On a weekend that honored seniors Alana Walker, Kristen Leland, and Milla Ciprian, the UVA women’s volleyball team fought hard but ultimately came up short in two ACC matches, falling to Boston College and Syracuse.
On November 5th, UVA (8-16, 1-13 ACC) fell to Boston College (14-13, 4-9 ACC) 25-17, 24-26, 17-25, 28-30.
UVA came out swinging in set one and hit .316 to take the 1-0 lead. Grace Turner and Alana Walker each had four kills in the set, and Walker added four blocks.
Set two included 19 combined errors and was neck in neck the entire time. In the end, the Eagles’ Clare Naughton gave her team the set with two straight kills to win 26-24.
In the third set, Boston College used a 9-1 run to pull ahead 15-4, with Julia Haggerty earning three kills. The Hoos were able to fight back a little bit, but the early deficit was too much to overcome.
The fourth set was a thriller, but the Hoos were unable to close it out. Boston College led 20-15 in the set, but a 6-0 run from the Hoos gave them a late lead, 21-20. Grace Turner had the hot hand with four kills during that run, and two more later in the set.
UVA led 24-22 and had the chance to force a fifth set, but Boston College responded with two kills to tie it up. UVA had three more set points that the Eagles were able to prevent. After Grace Turner tied the set at 28 apiece, BC’s Amaka Chukwujekwu had two kills to win the match.
Grace Turner dominated in the match with 15 kills and 12 digs, and Alana Walker had 13 kills and eight blocks and hit .462. For Boston College, Clare Naughton had 21 kills and 10 digs, and Anna Murphy had 24 digs.
On November 7th or senior day, the Hoos fell to the Syracuse Orange (16-10, 5-9 ACC) 19-25, 22-25, 22-25.
Syracuse led the whole way in set one, despite solid performances from Grace Turner and Alana Walker.
The second set was more evenly matched, with the lead rarely straying farther than two or three points. Two kills from Grace Turner and one from Simone Dominique brought the score to 20-19 with Syracuse leading, but the Orange took over from there to win the set.
UVA built an 18-14 lead in the third set thanks to offensive firepower from Abby Tadder, Alana Walker, and Grace Turner. However, Syracuse responded to close out the set with an 11-4 run, mostly capitalizing on errors from the Hoos.
Alana Walker led the way for the Hoos with 12 kills and a .333 hitting percentage, and Grace Turner followed with 11 kills. Simone Dominique had an impressive day with seven kills on 11 swings with no errors, helping her hit .636. Syracuse’s leader was Marina Markova, who finished with 18 kills.
UVA will face Wake Forest on November 12th in Winston Salem and then host North Carolina on November 14th.
