Virginia volleyball took on No. 7 Stanford out west in Stanford, Calif. Friday and was promptly defeated in all three sets. The Cavaliers (19-7, 9-6 ACC) had only met the Cardinal (20-4, 12-3 ACC) on the court once before — back in 2001 when Stanford handed Virginia a 3-0 defeat.
The Cavaliers’ effort Thursday night was not enough to steal a top-10 victory, and they fell behind just enough to the point where Stanford could take all three sets with a comfortable lead. This now marks the fourth time that Virginia has fallen to a ranked opponent this season. The Cavaliers are consistently able to compete but just cannot pull ahead when they are given opportunities to do so.
The first set of the match was a perfect example — the majority of the set was spent in tiebreakers and alternating leads. Virginia had shown promise, and an 8-1 run in the middle of the set led to a 12-8 lead. Unfortunately, the Cavaliers were unable to finish the job.
No true leader came out of it until the score was at 17-17 — the Cavaliers scored the next two points to take a slight lead, but the Cardinal were poised to attack. When it mattered most, Stanford took eight of the nine final points of the first set to win it 25-20. A slightly higher amount of digs and attacks gave Stanford this push that Virginia could not match.
However, to hold a ranked opponent to a close game for the majority of the first set is impressive. This was an improved start in comparison to past faceoffs against other nationally-ranked conference opponents — such as the major three-set falls to No. 1 Pittsburgh and then-No. 12 Southern Methodist.
The second set was still close, but Stanford controlled a lead from the beginning — leaving the Cavaliers to constantly play a game of catch-up to try and flip the lead.
Exasperated by the inability to pull ahead, senior outside hitter Elayna Duprey executed four of her 12 kills of the night to try and get the team moving. Freshman setter Zoey Dood tried to do the same, and her kill put the score at 13-12. Virginia came within one point of tying up the game and challenging the Cardinal’s lead.
Devastatingly, this energized Stanford to attack harder. One player in particular, junior outside hitter Elia Rubin, got the run started. A couple of service aces from Rubin bolstered the Cardinal and startled the Cavaliers, opening up the opportunity for a 7-1 run.
During the final points of the second set, Stanford matched every Virginia point with two of its own. It was not surprising when the Cardinals took the second set 25-17.
Winning a set by an eight-point gap is more indicative of team performance in comparison to closer matches — the Cavaliers need to figure out how to slow down and stop their opponents from going on an almost-uncontested run to the end of the set. Keeping the game close from the beginning to the middle is likely expected, but if Virginia is unable to jump out to an early lead it needs to figure out how to be the team that attacks at a core point of the set.
Duprey has remained impressive, though, and stepped up as a leader at the beginning of the third and final set. Scoring two of the four points at the start, Duprey has not been fazed by the fact that this is her first and only season playing as a Cavalier. She has stepped up to the plate as a key point-scorer and leader, setting the example for her teammates.
With this early lead, it appeared that Virginia would manage to give Stanford a taste of its own medicine. The Cavaliers were able to hold on to their lead — even with a few tied scores — until the Cardinal’s Rubin made an appearance once again to shut Virginia down.
Tying up the score at 7-7, Stanford shifted to take the lead with a kill and pair of blocks by Rubin. From then on, the Cardinal never looked back and confidently pulled ahead for the rest of the set to finish the game with a third set 25-17 victory.
This is a perfect example of what the Cavaliers should be doing when their opponent appears to be hitting their stride — implementing some well-timed kills and blocks to throw both their opponent’s offense and defensive rhythm off-kilter.
While Virginia does have a team that plays well together and is efficient, it still has room to step up and play at the level that the nationally-ranked teams play at. The regular season will be over by the end of November, so the Cavaliers have until then to challenge themselves to see if they have what it takes to compete well against the best teams in the nation in conference tournaments.
Before then, though, Virginia will continue its tour of the west coast by facing California Friday at 10 p.m.
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