The Cavaliers (15-6, 8-4 ACC) proved their place as an ACC contender this weekend with big wins at home over Clemson and Georgia Tech.
Saturday night's victory over Georgia Tech marked the end of an 11-match losing streak to the Yellow Jackets. In addition, freshman Lauren Dickson registered a career-high 25 kills in the match.
Virginia came out strong in the first game, winning decisively 30-22. Dickson started off her torrid pace with five kills in game one. The Cavalier defense led by libero Melissa Caldwell held the Yellow Jacket offense to a .086 hitting percentage in the first game. Georgia Tech came back with a vengeance, hitting .444 in the second frame to win 30-24. Virginia won the third game easily, tallying 21 kills in that game alone. In the fourth game however, the Cavaliers were unable to shut the door on the Yellow Jackets, losing 30-27 and pushing the match a fifth and final game. The fifth game, only played to 15 points in collegiate volleyball, began with an 8-3 Cavalier run. The Yellow Jackets were able to tie the game at 9-9 before Virginia finally regained the lead with back-to-back kills by Sarah Kirkwood and Dickson. Dickson slammed home her 25th kill to give the Cavaliers a 15-12 win.
"That's our first fifth game all year," Virginia coach Melissa Shelton said. "I didn't even know if our first years knew we played to 15. We obviously handled it well. We have so many veterans on the court that we should win fifth games."
Once again for the Cavaliers, it was Dickson who had a big night. In addition to her career-high in kills, she also hit a team high .380 in the match and added two blocks for icing on the cake.
"She's been money for us all year," Shelton said. "She's not a first year in terms of her mental state. I'm just really proud of the way she's played."
Dickson, however, refused to take the credit for her performance, crediting middle hitters Shannon Davis and Katie Oakes.
"I had a lot more swings tonight because it was a longer match," Dickson said. "The middles were getting up well, holding their blocks and opening up some swings for me."
The biggest victory of the weekend, however, most likely came Friday night as the Cavaliers pulled off a 3-1 upset of the red-hot Clemson Tigers (26-30, 30-22, 30-26, 34-32).
While Kirkwood led the charge for the Cavaliers offensively with 22 kills, the story of the night was the Virginia defense that had four players in double digits in kills, including: Dickson, Caldwell, Beth Shelton and Emily Perilli. Defense was the key to both teams as both hitting percentages were under .200 for the match. Virginia quickly fell behind 1-0 as the Tigers held them to a .094 hitting percentage and forced 11 errors. But Kirkwood pulled the Cavaliers back into it with 21 of her 22 kills coming in the final three games.
While this weekend was important for Virginia's record, it also played a role in establishing confidence and control late in the game, according to Shelton.
"We're just finally figuring out how to stay aggressive at everything we do," Shelton said. "We finally figured out how our defense needs to play with each other to run down balls."
The Cavaliers look to continue their hot streak as they head to North Carolina next weekend for matches against North Carolina and N.C. State.
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