Virginia women's volleyball coach Melissa Aldrich Shelton will look to win her 100th ACC contest tonight against N.C. State at Memorial Gymnasium.
The Cavaliers (10-7, 5-3 ACC) come into the match after sweeping their weekend series with Boston College and Maryland but falling to in-state rival Virginia Tech Tuesday. The loss in Blacksburg could mean bad news for N.C. State (3-14, 0-7 ACC), as the Cavaliers are hungry for a conference win.
"That was a big wake-up call for us," Shelton said of the loss. "Virginia Tech is a good team, but we should have beaten them."
Meanwhile, the Wolfpack come into Charlottesville having lost their last 13 matches, including a weekend sweep by ACC front-runner Duke and Wake Forest.
While N.C. State's record is not impressive, Virginia will still have to come out sharp in order to pick up a conference win it simply cannot let slip away.
"We try not to overlook anyone," senior outside hitter Sarah Kirkwood said. "N.C. State has got a very young team this year, and when a team is really young, you never know when things are going to click for them. It could be our match ... where things start working out on their side, so we have to make sure we take care of things on our side."
The Wolfpack have already won more matches than they did last season? and took a game in their match against No. 13 Duke.
Leading the way for Virginia will be Kirkwood, the reigning ACC and National Player of the Week. The senior outside hitter leads the ACC in points per game (5.53) and ranks second in kills per game (4.82) and fifth in the conference in aces per game (0.52).
Also playing key roles for Virginia will be senior middle Katie Oakes, who ranks fourth in the ACC in blocks per game (1.42), and freshman setter Kelly Irvin, who will look to orchestrate the offense. Irvin is coming off a 44-assist performance against the Hokies.
Virginia will, however, enter the match less than 100 percent having been hampered with injuries this week to senior libero Melissa Caldwell and sophomore outside hitter Lauren Dickson. Caldwell did not play against Virginia Tech on Tuesday, while Dickson saw limited action.
If this is not remedied by game time Friday night, look for sophomore outside hitter Tara Hester and junior Beth Shelton to fill the voids left by Caldwell and Dickson.
N.C. State will look to a young group of players to come into a hostile environment and try to steal a conference win.
The Wolfpack are led by freshman setter Alex Smith who has produced 8.30 helpers a game, good enough for ninth best in the conference. Freshman opposite hitter Lauren Zaniboni leads the team in kills (194) on the season and sophomore outside hitter Chrissy Zirpolo leads the team in service aces (14).
On paper, this match looks like a win for Virginia; however, as the Cavaliers found out the hard way against Miami earlier in the year, matches are not decided by the statistics beforehand. The Cavaliers are aware of the importance of not losing a second consecutive conference match and will look to start Homecoming weekend off right with a victory.
Game time is 7 p.m. at Memorial Gymnasium.
Read More
Volleyball holds off Boston College in tight five-set win
By Lauren Halak | 2 hours agoSenior outside hitter Elayna Duprey led the team throughout the match with 22 points and 18 kills.
Virginia annihilated 41-14 in a must-win contest versus North Carolina
By Peter Kriebel | YesterdayJust about everything that could have gone wrong for Virginia football went wrong.
No. 24 women’s soccer not to be denied in late win over Clemson
By Sam Chun | YesterdayThe Cavaliers topped Clemson 1-0 in front of a packed out Klöckner Stadium.
