A win just was not in the cards Saturday night as Virginia volleyball (13-6, 6-4 ACC) fell for the first time at home this season in a close ACC loss to Florida State. The ball never seemed to fall on the side of the Cavaliers, who lost 3-0 (26-30, 27-30, 30-32) to the Seminoles (14-4, 8-1 ACC).
Despite posting a potent hitting average of .316, the Cavaliers were unable to overcome the dominant Florida State offense, who hit .378. The Seminoles were led by 6-foot-3 outside hitter Brianna Berry, who slammed 13 kills and hit .688.
"Florida State is a great team," Virginia coach Melissa Shelton said. "They've had this lineup all year long and they are humming."
The match was much closer with than the score would indicate with 32 tie scores. The deal-breaker for the Cavaliers was service errors. Virginia registered 11 service errors in the match with five coming in game two alone.
"When our serving and passing are on, we play really well," junior Sarah Kirkwood said. "They got us out of system a lot with their deep serving and on top of that we had about 10 serves that seemed to be almost aces or out by a foot. It just wasn't our night in the serving game tonight."
The night wasn't a total waste for the Cavaliers, who delivered an impressive showing of their own on offense. Kirkwood showed that she is on the road to being 100 percent again by posting nine kills and hitting .368. Freshman Lauren Dickson once again stepped up for Virginia to lead the team with 10 kills.
"We did some really nice things," Shelton said. "I think our offense was pretty effective. We just need to be mentally tougher."
Despite the loss on Saturday, Virginia was able to notch another ACC win Friday night against Miami. Virginia ironically rode the strength of its serving to record a 3-0 (31-29, 30-24, 30-15) win over the Hurricanes.
The Cavaliers dominated the serving line, converting 11 service aces compared to one for Miami. Senior Lindsey Osco led the way with four aces to go along with seven kills. Kirkwood also contributed three aces and nine kills.
The Virginia defense also dominated the Hurricanes, holding them to a .153 average. Katie Oakes led the way, adding six blocks to her NCAA Div. I-A leading 1.89 blocks per game average.
While the Cavaliers would have liked to sweep the two games, the weekend was not a total wash. The big winner was the Virginia offense, which bounced back to hit .337 and .270, respectively, after a dismal showing last weekend. The offense has been buoyed by the return of power outside hitter Kirkwood. Kirkwood returned to true form this weekend after a three-week absence because of illness.
"It was an incredibly frustrating process but to be quite honest I'm a big believer that things happen for a reason," Kirkwood said. "It has tested every bit of my mental toughness as a player."
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