Virginia Volleyball Keeps Rolling With 3-1 Win Over Miami
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Nov. 11, 2006
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Third-year outside hitter Sarah Kirkwood (Tampa, Fla.) slammed a match-high 22 kills to lead the University of Virginia volleyball team to a 3-1 (26-30, 30-24, 30-20, 30-26) victory over Miami Saturday evening (Nov. 11) at the Knight Sports Complex. The win was the eighth consecutive for the Cavaliers who improve to 21-6 overall and 14-4 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Miami falls to 10-17 overall and 7-11 in the ACC.
UVa’s 21 victories this season are the most since the Cavaliers posted 25 wins in the 2003 season. Virginia is just one win shy of the school mark for ACC victories, which it set last season.
Kirkwood hit an impressive .439 while leading all players with 22 kills. She also registered 14 digs for her 12th double-double of the season. Kirkwood rounded out her evening with three blocks, two assists and a service ace. First-year outside hitter Lauren Dickson (Austin, Texas) added 17 kills and five digs while hitting .324. Second-year middle Shannon Davis (Austin, Texas) hit a team-best .520 with 15 kills and she also added three blocks. Fourth-year outside hitter Lindsay Osco (Houston, Texas) was the fourth Cavalier to reach double digits in kills as she had 14 to go along with a career-high six assists, eight digs, four service aces and three blocks.
Fourth-year setter Emily Kirkwood (Tampa, Fla.) tallied a double-double with a match-high 59 assists and 11 digs. She served up a pair of aces to regain sole possession of UVa’s career service aces record (160) from her younger sister, Sarah. Fourth-year Emily Perilli (Thompson’s Station, Tenn.) recorded five kills, five blocks, four digs and four service aces. Third-year libero Melissa Caldwell (Houston, Texas) and second-year defensive specialist Beth Shelton (Cincinnati, Ohio) both had eight digs.
Francheska Savage and Ashley Woods both had 11 kills to lead Miami. Cassie Loessberg posted a double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs. Setter Jill Robinson also had a double-double with 42 assists and 10 digs, while Ann Gallo led all players with 19 digs.
UVa hit an impressive .357 in the match with 75 kills and only 19 errors. The Hurricanes hit .252 with 56 kills. The Cavaliers also held an 11-6 advantage in service aces and a 63-56 edge in digs. Both teams had eight blocks.
UVa lost the first game 30-26. Sarah Kirkwood had six kills in the game, but the Cavaliers were whistled for six ball handling errors. Virginia tied the match at 1-1 with a 30-24 victory in game two. Dickson and Kirkwood paced UVa with seven and six kills, respectively, as UVa tallied 19 kills in the game compared to only 10 for Miami. The `Hoos hit a blistering .438 in taking game three 30-20. Davis led the way with five kills, while Perilli posted three aces. UVa sealed the victory by hitting .400 with 21 kills in a 30-26 win in game four. Sarah Kirkwood registered six kills, while Osco had four kills and three aces.
Virginia plays its final two home matches of the season next week. On Thursday (Nov. 16), the Cavaliers host ACC front-runner Duke at 7:00 p.m. at Mem Gym. UVa closes out its home schedule with a 7:00 p.m. match on Friday (Nov. 17) against Wake Forest.