The Virginia volleyball team saw its season come to an end Friday night when the Cavaliers lost to Duke in three straight games (30-27, 30-19, 30-21).
"315 Division I teams end their season on a loss," Virginia coach Melissa Aldrich Shelton said. "Ours just came a little early."
Duke's sweep was fueled by a dominating second-game win. Duke began with an 11-point run behind the serving of outside hitter Tealle Hunkus. The service of Hunkus helped the Blue Devils build a lead the Cavaliers could not surmount. Hunkus had an ace during the scoring run and had three consecutive aces later in the game to add to her match-high total of six.
"The whole team was pumped, everyone was ready to go," Hunkus said. "We were aggressive, and that helped."
The Cavaliers registered their first point of the game when the score was 11-0 off a kill from sophomore Lindsay Osco. But Virginia could not start a run of its own at any moment during the game.
The match started with a close first game that the Blue Devils took from the Cavaliers. The game was tight throughout, and Virginia was within one point with the score 24-23 after an attack error by Duke outside hitter Tassy Rufai. But the Blue Devils were able to pull away with consecutive kills from senior Erin Noble.
"I think we came out and expected to dominate on our own court," Shelton said. "But give credit to Duke; somehow they were able to put it together."
In the third game, Duke was able to establish an early lead, albeit a smaller one. The Cavaliers, however, were never able to take the lead, let alone tie the score in the final game. Virginia's offense was not effective in the final game as the Cavaliers combined for only 14 kills while hitting .122.
The one bright spot of the night for the Cavaliers occurred when senior co-captain Alexis Geocaris recorded her 1,000th career kill in the first game. Geocaris slammed the ball down to make the score 13-11 and become the ninth Cavalier to reach the 1,000 kill milestone.
"It's nice to be able to say that," Geocaris said of her accomplishment. "But in the grand scheme of things, it does not mean nearly as much as a win would have tonight."
One aspect of the Virginia attack that was missing was strong service. The Cavaliers were the second best serving team in the ACC entering the tournament, but only had three aces in the match and had four serving errors.
"I think a lot of that had to do with Duke being such a good passing team," junior co-captain Kristin Chaney said. "We were serving to their best passer a lot of the time, and I think that's why we weren't hitting it as well."
The Cavaliers ended the 2004 season with a loss, but the team played well, and several players had impressive individual seasons. Freshman outside hitter Sarah Kirkwood had the second highest total for kills in a season by a Virginia player with 524 and was the first Cavalier to be named ACC Freshman of the Year. Freshman libero Melissa Caldwell set a new record for digs per game with an average of 5.46. Caldwell also had the third highest total of overall digs with 611. Sophomore setter Emily Kirkwood finished the year averaging 13.08 assists per game, the second best total for a Cavalier. And Geocaris secured the fifth best season for a Cavalier with 125 block assists. But despite the individual success, Virginia players were upset that the season had to end.
"It's a disappointing end, it's disappointing for it to end at all," Chaney said. "We knew the day would come, we just didn't think it would be this soon."
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