Virginia Volleyball | Cavaliers Drop ACC Opener to No. 3 Stanford On Saturday

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – In the opening match of ACC play, the Virginia volleyball staff (7-4, 0-1 ACC) fell in 4 units (15-25, 14-25, 25-22, 17-25) to No. 3 Stanford Cardinal (10-2, 1-0) on Saturday afternoon (Sept. 27) at John Paul Jones Arena.

Freshman Reagan Ennist posted a season-best 11 kills to guide the UVA assault throughout Saturday’s matinee. Kate Dean added seven extra kills of her personal and tied for a match-high with seven blocks. Zoey Dodd additionally tallied seven blocks for a brand new profession excessive.

HOW IT HAPPENED 

Set 1: Stanford 25, Virginia 15

The visiting Cardinal sprinted out to a 9-3 lead within the opening set of Sunday’s contest. Virginia lower the lead right down to 9-5 with back-to-back factors. Following the short UVA spurt, Stanford tallied seven of the subsequent eight factors to increase its result in 16-6. The Cardinal ended a late Cavalier surge with an Erika Sayer kill to assert the set.

Set 2: Stanford 25, Virginia 14

Just like within the first set, Stanford began quick out of the gate and constructed a 12-4 lead. In the latter levels of the set, Virginia strung collectively a 3-0 run that was aided by back-to-back kills from Dean and Ennist. The Cardinal answered by tallying six of the ultimate seven factors to push UVA to the brink.

Set 3: Virginia 25, Stanford 23

Virginia proved resilient within the third set and jumped out to a lead at 10-6. Stanford lower the Cavalier benefit right down to 12-10 earlier than UVA answered with a 4-0 run that compelled a Cardinal timeout. Late within the set, the guests pulled to inside a pair of factors at 24-22 earlier than Layrn Bowie compelled a fourth set with an emphatic kill.

Set 4: Stanford 25, Virginia 17

The fourth and closing set of the match proved to be probably the most aggressive, with 9 ties and 6 whole lead adjustments. Stanford and Virginia jousted to a 13-13 tie earlier than the Cardinal took management of the sport with a 10-1 run. A late Teagan Hogan service ace made it a 23-16 contest previous to Stanford scoring two of the ultimate three factors of the day.

 MATCH NOTES

• Virginia is 1-4 in ACC openers beneath Shannon Wells.
• Stanford now leads the all-time collection 3-0 over UVA.
• Saturday’s loss was the primary loss for the Cavaliers at John Paul Jones Arena.
• UVA’s third set win was the first-ever set win over Stanford and tied for the best set win over a ranked opponent in program historical past.

FROM HEAD COACH SHANNON WELLS

“We started off the week with an injury on Saturday and then another one later. Our bench is getting a little bit larger than our group that can actually go. So, we put in a new lineup yesterday to try to save some bodies and put our healthiest group out there and practiced that for about an hour. We did some serve and pass today for about 15-20 minutes and then we just focused on getting to play UVA Volleyball. It’s been a work in progress we’ve been working on for the last two weeks. We’ve focused on gym culture, investing in each other, and allowing each other to play vulnerable and take big swings.”

“And most importantly, just taking it play by play. We talked about it in the locker room today. It was very inspiring to watch football yesterday and hear Chandler Morris talk a lot about “it’s just another game.” This facility is massive time for us, and we’re taking part in the quantity three staff within the nation, so it provides you a bit of bit of additional butterflies within the stomach. We wished to only play it like another sport. But most significantly, what we took from him is that they received that sport yesterday as a result of they took it play by play.”

UP NEXT

Virginia will shut out the opening weekend of ACC play on Sunday (Sept. 28) towards Cal at John Paul Jones Arena. First serve is about for 1:30 p.m. and might be watched on the ACC Network.