In a season that continues to be dominated by matches outside of Charlottesville, the members of the Virginia volleyball team will pack their suitcases once again for back-to-back road games over 400 miles apart, playing at Boston College Friday and at Maryland Saturday.
“It’ll be tough,” senior middle Shannon Davis said. “We went to Chicago and JMU, which wasn’t that far, and we went to Denver as well. So we know the long airplane flights and all that stuff. But I think we’re ready, we just gotta show up to play once we get there.”
On the road Virginia (8-7, 0-3 ACC) has had limited success. The Cavaliers are 5-5 away from Memorial Gym, with their toughest road losses at the Northwestern Tournament in Chicago to UCLA and host Northwestern, not to mention last week’s trip to Blacksburg and a loss to Denver.
“We’re definitely used to being out on the road,” junior defensive specialist Brittani Rendina said, “We get there, we practice the day we get in, right when we get off the plane, so we’re preparing from the moment we get to the gym.”
Boston College (6-9, 0-3 ACC) is tied for last in the conference with Virginia. Maryland (5-10, 1-2 ACC) hasn’t fared much better, as the team is ranked in the conference just one spot higher and owns the worst overall record in the conference. The Cavaliers have been working hard to figure out what it will take to win their first conference game while on the road.
“I guess it’s the same as winning any home game.” Rendina said. “We need to play as a team at all times, block out everything else, focus on our court and just stay in our bubble and have so much fun, play perfect volleyball, and we’ll win games.”
Despite coming up short in their last five matches, the Cavaliers have been playing sets all the way to the end. In their most recent game against Clemson, they forced the match to go to five sets. Before that, Virginia played Georgia Tech in four sets before falling. Despite the losses, Virginia coach Lee Maes has a positive outlook.
“We [have done] a really nice job with our serving,” Maes said. “Our serving has been a priority for us. You make good [opposing] teams average by being aggressive and being proficient with your serving.”
Maes also has been pleased with Virginia’s defensive efforts.
”We really like that we’ve been able to apply a lot of the defensive schemes that we’ve been trying to employ,” he said. “That’s all we’re asking for, is to do what we know and put the effort, the attitude, the focus into what we know and allow us to go out here and compete.”
The Cavaliers have had all week to work on improving their road-game strategies.
“One thing that we really have to assess now with our group is the level of maturity that we need to show,” Maes said. “I’m looking for just that mentality that shows us we’re going to continue playing aggressively, we’re going to attack in everything we do, and that mentality is something we have some control over.”
The Cavaliers need to start winning in the ACC if they want to stay in contention for the conference title. In the ACC there is no conference tournament like in other sports; instead, the conference champion is determined solely by the team’s conference record.
Virginia will see four conference opponents on the road in the next two weeks — including North Carolina and N.C. State next weekend — and needs to keep its spirits up.
“Confidence comes from doing what they know well over and over and over again; when they see positive results that obviously breeds confidence,” Maes said, adding, “the opponent’s not going to dictate our mentality. It’s how we go about performing that’s going to dictate our mentality.”
The Cavaliers will not return to Memorial Gymnasium until Oct. 17, when they take on Duke.
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