As the second game of the JPJ Takeover prepared to start, Virginia fans piled in, alongside a small contingent of supporters from nearby Liberty. On a hot and humid first day of September, the song of the same name by Earth, Wind & Fire played over the loudspeaker during pre-match warm-ups.
The lyrics of that song go “Dancin’ in September,” and the Cavaliers (1-1, 0-0 ACC) had reason to by the end of the night, winning in four sets against Liberty (2-2, 0-0 Conference USA), 17-25, 26-24, 25-9 and 25-18.
Liberty grabbed the opening point of the match, and before Virginia could do much, they were down 3-0. The Cavaliers clawed back, tying the set at 12-all before another Flames streak of three pushed the visitors ahead at the media timeout, 15-12.
The team never got closer than that three-point margin for the remainder of the set, and Liberty made use of yet another streak — this time of five — to take the first set point.
In the grand scheme of the game, Virginia played good volleyball and avoided errors. Over the entire match, Virginia only had 13 errors to Liberty’s 24. However, this was not in the case in the first set, as Virginia had six errors to the Flames’ two.
Although Liberty once again got the first point of the set, the second set was very closely fought in its early stages, with no team holding more than a one-point lead until Liberty went up 13-11 midway through the set.
The Flames seemed poised to write the same story in the second set as in the first, going up 21-17. Ultimately, the Cavaliers rallied, dug deep and took advantage of several Liberty service errors to make the score 24-23.
The announcer came over the arena, urging fans to get on their feet as Virginia stood on the cusp of winning its first set of the match. Although victory did not come immediately after that push from the announcer, Virginia pulled through, and took the thrilling, back-and-forth set 26-24 to even the set count at 1-1.
However much the story seemed to be headed towards a nail-biter match, it went off the rails. Liberty last led in the second set when the score was 23-22. They never held a lead in a set for the rest of the night.
After the teams switched sides, Virginia opened the set with the point, perhaps proving that they had stolen any momentum the Flames had. Quickly, the Cavaliers grabbed a 6-2 lead, their largest of the match thus far.
The third set then settled into a mildly familiar pattern of back-and-forth point scoring, although Virginia continued to slowly widen its lead. At the media timeout, Virginia was ahead 15-9 and on a streak of two.
That streak lasted the rest of the way, as Virginia went on a 12-0 run to close out the set in dominating fashion, and taking the second set point 25-9, making the match 2-1 and throwing fans into a frenzy.
In particular, a group from the men’s track team rabidly supported the volleyball squad with every point, and the excitement was palpable amongst fans over the whole arena.
“I think their energy really helped us,” third-year right-sider Becca Wight said. “It was just fun to be able to hear our friends be there … They made it hard to not laugh a little bit or smile, and I think it boosted up my energy, at least, a lot.”
In what would turn out to be the final set of the night, Virginia never trailed, and only found themselves tied with Liberty once, at 1-1. Although not nearly in as dominating a fashion as the previous set, Virginia still controlled the set, and took the match point 25-18, notching their first victory of the season.
“I’m really proud of this group,” Coach Shannon Wells said. “I thought our team came out and we … started playing U.Va. volleyball, something that we’re really proud of here … As the game went on, our ability to adjust was really incredible.”
Although Liberty recorded more kills, barely outpacing the Cavaliers 54-53 over the four sets, it must be said that avoiding errors was key to Virginia’s victory Tuesday. Additionally, the Cavaliers’ block game helped the team, as they outpaced the Flames in that statistic too.
Virginia volleyball faces a quick turnaround after their first victory of the season, and will face two more in-state opponents this weekend in their first matches away from Grounds this season. Coach Wells discussed the importance of expectations and preparation ahead of these matches.
“We have a lot of expectations just for ourselves,” Wells said. “[We go] in knowing that we’re the underdog in every situation, and [we are] outworking every single team we come across and scaring them as much as we can.”
In Richmond, the Cavaliers will play William & Mary 2 p.m. Friday and VCU 6 p.m. Saturday. The latter match will be streamed on ESPN+.
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