The Virginia volleyball team rounded out another weekend of conference play with two losses to Clemson Friday night and Georgia Tech Saturday.
Perhaps a rash of injuries that held back three of the team's most important players can partially explain Virginia's (7-13, 2-7 ACC) latest losses.
"We already had two girls who we knew weren't going to be playing in the beginning, and then Lauren [Dickson]'s injury happened on Tuesday," sophomore middle hitter Tess Udall said.
Practicing with a new lineup less than a week before the weekend proved difficult for the Cavaliers. Udall and senior outside hitter Tara Hester were both new additions to the starting roster, replacing senior outside hitter Dickson, and freshman middle hitter Tobi Farrar, who had previously filled in for injured junior outside hitter Kendahl Voelker.
"We asked our team to rise above the adversity," Virginia coach Lee Maes said. "I know our opponents aren't going to feel sorry for us, and we cant feel sorry for ourselves."
Clemson (14-6, 5-4 ACC) certainly showed little sympathy, sweeping the Cavaliers on Friday night, 25-12, 25-20 and 25-12.
Virginia had no answer for Tigers senior outside hitter Lia Proctor, who led Clemson with 15 kills. The Tigers connected on 36 percent of hit attempts compared to Virginia's 10 percent. On defense, Clemson had eight team blocks - four times as many as Virginia.
On a positive note, Virginia sophomore outside hitter Simone Asque again anchored the offense with nine kills.
The Cavaliers' fate against Georgia Tech (13-6, 7-2 ACC) also looked more promising early during Saturday's match.
After losing the first set, Virginia fought hard to come back and managed to win the second set. In the end, however, the Cavaliers could not produce the defensive longevity to stop sophomore middle hitter Asia Stawicka and senior outside hitter Chrissy DeMichelis. The two combined for 32 kills, and Georgia Tech was able to claim the final two sets despite the Cavaliers notching 10 team blocks and Asque's season-high 18 kills.
"We came into the weekend thinking we were going to do well, wanting to do well, and I think tonight [the match against Georgia Tech] was a much better showing of that," Udall said.
Virginia did not go down without a fight - the match included 16 tie scores and 12 lead changes.
"Obviously we've had to make a lot of different adjustments," Maes said. "Sometimes as you can see it's a little bit difficult to overcome especially when you have a lack of continuity with some pretty significant lineup changes."
Though Maes' would not make excuses for his team's performance, he acknowledged that the injury bug has taken its toll on the team's consistency.
"When you can't find enough people to have consistency in their play, it makes it a lot more difficult and puts a little more stress on the people who had to assume new roles," Maes said.
Virginia still has a chance to recover, though, with 11 remaining conference games on its slate.
"We feel very confident in our ability to improve and make adjustments and to be able to adapt and to learn from the previous experience," Maes said.
The Cavaliers travel to College Park, Md. and Chestnut Hill, Mass. this weekend to take on Maryland and Boston College, respectively.
"A lot of it comes down to - right now - execution and performance, show up on game day," Maes said. "Regardless of whose playing, regardless of what lineups were putting in, we still have to perform"
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