Volleyball: UVA’s season ends with tough loss against St. John’s in NIVC

By Colin Moore

JerryRatcliffe.com correspondent

Virginia hosted a postseason matchup for the first time in 25 years on Sunday, but visiting St. John’s held on for an upset win in four sets at Memorial Gymnasium.

St. John’s (23-12) played in its second match in two nights, as the Red Storm defeated North Carolina A&T in three straight sets in the NIVC opening round on Saturday.

Unfortunately for the Hoos, the Red Storm’s Erin Jones, Ana Benjamin, and libero Rashanny Solano Smith continued to perform well, along with Giogia Walther, who tallied 21 kills against the Hoos.

The Johnnies got their feet wet in tournament play Saturday, and this seemed to work in their advantage early as they played extremely hard in this Super 16 matchup, taking the first two sets of this long four-set match.

The Hoos (21-11) were able to seal a victory in the very competitive third set with some great plays, but fell just short of forcing a fifth and deciding set.

The Cavaliers were led by Becca Wight (11 kills), Abby Tadder (8 kills), and Brooklyn Borum (7 kills), while also racking up 7 aces as a team. On the defensive side, the Hoos made 13 blocks, led by Kate Dean, and came up with 60 digs, led by Milan Gomillion.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Set 1: St. John’s 25, UVA 21

The Hoos got out to a great strat with an early kill from Dean before the Johnnies scored on 4 straight points from great serves from Wiktoria Kowalczyk. Zoey Dood came in and made her presence felt with 4 kills off the first pass, catching the St. John’s defenders off guard. Dood managed to get quite some power behind her swing too, which is fairly unusual opposed to a directed tip shot. After going down 5, Virginia managed to tie the match again at 18 each. The Hoos competed and kept the set close until St. John’s pulled away at the end, taking the lead with a score of 25-21.

Set 2: St. John’s 27, UVA 25

The Cavaliers opened this set toe for toe with St. John’s before taking a brief lead at 8-5 with another kill from Dood off the initial pass, forcing a Johnnies timeout. The Red Storm came out of the timeout with 3 straight points getting within one. The Hoos took the punch and rallied by going on a small run of their own. Wight came in midway into the set and recorded her first kill of the match on her first swing. The Cavaliers took a generous lead at 18-13 before the Red Storm started making a comeback, forcing a UVA timeout at 18-16. Both teams competed throughout, resulting in another tied score at 25 a piece before falling in the way for St. John’s. UVA missed out on two set-point opportunities, putting them down 2 sets to 0.

Set 3: UVA 25, St. John’s 23

In a crucial third set, the Hoos started off very slowly, going down 7-2 early. While the Hoos were competing, the ball wasn’t falling in their favor, which forced a UVA timeout in hopes of changing the momentum. It worked, as the Hoos came out swinging, and in particular Wight continued from set 2 and made numerous huge kills and tallied a big block as well in this set, keeping UVA in the match. The Cavaliers tied the set at 14-14 before taking a one-point lead, resulting in a Red Storm timeout. Both teams continued to battle, trading points until St. Johns took a subtle lead at 20-17,  which resulted in UVA’s second and final timeout of the set. The Cavaliers responded and had huge kills from Tadder and Kandace Boothe in clutch situations helping the Hoos to victory, 25-23.

Set 4: St. John’s 25, UVA 20

In possibly the most competitive set of the match, both teams battled the entire time, not allowing one another to gain any marginal advantage. The set was tied 5 times midway through, with neither team gaining more than a 3-point advantage. The Cavaliers tied the match again for the sixth time at 16, forcing a St. Johns timeout, as UVA rallied from being behind. The Red Storm managed to dig deep after the timeout, going on a little run of their own before the Cavaliers answered and came within 2 from a terrific ace from Dood. Unfortunately for Virginia, the Johnnies ended the Hoos’ great season as they won the fourth and final set, 25-20.

UVA SEASON OVERVIEW

• The Cavaliers were making just their third postseason appearance in program history, the first since making the NCAA Tournament in 1999.
• Virginia and St. John’s had never met on the volleyball court.

• This year marks the 46th season of Virginia Volleyball, which held its inaugural season in 1979.
• In 45 complete seasons, UVA is 681-767 (.470) all-time.
• Head coach Shannon Wells is in her fourth season at the helm.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• The Cavaliers’ 21 wins on the season are the most since UVA went 23-9 during the 2006 campaign.
• UVA’s 11 ACC wins are the most since winning 11 in 2013. The North Dame sweep also ensured that the Cavaliers will finish with a winning record in league play for the first time since 2014.
• Entering the weekend, UVA was one of five schools in the Power Four to have improved its 2023 record by 10 wins.
• As a team, Virginia ranks top 100 nationally in team kills (1,467/99th) and total team attacks (4,103/70th), while ranking top five in the ACC in total team attacks (4,103/2nd), team kills (1,467/5th) and team digs (1,695/5th).
• Tadder, Gomillion and Dean lead the way in the individual rankings. Tadder ranks 143rd nationally in total blocks with 113. Gomillion’s 471 digs on the season place her 79th nationally and her digs per set mark of 4.36 also ranks her 75th in the country. Following a stellar start to ACC play, Dean ranks 133rd in the country with a .328 hitting percentage.
• Dood was named to the ACC’s All-Freshman team when the league office announced its awards on Monday evening. She became the 23rd player in program history to earn ACC All-Freshman honors and the first Cavalier to be named to the team since Borum in 2021.
• The weekend’s first and second round also marks just the second time since 2000 that a women’s postseason volleyball match has been played in the Commonwealth of Virginia