At Memorial Gymnasium Friday, Virginia volleyball faced No. 3 Louisville. The Cardinals (23-3, 15-1 ACC) were on a six-game win streak and continued their elite play by defeating the Cavaliers (20-8, 10-7 ACC). It was a hard-fought battle from Virginia though, who took Louisville to four sets after winning in the third set. This was the first time the Cavaliers won a set against a top-five team in program history.
Key performances from Virginia veterans kept things interesting, as senior libero Milan Gomillion made 17 blocks, plus senior middle blocker Abby Tadder and junior middle blocker Kate Dean each had eight kills.
Avoiding a sweep against Louisville sends a threatening message to other teams about Virginia’s status as an upper-echelon squad. Playing a remotely decent game against a national championship contender shows the rest that the Cavaliers are ready for the tournament and that no one can count them out.
Louisville started off rough in the first set. Virginia, fueled by a nervous energy and stands full of fans, stayed close as the lead shifted back and forth. But Louisville slowly drifted apart, gaining a handful of points for every point Virginia earned. The Cavaliers found themselves trailing 15-9.
The Cardinals continued to get ahead of Virginia, going on a 6-1 run and leading the game 21-10. Despite a timeout, the Cavaliers were not able to regroup. Louisville went on to score the next four points, ending the first set 25-10.
The Cavaliers responded by taking the early lead at 2-3 with Tadder’s help. It did not take long for the Cardinals to rally and soon outpace Virginia though. Louisville stayed in cruise control the entire night until Dean came out of an energizing timeout and registered a kill to make the score 14-8. From then on, the Cardinals battled to take the second set 25-14.
Virginia ended the second set how they began the third — hungry. Tadder established an early lead after her point, with the score 6-2. Louisville closed the gap to 6-3, but after an error by Louisville and an ace by senior setter Ashley Le, the Cavalier lead remained. Louisville slowly chipped away and shrank the Virginia lead to 12-10. However, the Cavaliers rallied and ended Louisville’s run with a well-executed kill from Dean to lead 13-10.
Virginia took that momentum and ran with it, going on a four-point run fueled by an ace by Gomillion and a block from Borum and Tadder. The Cavaliers led 17-13 after a kill by Tadder. However, the Cardinals stayed in the set after a three-point run, threatening Virginia at 17-15, and later 19-18. After an intense point, the Cavaliers maintained their lead despite a competitive run by Louisville as they took it to the end. Virginia won the third set 25-23, but unfortunately, that was all the Cavaliers could muster.
The Cardinals started off the fourth set hot, using their energy from the last set. At the highest, they were ahead 10-3. Ultimately, Louisville endured and won the fourth set 25-16.
From this loss, Coach Shannon Wells sees her team’s valiant effort as a step in the right direction. She is confident that her team will continue to impress and surpass what the program has seen for a long time.
“We didn’t like how we showed up against Pitt with a similar crowd,” Wells said. “We didn’t like how we showed up against SMU … I don’t think this team is satisfied. We don’t feel like we’re where we need to be yet.”
With their sights trained on the tournament, the Cavaliers’ schedule provides an opening to the playoffs — an 11-15 Notre Dame will struggle to beat Virginia. Later on, it will face North Carolina and Boston College for a second time. Both previous matches went to the fifth set, and the Cavaliers won against the Eagles and lost to the Tar Heels.
Virginia will face the Fighting Irish at Memorial Gymnasium Sunday at 1 p.m. The game will be streamed on ACCNX.
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