The Virginia volleyball team cruised to its second consecutive home victory last night, this time taking a 3-0 (30-17, 30-14, 30-18) match from Virginia Commonwealth University.
"I think [this match] was a great confidence builder," co-captain Alexis Geocaris said. "It's nice to know that we can really decidedly put a team away like that."
The match did not start so easily for the Cavaliers (4-1), however. VCU (1-3) took an early lead in the first game and stayed close until a five-point run by the Cavaliers yielded a dominating 18-10 lead.
"I don't think we've started out fast all year -- that's something we have to work on," Virginia coach Melissa Aldrich Shelton said. "But we have a lot of composure and maturity on the court, so if a team gets a little lead it's not a big deal. What you worry about is when you are down 25-20, not when it's 5-3 or 5-2."
The Rams were not able to maintain their early intensity for the remainder of the first game, as they racked up seven errors, including a hit out of bounds by Alli Ainsley that led to match point for Virginia.
The Cavaliers were led in the first game by Lindsay Osco, who registered seven kills and three digs. Freshman Sarah Kirkwood was a perfect 6-6 in attacking the net, and Geocaris added five kills.
The second game had very little in common with the first, as the Cavaliers dominated from start to finish.
"In that second game, we came out with a lot of energy," Osco said. "We didn't come out down like in the first game, we started coming out strong. We started out with a lead, we were up 5-0, so that definitely helped out."
There was a scary moment for the Rams midway through the game. Ainsley, a junior outside hitter, went down with an injury to her leg after the Cavaliers extended their lead to 11-4. Ainsley was assisted off the court and did not return to the game.
Virginia continued to cruise in the second game, only sputtering briefly on match point. With the score 29-13, Geocaris went up for kill, but wound up with an error instead. The senior from Wilmette, Ill. showed persistence, however, and recorded a kill to end the game on the very next play. Co-captain Kristin Chaney led the Cavaliers with five kills, and the team recording only three errors in the game.
Shelton attributed her team's success hitting the ball to improved passing.
"Any time you can pass the ball and run all of your options, you're going to have a higher [hitting] percentage," she said.
Virginia continued its success in the third and final game, steadily pulling out to a 17-10 lead. From there, the Rams could not close the gap and ended the game with two consecutive errors.
The Cavaliers got a boost from red-shirt junior Lisa Krolikowski. Making only her second appearance of the season, Krolikowski entered the game with the score 23-15 and quickly scored a kill and a service ace on consecutive plays to get the Virginia fans fired up.
Geocaris added six of her 14 kills in thegame and finished tied with Osco for the team lead in that category.
Last night, the Cavalier offense was firing on all cylinders against VCU. Virginia had three players register double digits in kills -- Geocaris, Osco, and Kirkwood -- on the way to hitting .390 as a team. Also, sophomore Emily Kirkwood's 43 assists nearly doubled the 24-assist output of the entire Ram team.
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