It has been over a month since Virginia volleyball has won at home. The Cavaliers (11-16, 4-13 ACC) hosted NC State in John Paul Jones Arena Friday, kicking off Virginia’s Senior Weekend with an energetic, tight-scoring game, with a crowd of almost 1,500 behind Virginia. While the Cavaliers opened the match with two gritty set wins, it fell in the final three sets to the Wolfpack (14-13, 7-10 ACC) in a reverse sweep, 25-21, 25-21, 19-25, 22-25, 9-15.
While it was a disappointing outcome for a struggling team, a handful of players showed strong performances on both sides of the ball. Freshman outside hitter Reagan Ennist once again led the way with 20 kills, followed by senior outside hitter Kadynce Boothe with 13. Additionally, freshman right setter Caroline Lang broke onto the scene as well, recording seven kills — a career high.
The first two sets looked similar, with Virginia and NC State trading the lead often. Ennist, Lang and Booth came out strongly from the start of the first set, countering multiple scoring runs from the Wolfpack. A mid-set pair of kills from Boothe and Ennist contributed to Virginia’s largest lead of the set at 15-12 as both teams entered the media timeout.
From there, the momentum of the set tipped towards the Cavaliers as consecutive kills from Boothe and Lang forced a Wolfpack timeout at 23-18. Despite NC State quickly bringing the score within two points following the timeout, sophomore setter Zoey Dood held off the Wolfpack with her first two kills of the night, closing the set 25-21.
As each team once again responded to the other’s scoring run in the second set, Virginia relied on Dood, Ennist and sophomore right setter Becca Wight to take charge of the offense. The trio combined for 15 of the Cavaliers’ 16 kills that set, also slightly outperforming the Wolfpack’s 15 kills.
While Dood’s offensive output typically consists mainly of assists, setting Ennist and other outside hitters up for success, her hitting took off Friday and contributed greatly to the strong opening two sets. In the previous 25 matches the Cavaliers have played, Dood averaged just over 1.3 kills a game. Friday, she had notched five kills by the middle of the second set.
Dood’s output slowed down as the third set rounded out, which was representative of Virginia’s momentum as a whole. The Wolfpack strung together six consecutive points twice in the set, which was more than enough to pull the set out of the Cavaliers’ reach. Moreover, Ennist and Dood were held to a combined three kills.
While the Cavaliers gave fans hope in the fourth set with an early six-point run, the Wolfpack responded with seven unanswered points of their own. Strong efforts from the Cavaliers brought the score within three at 18-15, but from there, Virginia could not muster enough strength to rally back all the way. NC State scored seven of the final ten points of the set to push the match to a tie-breaking set.
Desperate for some semblance of its performance in the opening two sets, the Cavaliers yet again could not stick with the Wolfpack for much of the set. Virginia quickly fell 7-3 to NC State, taking an early timeout with hopes of quelling a strong NC State offense. But from there, the Cavaliers still never came within less than two points of the Wolfpack, petering out at the end of the tiebreaker. The Wolfpack scored five of the final six points of the set, handing Virginia its 14th consecutive loss to its ACC opponent.
The Cavaliers have three games left in the season and are far out of the running to make a postseason appearance. Virginia will have two more opportunities to end on a high note at home, starting at JPJ against Wake Forest at 1 p.m. Sunday.
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