The Virginia volleyball team looks to climb the ACC standings as they return home to host a pair of conference matches this weekend. Virginia currently stands ninth in the conference with a 3-5 ACC record and a 13-7 overall record. This is only the second time Virginia has had a home match since Sept. 14, and the Cavaliers are 7-1 in matches played at Memorial Gymnasium this season.
"Home-court advantage is really great," freshman outside hitter Sarah Kirkwood said. "Especially compared to when you go to a place like Wisconsin where there were 4,500 people screaming. So it will be nice to come home."
The Cavaliers play Duke tonight at 7 p.m. and Wake Forest tomorrow at 5 p.m. For the match against Duke, the Cavaliers will hold their promotion, "A Thousand Wahoos Strong," to encourage fans to attend.
The Cavaliers are coming off back-to-back road losses at Clemson and Georgia Tech and look to get back in the win column with victories this weekend. Sarah Kirkwood is hitting a team-best .287 hitting percentage and is 18th in kills among all Division I players with 5.15 per game and 381 on the season. Freshman libero Melissa Caldwell and sophomore setter Emily Kirkwood are second and third on the team in service aces with 27 and 26, respectively. Senior middle Alexis Geocaris leads the team in blocks with 91 on the season.
Duke is currently tied for second in the conference and defeated Virginia 3-1 (30-27, 32-30, 23-30, 30-24) in Durham Sept. 26.
"Our last match against them was a great match," Caldwell said. "It's a really good all-around team. We've been working a bunch on defense and on working together as a team. I think we're really ready to go out and be prepared for them."
Wake Forest is tied for last in the ACC. They have an 8-11 overall record and a 0-8 conference record. Virginia won the first meeting between the two teams 3-0 (30-26, 30-28, 30-26) on Sept. 24. Despite their last-place standing, Virginia coach Melissa Aldrich Shelton stresses that the Cavaliers must maintain focus against Wake.
"I don't think we'll overlook Wake Forest at all," Shelton said. "Wake is a very strong team. Wake isn't losing by big amounts of points. They're losing by four or five. So, they're right in there with everybody."
Wins over both teams this weekend would help put Virginia back up toward the top of the conference.
"We're ninth technically, but there are three teams at 4-4," Shelton said. "So we know we can pull ourselves up. We're not worried about that. The key for us is going to be beating the teams that are 5-3, 6-3 right now. Can we do that? We feel we can if we play our game."
This weekend the Cavaliers get an opportunity to beat one of those 6-3 teams and raise their conference standing.
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