Hoping to turn its season around after a two-loss weekend, the Virginia women's volleyball team travels this weekend to College Park, Md. and Chestnut Hill, Mass. to battle Maryland and Boston College.
Clemson and Georgia Tech swept the Cavaliers 3-0 and 3-1, respectively, last weekend.
Virginia (7-13, 2-7 ACC) is currently without some of its strongest players because of injuries, a fact that most likely contributed to the team's losses last Friday and Saturday.
"We're not the type of team and our team make-up is not the type that's going to feel sorry for ourselves because of some of the adversity were dealing with," Virginia coach Lee Maes said.
Just like Virginia, Maryland (10-12, 2-7 ACC) and Boston College (11-9, 1-8 ACC) are coming off tough weekends. Both teams lost to Florida State and Miami.
Although Virginia has struggled defensively, it has found some success on offense in large part because of sophomore outside hitter Simone Asque's performance. Asque, a preseason All-ACC selection, has led the Cavaliers time and again on offense, averaging 3.32 kills per set. In the squad's loss to Georgia Tech, she managed to notch 18 kills total.
"She's capable of dominating a match," Maes said. "She has the type of mentality that's going to allow her to shoulder a little more of an offensive load, and that's a great thing."
From a technical standpoint, the Cavaliers must polish all facets of their individual games, starting with their own specialty: serving.
"Our ability to put a lot of pressure on the opposing team with our serve allows our defense to be a little bit more successful," Maes said.
Virginia also hopes that an accept-no-substitutes mentality will lead to victories against both opponents this weekend.
"We have to have a degree of confidence to know were going to beat them and not accept anything else," junior middle Sydney Hill said.
Tonight against Maryland at 7 p.m., Virginia will aim to better its conference record and perhaps provide the spark needed to reignite what has thus far been a disappointing season. The Cavaliers take on Boston College at the same time Saturday.
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