Virginia volleyball is on fire. The Cavaliers (13-2, 3-1 ACC) are off to their best start to a season in two decades. Most recently, they rattled off back-to-back sweeps against tough conference foes. Coach Shannon Wells and company beat then-No. 16 Florida State for their third ranked win in program history Friday and followed that up by crushing Miami Sunday in John Paul Jones Arena in front of 2,892 fans — the second-largest crowd the program has ever played in front of.
Since arriving in Charlottesville in 2021, Wells has cultivated a mentality of gratitude and presence within the Cavaliers. She brought a wealth of coaching experience to Virginia, coming most recently from Florida, where she served as the Gators’ recruiting coordinator for seven years and associate head coach for four years, helping them reach their first national final since 2003.
Unlike Florida, the Cavaliers have not recently been known as a volleyball powerhouse. They have not appeared in the NCAA Tournament since 1999 and often finish as one of the bottom few teams in the ACC standings. Last year, Virginia finished 13th in the ACC with an overall record of 11-17, and that was considered an improvement from past years. But Wells, now in her fourth season with the Cavaliers, is working to bring the program back to a level of dominance it has not shown in decades.
“I don't like when people say we're building a program,” Wells said. “I think we're rebuilding this program. There was a time that this program was in the NCAA Tournament, when this team was in the ACC top three, top five, consistently, and that's what we're striving to be.”
Wells also said that when the team’s potential for success has been discussed with Director of Athletics Carla Williams, they have pointed to the overall dominance of the Cavaliers’ athletic program as a model for the team’s success. Last year, Virginia finished fifth in NCAA Division I schools in the final Learfield Directors’ Cup standings.
“Dr. Williams and I felt like volleyball here could win championships,” Wells said. “Everybody else wins, so why not volleyball?”
Williams announced the hiring of Wells in 2021 as part of the athletic department’s goal to rebuild Virginia volleyball into an elite program. Sunday afternoon, Williams was in attendance at JPJ and pointed to the head coach as a major catalyst for the team’s recent success.
“Coach Wells has been building a strong culture in order to have a strong program,” Williams told The Cavalier Daily. “This is the fruit of her labor … Seeing them have some great success early in the season is really rewarding for all of us that support her and the program.”
It is also rewarding, of course, for the players. After toppling Miami, senior libero Milan Gomillion said she felt “blessed” to be part of the team’s blistering start to the 2024 season. Senior outside hitter Brooklyn Borum called the campaign to date “an indescribable feeling.”
Hopefully, Borum will eventually be able to put the feeling into words, because this success is not going anywhere. Consecutive wins against ACC contenders proves that the volleyball program has the potential to hold its own among its dominant counterparts at the University, like No. 3 field hockey and No. 1 women’s swimming & diving. The sweep of Miami was Virginia’s 10th win in 11 matches, breaking a ten-year spell without a victory over the Hurricanes and cementing the Cavaliers as a dangerous team.
Seeing as Miami beat then-No. 1 Texas on the road earlier in the season, what could the ceiling be for this Virginia team?
The answer to this question should become clear soon. The Cavaliers are trekking into a difficult slate of conference games for the remainder of the season, with headlining bouts against No. 1 Pittsburgh, No. 4 Louisville, No. 5 Stanford and No. 20 Georgia Tech. To climb the ACC standings, earn a top-25 ranking and secure a bid for the NCAA Tournament, Virginia will have to prove that its level of play against Florida State and the Hurricanes is the standard and not an outlier.
The team’s focus, however, remains on taking it one game at a time.
“[We have to focus on getting] one percent better every day,” Wells said.
Wells and company have been working with a culture coach, she said, who has guided the team in strengthening their mindset going into each game. As recent wins give the Cavaliers more confidence, the key to the rest of their season will be to continue employing the same mindset that has helped them play strongly as of late.
“We keep saying the results take care of themselves,” Wells said. “As long as we continue to play fearless and we play our level of volleyball, we think good things can happen because we believe in what we do.”
Good things certainly happened this weekend. Virginia won all six of its sets and improved to 3-1 in conference play after posting a 4-14 mark last year. The Cavaliers stumbled to the same record in 2023, a 1-17 mark in 2022 and went winless in 2021. That means as soon as Friday, when the Cavaliers play at Clemson, Wells’ team can match their most wins in an ACC season since 2019. With more than seven weeks remaining in the regular season, it seems a given that Virginia will set the bar higher than it has in a long time.
The course of the 2024 season so far leaves plenty of hope for the future of Cavalier volleyball, particularly under Wells’ guidance. Wherever Virginia’s season goes from here, it will serve as a significant building block in a rebuild that is far from over.
“This is not the end of our story,” Wells said. “This is the beginning. We got some work left to do.”
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