For the last time this season, the Virginia volleyball team will hit the road when it takes on Maryland tonight in College Park before traveling to Boston College Saturday.
The Cavaliers (16-11, 11-7 ACC) are coming off of another weekend split, defeating N.C. State before being swept by North Carolina. The loss to Carolina was the Tar Heels' fifth consecutive sweep and part of a current six-match win streak.
"North Carolina played fantastic volleyball," Virginia coach Melissa Aldrich Shelton said. "They were pretty much errorless and were pretty hard to stop, but we could have played better. It's almost as if we weren't ready to play from the get-go."
Maryland (16-11, 8-10 ACC) is also coming off of a weekend split. The Terrapins swept Miami before falling to Florida State in five games.
While the Cavaliers swept their first meeting with the Terps back in October, Virginia will have to be ready to play tonight if it wants to get the weekend started off right. Maryland is 6-1 at home in ACC play.
"Maryland plays great at home," Shelton said. "We know it is going to be a different atmosphere and a different intensity on their side of the net."
Maryland's dominance at home will be countered by Virginia's performances in its first match of weekend series. In conference weekend series, the Cavaliers are 8-0 in the first match of the weekend compared to 2-6 in the second match. This inconsistent play has taken a toll on the team.
"It's tough to be up and down and to not know what to expect," Shelton said. "We are just working on focusing when match time comes around and then trying to find good combinations out there for us."
Virginia's offense will be led by senior outside hitter Sarah Kirkwood. Kirkwood is second in the conference in points per game (5.21) and kills per game (4.46) while ranking third in service aces per game (0.53).
Defensively, senior libero Melissa Caldwell looks to move herself into first place on Virginia's all-time digs list. Caldwell is seventh in the conference with 4.49 digs per game and is only 15 shy of Anne Marie Hammers' record of 1,886 digs.
"It's really exciting," Caldwell said. "Basically, we need to go out and play well. That means going out and playing as much good defense as possible. Hopefully, I can go out and finish off the record this weekend."
Maryland will be led by sophomore middle blocker Katie Usher. Usher ranks fourth in the conference in hitting percentage (.343).
Defensively, Maryland tallies the most blocks per game in the ACC with 3.36 blocks. That effort is led by redshirt junior outside hitter Mary Beth Brown who tallies 1.30 blocks per game, good enough for sixth best in the conference.
"We just really need to make sure our setters are on top of their game," Shelton said of combating Maryland's blocking. "Our setters need to be able to see which hitter has a one-on-one or what the best situation is at that time. We have also been working on hitting high and hitting deep during practice this week"
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