it.”
At Westlake High School, Davis led her team to two state titles and went into college ranked as one of the top recruits of her class. She decided to come to Virginia and she said she does not regret the decision.
“Literally the whole place is just an amazing experience,” Davis said. “The school is so, so amazing — the education you get and the people, and the people we’ve had on the team; I’ve made lifelong friendships.”
Davis’s senior season has seen some great moments for the team but also a good share of disappointment. The team currently sits at ninth in conference, far below the fifth place that preseason ACC polls predicted the Cavaliers to finish at and even further below the first place that was the team’s goal. But Davis hasn’t given up on the season yet and said she and the Cavaliers believe they can win each of the five matches remaining on the schedule.
“We just want to win out and we know we can,” Davis said. “[Saturday] we stepped up, and we played great, so we just want to continue that.”
After giving her all to Virginia’s volleyball team for the past four years, Davis’ journey as a college athlete will soon end. But she has plenty of plans for her life beyond graduation.
“I’m taking a year off,” Davis said, “and plan on eventually going to physical therapy school.”
Regardless of where she ends up, Davis will bring with her skills that made her a role model on and off the court for the Cavaliers for so long — the type of skills that apply not only to sports but to life in general.
“She is a giver,” Maes said. “She communicates well and her actions really become the example that everybody looks to.”
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