This weekend the Virginia women's volleyball team begins a stretch of 10 conference games that will determine its postseason fate. The Cavaliers are traveling down the East Coast to Florida to take on Miami tonight and Florida State Saturday night. This will be the second time Virginia has played both of these teams this season, a familiarity which makes the matches that much more difficult.
"Starting the second round of ACC play, you have to expect every team to get better since they are going to know you a little bit more," Virginia coach Melissa Aldrich Shelton said. "I'm a little nervous going into the weekend in terms of knowing that we are going to have to play great volleyball in order to win."
The Cavaliers (13-8, 8-4 ACC) first play Miami (9-12, 3-9 ACC), to whom Virginia lost at Memorial Gymnasium 2-3 back in September. Miami's other two ACC wins came on the road against Virginia Tech and N.C. State.
The Hurricanes are led by sophmore libero Cassie Loessberg, sophomore outside hitter Genny Mayhew and redshirt senior middle blocker Ciara Michel. Loessberg ranks fourth in the ACC in service aces per game (0.56) and fifth in digs per game (5.20), while Michel ranks third in blocks per game (1.40). The Hurricanes have lost eight of their last nine matches, all in the ACC, and the Cavaliers are optimistic coming into the match.
"We came off of a great weekend, even though we lost to Duke," junior middle Shannon Davis said. "We had a good week in practice, and we are really excited, especially because we did lose to Miami last time. We are just really fired up."
Although the first half of the season was marked by several individual achievements, the Cavaliers seem poised to make the second half about the team, specifically making the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1999.
"I feel like we finally found our rhythm," Davis said. "Kelly [Irvin] is doing an amazing job of getting the ball to everybody and changing it up so the other team doesn't know what we are doing."
Although the Cavaliers need to win against Miami Friday, a win in Tallahassee against Florida State Saturday would go farther towards helping Virginia's playoff chances. Using the Oct. 7 NCAA Ratings Percentage Index as a barometer, Miami ranked 141st at 8-8 and has won only one match since. On the other hand, Florida State ranked 66th with a 6-9 record, and going into this weekend the Seminoles have won three and lost two since Oct. 7.
"Both Miami and Florida State are tough places to play. Florida State always has a good crowd and Miami's gym is a very unusual setting," Davis said. "I think just knowing that we can get wins on the road and that we are playing well right now, we just need to have a positive attitude and know that we can beat them."
In order to make the best case for the NCAA Tournament selection committee, the Cavaliers must win these two road games, and the odds seem to be favoring Virginia. Miami has its last five home ACC matches and Virginia has already beaten Florida State this season. Though there are higher profile ACC matches still left in the season, the Cavaliers need to prove they can win when they're favored, and more importantly, win on the road.
"It's huge," Shelton said of the upcoming weekend. "We are only 2-3 on the road this year in ACC play so we need to get both of these. I don't think anyone on our team will be happy unless we come back with two wins"
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