The Virginia volleyball team continued its skid last weekend as it dropped matches against No. 23 Florida State Friday and No. 21 Miami Sunday at Memorial Gymnasium. The two 3-0 losses dropped the Cavaliers (6-7, 0-3 ACC) below .500 and continued their winless streak in conference games this season.
"Right now we need to improve our serving and passing," coach Lee Maes said. "Our passing has been very inconsistent and we've been putting ourselves in position where, if we can't control the first contact, the rest of the game is going to be very difficult. It's something that we're continuing to try and fight through, and we know it's something that we have to continue improving and once we do that we'll be a lot more competitive."
With both losses coming in straight sets, the Cavaliers now have won only two of their last 14 sets and have taken just one set during ACC play thus far. Following Sunday's losing effort against Miami (11-1, 2-1 ACC), Maes shook things up. Rather than let his team stretch on the court and meet with friends and family in the stands, the coach took his team directly into the locker room below Memorial Gymnasium for a more serious post-game discussion about the team's last four losses.
"We basically talked about making positive changes from now until the end of the season - we don't want [these last four matches] to be foreshadowing for the rest of the season," freshman right side hitter Tori Janowski said. "We just need to keep improving from here ... We always have to keep changing to be better."
Regarding the post-game pep talk, Maes stressed he was trying to right the ship and set the stage for positive outcomes from Virginia's future matches.
"We have a number of our players who have a nice high volleyball IQ, but we need to find ways for them to be consistent at what they know, so we have asked them to identify five things that they would like from the coaches in terms of how we can help them improve," Maes said. "We feel like if we take care of those aspects we'll continue growing as a team positively."
Still, the squad has been marred with challenges in recent outings. Against the Seminoles (9-4, 3-0 ACC), Virginia recorded an attack percentage of just 50 percent in comparison to Florida State's 66 percent. Similarly against Miami, Virginia hit at 54 percent while Miami boasted a strong 72 percent - numbers that illustrate the weak play at the Cavaliers' points of attack. Only two Virginia attackers recorded double-digit kills in either weekend match - senior outside hitter Simone Asque had 10 against Florida State and Janowski had 10 against Miami. Sophomore libero Emily Rottman totaled just 21 digs through the two matches, an average of 3.5 per game that falls well below her 4.43 season average and further illustrates the decreased offensive effectiveness of the entire team.
Although the results have not fallen in Virginia's favor during the past four matches, the team managed to take some positives from the weekend's action as it tries to turn around the still-young season.
"Obviously we lost both games," Janowski said. But Sunday's game "was definitely better than Friday's ... because we played more as a team with more energy. Even though it wasn't a win, it was a step up from the last game, so hopefully we keep improving throughout the season."
The Cavaliers will have a chance to show improvement and finally secure their first ACC victory as they travel to take on unranked Maryland and Boston College this Friday and Sunday, respectively.
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