Volleyball Sweeps Virginia Tech to Open ACC Play

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. The Virginia volleyball team (6-4, 1-0 ACC) opened up Atlantic Coast Conference play with a 3-0 sweep over in-state rival Virginia Tech Friday at Memorial Gymnasium. The Cavaliers outlasted the Hokies in each of the three nail-biting games, with scores of 30-27, 32-30 and 30-25.

The match was played in front of a season-high crowd of 826 fans at Mem Gym.

Both teams hit .165 for the match. Virginia’s Sarah Kirkwood and Lauren Dickson led the attacking with 12 and 11 kills, respectively. Taylor Parrish paced the Hokies with a match-high 15 kills.

Defensively, fourth year Melissa Caldwell tallied 18 digs, while Dickson (13) and Kirkwood (11) also finished with double digit digs. Caldwell also served up a game-best four aces, which tied her career high.

Caldwell is just 12 digs shy of moving into second place on UVa’s all-time leaders list.

Kirkwood, who finished with 35 attack attempts against Virginia Tech, set a program record for career attack attempts. The Tampa, Fla., native now has 4,035 career attempts and replaced former Cavalier, All-American Paige Davis (4,018), at the top of the list. It was the third program record set for Kirkwood this season, after she broke school marks for career kills and service aces.

UVa leads the all-time series with Virginia Tech, 28-21. The two teams will meet again Oct. 9 in Blacksburg.

The Cavaliers continue conference play at home next week, beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday against Florida State. Virginia then welcomes Miami for a 7 p.m. match Friday at Mem Gym. Both matches can be seen live on ACC Select.