Virginia Volleyball Wins Big Apple Tournament with Two Big Victories
Virginia volleyball is off to a hot start, and the roster of returners, transfers, and freshmen is turning into quite a formidable squad. The Cavaliers dispatched Quinnipiac in four sets and came back to beat Columbia in five sets after trailing 2-1, giving the Cavaliers a tournament victory and momentum as the team returns to Charlottesville.
Friday 9/1 - Virginia 3, Quinnipiac 1
In the opening game of the Big Apple tournament, the Hoos took time to warm up in set one, making seven attack errors and five service errors. Despite the mistakes, Virginia stayed competitive with Quinnipiac, trading points throughout the set. When the score was tied at 19, Quinnipiac had a 6-3 run to close the set, using four kills and a block to take the 25-22 set victory. Abby Tadder was the most successful Cavalier with four kills.
Set two was a total turnaround for Virginia. The team hit .344 with 16 kills and five errors, highlighted by seven kills on eight swings from Abby Tadder. UVA jumped out to an 11-4 lead with a balanced attack from the Cavalier hitters Brooklyn Borum, GG Carvacho, Abby Tadder, and Veresia Yon. The team extended the lead to 21-12 with a kill from Lauryn Bowie, but then Quinnipiac had a run of its own to pull within four points. The Cavaliers took a deep breath and righted the ship, earning a 25-21 set two victory.
UVA continued the clean volleyball in set three with 16 kills and just one error, good for a .341 hitting percentage. On the other side of the net, Quinnipiac hit .049, leading to a Virginia a 25-14 victory. An 8-0 run helped Virginia take a 13-5 lead, but that run was half Cavalier kills and half Bobcat errors. UVA had another big run, this time 8-1, led by three kills from Lauryn Bowie and two by Veresia Yon. Libero Milan Gomillion had eight digs in the set, and the momentum was fully on Virginia’s side of the net after a dominant showing.
Quinnipiac wasn’t going to let Virginia take the match easily, and that was clear in the fourth set. Brooklyn Borum had three early kills and Lauryn Bowie had three more to give UVA a 12-5 lead, but the Bobcats fought back to make it 12-9. A few Virginia attack errors closed the gap even more, and Quinnipiac trailed 17-15. Veresia Yon had two blocks and a kill on three consecutive points as she willed her team to the end with the score at 23-16. Quinnipiac fought back once again with a 6-1 run before Lauryn Bowie put things away with a first ball kill to secure the 25-22 win. The first year Bowie continued her impressive day and had six kills and a .357 hitting percentage in set four.
Abby Tadder had 15 kills and a .462 hitting percentage to pace Virginia, and Lauryn Bowie had 13 kills. Veresia Yon had 12 kills, five blocks, and hit .429, so the good passing from Virginia allowed both middle hitters to get good looks, and they delivered. After a tough loss to Rutgers last weekend, it was encouraging to see Virginia bounce back and get a win.
Saturday 9/2 - Virginia 3, Colombia 2
Virginia went the distance against the host Columbia, and got the team’s first five set victory of the season. UVA was in the lead for most of the first set, as Abby Tadder got the first two kills of the match and picked up two more kills later on. Two attack errors by the Lions gave Virginia a 13-7 lead, but then Columbia began to fight back. A 5-0 run built on three UVA errors allowed Columbia to pull within one point at 16-15. Columbia took its first lead of the day at 21-20, and then powered through to steal set one. Virginia hit .303 in the set, but Columbia was better at .364.
The Cavaliers wasted no time in set two, taking a 12-5 lead behind a 5-0 run with Ashley Le at the service line. Heyli Velasquez had two straight aces to extend the lead to 15-7 not long after. This time, Virginia didn’t let Columbia get closer than four points, as the Hoos responded each time the Tigers attempted a run. Five service aces and four blocks helped Virginia tremendously in the set when the team only registered ten kills. The final score was 25-20 in set two.
The third set was a back-and-forth affair, but this time Columbia held the lead throughout the set. Ciera Hecht had five kills in the set as the leading hitter for Virginia, and UVA had five blocks in the set. However, that wasn’t enough, and Columbia took the 2-1 lead after a 25–23 victory.
Virginia was not ready to be done, and that showed in an impressive 25-13 set four performance. The Cavaliers hit .405 with 18 kills and three errors, and held Columbia to .071. Lauryn Bowie was the spark plug, with seven kills on eight swings, and Ashley Le had 15 assists in the fourth set alone. Virginia successfully converted on a side out opportunity 13 out of 14 times, which means only once did Columbia score back-to-back points.
One week ago, Virginia made costly errors that cost them a five set match against Rutgers. This time, that would not be the case. Kate Johnson served two aces and started a 5-0 run to give her team an 8-4 lead, and then Ciera Hecht served two aces and put together a 7-0 run to close out the set with a dominant 15-5 victory. If four service aces wasn’t already a huge boost, hitting .429 got Virginia over the hump and on its way to a come-from-behind win.
Lauryn Bowie had 20 kills to lead all attackers, and she hit .514, an incredible performance that will put opponents on notice. Abby Tadder had 12 kills, Ciera Hecht had 11 kills, nine digs, and five blocks, and Veresia Yon had ten kills and nine blocks while hitting .429. Ashley Le put up 50 assists and eight digs. The stat lines of Kate Johnson (four aces, nine digs), Heyli Velasquez (two aces, eight digs), and Milan Gomillion (16 digs) are also worth noting.
The Cavaliers will host Old Dominion on Tuesday at 6pm before traveling up north for the DMV Invitational in Maryland and D.C.
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