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Aug. 30, 2003
BATON ROUGE, La. – The Virginia volleyball team won the Tiger Classic in impressive fashion Saturday (August 30) by posting a 3-0 (30-20, 30-18, 30-7) victory over Centenary at Pete Maravich Assembly Center. The Cavaliers won all nine games they played in the tournament to take the title with a 3-0 mark. Centenary falls to 0-3 with the loss.
“Obviously it was a great weekend for us,” said head coach Melissa Aldrich Shelton. I’m very pleased with how we played. One of the reasons we won is because we hit at a very high efficiency and that is key in rally scoring.”
As a team, the Cavaliers hit an impressive .433 in the match with 54 kills and only nine errors in 104 attempts. Centenary managed to hit only .080 (24 kills, 16 errors, 100 attempts) in the match. UVa also held a 10-1 advantage in service aces and a 51-38 edge in digs.
Fourth-year outside hitter Paige Davis (Austin, Texas/Westlake) led the Cavaliers with 15 kills and an impressive .565 hitting percentage. She also added two service aces and two blocks for a match-high 18 points. Second-year outside hitter Kristin Chaney (Johnston, Iowa/Johnston) added a career-high nine kills and shared team-high honors in digs with 10. Third-year outside hitter Celeste Laborde (New Orleans, La./Academy of the Sacred Heart) posted eight kills and a .583 hitting percentage, while third-year middle Alexis Geocaris (Wilmette, Ill./New Trier) contributed seven kills and four blocks. Fourth-year middle Shannon Boyle (Cincinnati, Ohio/Ursuline Academy) also had four blocks and tallied six kills.
UVa’s two first-year setters, Emily Kirkwood (Tampa, Fla./Plant) and Kathleen Branagh (Lafayette, Calif./Campolindo) combined for 43 assists. Kirkwood registered 30 assists and eight digs, while Branagh had 13 assists, three service aces and three digs. Fourth-year All-ACC libero Whitney Ashcraft (Yorktown, Ind./Burris) tied Chaney for team-high honors in digs with 10.
Ashley Templer led Centenary with six kills, 11 digs and four blocks. Kim Gladu added seven kills and a .353 hitting percentage.
The Cavaliers, who stand at 3-0 on the season, return to action on Tuesday, September 2 when they travel to Harrisonburg, Va. for a 7:00 p.m. match against James Madison.