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Virginia Volleyball Registers 3-0 Victory Over N.C. State In First Round Of ACC Championship
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Nov. 21, 2002
ATLANTA, Ga. – The eighth-seeded Virginia volleyball team opened the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship with a 3-0 victory over ninth-seeded N.C. State Thursday evening (November 21) at Georgia Tech’s O’Keefe Gym. The Cavaliers won by game scores of 30-22, 30-19, 30-27 for their third victory of the season over the Wolfpack. UVa advances to the quarterfinals of the ACC Championship were it will face top-seeded and 12th-ranked North Carolina at 1:30 p.m. Friday (November 22). With the victory, the Cavaliers improve to 9-24 on the season, while N.C. State concludes its season with a 3-32 record.
With the victory, Virginia won an ACC Championship match for the fifth consecutive season, the longest streak of any ACC school. North Carolina has the second longest active streak with four straight years with an ACC Championship win.
Second-year setter Lily Phillips (Phoenix, Ariz./Horizon) registered her ninth double-double of the season with team highs of 32 assists and 15 digs to lead the Cavaliers. She also added three blocks and two kills. Fourth-year middle Simona Kuipers (Bow Island, Alberta, Canada/Senator Gershaw) and second-year outside hitter Celeste Laborde (New Orleans, La./Academy of the Sacred Heart) tied for match-high honors in kills with nine apiece. Laborde also contributed a season-best tying eight digs. Third-year outside hitter Paige Davis (Austin, Texas/Westlake) tallied eight kills, five digs and three assists, while second-year middle Alexis Geocaris (Wilmette, Ill./New Trier) totaled seven kills and a match-high five blocks. Third-year libero Whitney Ashcraft (Yorktown, Ind./Burris), who earned All-ACC First Team honors this season, pitched in with 14 digs.
N.C. State’s Maya Mapp tied Kuipers and Laborde for match-high honors in kills with nine. She also added three blocks. Caroline Frede paced the Wolfpack’s defensive effort with a match-high 17 digs, while Rebecca Anderson added 11 digs. Setter Lindi Sheppard handed out 16 assists for NCSU.
Virginia jumped out to an 11-5 advantage in the first game, but saw N.C. State close the gap to 18-16. UVa then took control of the game with a 12-6 run to win 30-22. In game two, Virginia took an early 3-0 lead and never looked back, holding N.C. State to a -.029 hitting percentage in a 30-19 win. Kuipers pounded out five kills to lead all players in the second game, hitting .417. Virginia closed out the match with a 30-27 win in the third game.
UVa hit .122 in the match, while holding N.C. State to -.008 hitting percentage. The Cavaliers held a 43-27 advantage in kills and a 61-54 edge in digs. Virginia won the team blocking battle, 8-6, and posted five service aces to the Wolfpack’s three.