UVA Volleyball Suffers Two Hard-Fought Losses on Road Trip North

The Cavaliers dropped a pair of ACC road matches at Boston College and Syracuse this weekend

Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics

The Virginia volleyball traveled up north for a pair of ACC road matches this weekend. Both matches were hard-fought, but the Cavaliers came away from the weekend emptyhanded. 

Friday (11/4): Boston College 3, Virginia 2

On Friday afternoon in Chestnut Hill, UVA lost a heartbreaker against Boston College, falling in five sets, 19-25, 25-19, 24-26, 25-23, 13-15.

After dropping the first set, the Cavaliers took a 22-14 lead in the second set with the help of six kills from Grace Turner and four team service aces and managed to even the match at 1-1. The Eagles took a tightly-contested set three, and then Grace Turner continued her standout performance with eight kills and a .467 hitting percentage in set four to force a deciding fifth set. The Eagles started the fifth strong and built a 14-10 advantage. Veresia Yon delivered two kills and Abby Tadder had one to deny the first three match points. But Boston College cashed in on the fourth one to clinch the five-set victory. 

Grace Turner had a career-high 24 kills in the match and added eight digs. Middle hitter Veresia Yon also had a solid afternoon, notching 11 kills and three blocks and recording an unreal .786 hitting percentage. Gabby Easton ran a successful offense with 46 assists and four service aces. Finally, Abby Tadder and Mary Shaffer each had seven kills and five blocks.

Sunday (11/6): Syracuse 3, Virginia 1

On Sunday afternoon, the Cavaliers were able to win one set against the Syracuse Orange, but ultimately fell 19-25, 11-25, 25-20, 22-25.

The Orange outhit the Cavaliers by a wide margin in the first two sets, hitting .286 and .368 to Virginia’s .027 and .100, respectively. In the third set, the Cavaliers used a balanced offense where Abby Tadder, Mary Shaffer, Veresia Yon, and Grace Turner all had three kills apiece, leading to the 25-20 victory.

Virginia had a chance to force a fifth set behind the six digs Madison Morey recorded in set four to help her team build a 22-21 lead. However, Syracuse put together a 4-0 run to finish the match and take the victory. Syracuse had nine team blocks compared to only one for Virginia, an unusually block count for the Cavaliers. 

Grace Turner had 16 kills, and Gabby Easton had ten digs and 29 assists as she set many different players in the match. Overall, ten different Cavaliers registered a kill. Madison Morey added 13 digs.

Now 11-14 overall and 3-11 in ACC play, Virginia will try to end its current three-match losing skid with a bit of home cooking as the Cavaliers host their final two home matches of the season next weekend. After taking the first half of the Commonwealth Clash point with a five-set win at Virginia Tech on October 28th, UVA will look to get the other half and complete the season sweep of the Hokies on Friday at 7pm at Memorial Gymnasium. That match will also serve as Senior Night for the Cavaliers. Virginia will then host Wake Forest on Sunday at 1pm in the home finale. 

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