The Virginia volleyball team split two home games against ACC rivals, Duke and Louisville, this weekend.
In the Friday night game, Virginia (10-7, 3-1 ACC) lost against No. 25 Duke (12-3, 4-0 ACC) in three sets, 23-25, 18-25, 18-25.
Virginia started off the game with two straight points in the first set and led 10-9 before Duke tied the game and then took the lead, 11-10. The game continued to be tightly contested until Virginia hit two straight errors to hand the first set to the Blue Devils.
“We did some really good things, but we just weren’t able to close,” sophomore outside hitter Jasmine Burton said.
Virginia looked strong from the beginning, hitting every ball in sight for a total of 45 kill attempts in the set. But Duke was able to counter with 23 digs and 40 kill attempts. The Cavaliers also had four service errors in the game and eight total to give the Blue Devils free points. The team attempted several blocks from the get-go, but only ended up with five in the match.
“We played pretty well in the first set,” coach Dennis Hohenshelt said. “We got to 19 with them and we gave up some easy points.”
The second set was more of a one-sided affair, as the Blue Devils hit .344 in comparison to the Cavaliers’ .139. Once again, the Blue Devils were able to out-dig the Cavaliers, 17-9. The Blue Devils also got their blocking game going, hitting four blocks in comparison to Virginia’s two.
“Our offense isn’t the problem right now,” Hohenshelt said. “Our problem is, ‘Can we block and dig balls and serve the way we’re supposed to serve?’ When we do those things, good things happen to us.”
In the third set, the Cavaliers were never able to snag the lead as Duke won seven straight points to close out the match. The Cavaliers had just nine kills, nine assists and eight digs, compared to Duke’s 16 kills, 16 assists and 15 digs. The Blue Devils also hit a solid .414, while the Cavaliers hit .172.
“In the critical moments at the end of the game, we didn’t make the easy plays and we didn’t execute like we should have,” junior setter Lauren Fuller said. “Otherwise, I think we would’ve had a much better chance of winning.”
Senior outside hitter Jeme Obeime led Duke with 13 kills. Sophomore middle blocker Jordan Tucker added 12 kills on 18 attempts for a .667 hitting percentage.
Both senior outside hitter Tori Janowski and Burton hit 10 kills to lead the Cavaliers.
“Everyone remembers that first game, but in the third game we’re at 19-18 and we gave up five-straight points,” Hohenshelt said. “That’s two games where we’re in it with them. We just have to keep the pressure on right now. We just made some hitting errors at the end, which we can’t do. We played pretty well in stretches of that match. We’ll use some of those stretches to build off and get better at.”
The Cavaliers returned to Memorial Gym Saturday, where they bested Louisville in four sets, 25-23, 11-25, 25-18, 25-22.
“We knew Louisville wanted to do certain things and they were very patterned in what they did, where Duke was really balanced,” Hohenshelt said. “When we get a team like that, that we know that they’re pretty patterned, we got to be good at executing what we did, and I think [that] made a big difference.”
The Cavaliers were able to dig much better to start the Louisville game. They hit 20 digs in the first set and a total of 57 in the match, while the offense was able to hit .425 against Louisville’s .243.
In the first set, the Cavaliers hit seven more kills and five more assists than the Cardinals. But Louisville was able to win the service game in the first set — hitting three service aces — while Virginia hit four service errors and 12 in total.
In the second set, Louisville hit .611 and at one point in the game scored 14-straight points, as the Cavaliers struggled to get anything going on offense or defense. Louisville hit 11 kills on 18 attempts with no errors. In contrast, the Cavaliers had six kills on 20 attempts with six errors. Louisville also outserved and outblocked the Cavaliers in the set.
“It was pretty simple,” Hohenshelt said. “We couldn’t pass. When that happens, you’re not going to do much. If you don’t pass in this league, you’re not going to be able to play and you’re going to lose those games.”
Louisville’s offense regressed in the third set as the Cardinals hit a paltry .050. The Cavaliers hit .167, but were able to win the set with two service aces, zero service errors, 19 digs and five blocks.
“Our passing broke down in the second set, but we didn’t let that affect the next game,” Burton said. “We told each other to remember how that felt and not let that happened again.”
Virginia was able to clinch the match by hitting .405 in the fourth set with 18 kills. The Cavaliers also added three blocks in the set to bring their total to 10 in the game.
“That’s kind of the first time this season when we all rallied together,” Fuller said. “It wasn’t pretty, but we got it done.”
Louisville finished with 11 blocks, but the Cavaliers were able to outhit and outdig the Cardinals in the match.
Burton led the Cavaliers with 17 kills, while sophomore outside hitter Haley Kole and Janowski added 12 kills. Junior defensive specialist Manon Fuller and sophomore libero Karlie Suber led the team with 13 digs, and Lauren Fuller also added 12 digs and 48 assists.
“This week, I finally got myself together,” Burton said. “I was finally doing the things we did in practice and taking it to the game.”
The Cardinals were lead by sophomore outside hitter Maya McClendon, who hit 17 kills. Fellow sophomore outside hitter Janelle Jenkins added 10 kills for the Cardinals.
The Cavaliers return to the road next weekend to play North Carolina Friday at 6 p.m. and Virginia Tech Sunday at 1 p.m.
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