Virginia Falls 3-1 to Wake Forest Friday
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Box Score Sept. 23, 2016
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia volleyball team (3-10, 0-1 ACC) fell 3-1 (20-25, 25-23, 26-24, 25-19) to Wake Forest (5-8, 1-1 ACC) on Friday night in front of a capacity crowd in Memorial Gymnasium.
“To come out to this crowd was unbelievable tonight, I can’t thank the people enough for coming out,” head coach Dennis Hohenshelt said. “I think we played well enough to win tonight, there were just stretches of the game where we weren’t good enough. Part of our problem right now is we can’t get all six people on the court to be good on the same night.
Virginia started the match strong with a win in the first set, but Wake Forest improved its offense each set to come back and take the 3-1 win. The Cavaliers were out-hit .236-.222 on the night. Virginia had the edge in blocks, 11.0-10.0.
Senior Haley Kole (Tallahassee, Fla.) tied a career-high with 23 kills to lead UVA. Kole finished with five or more kills in each of the four sets. Redshirt junior Alex Thorson (Spring, Texas) added 13 kills. Freshman Jennifer Wineholt (San Diego, Calif.) recorded her second-straight double-double with 47 assists and 10 digs.
Defensively, freshman Chino Anukwuem (East Hanover, N.J.) continued to play well with seven blocks to lead the Cavaliers. Kole and Wineholt each added four blocks. Senior Lexi Riccolo led the way with 23 digs and freshman Kelsey Miller (Crestwood, Ky.) picked up 11.
After going down 3-1, Virginia used a 10-2 run to take an 11-5 advantage over Wake Forest in the opening set. The Demon Deacons cut the lead to one, 20-19, with a 3-0 run. UVA held on and scored the final five points of the set, including three kills from Kole, to win 25-20 and take a 1-0 lead.
The Cavaliers had the early lead in the second set, 3-1, but Wake Forest tied it up at 5-5. The teams traded points as the set saw 10 ties. It was knotted up at 23-23 when Wake Forest scored two-straight to win 25-23 and tie the match at 1-1.
It continued to be close in the third set, until UVA took a 20-14 lead over the Demon Deacons. However, the Cavaliers were unable to hold on to the lead as Wake Forest used an 8-2 run to tie the set at 22-22. The teams saw two more ties before back-to-back kills gave Wake Forest the extra-point victory, 26-24, to lead 2-1.
Virginia came out in the fourth set with a 6-3 edge and was leading 9-6 when Wake Forest fought back to tie the set at 9-9. UVA and Wake battled back and forth until the Demon Deacons stretched their lead to 18-15. The Cavaliers could not come back as Wake Forest took the match with a 25-19 win.
“Duke is a very good team so we are going to have to be disciplined,” Hohenshelt said. “There are two things that are required to win, you have to play hard and you have to play smart. We are going to have to play twice and hard and twice as smart as we did tonight against Duke.”
Virginia will be back in Memorial Gymnasium to host Duke on Saturday at 7 p.m. Admission is free with a Central Michigan football ticket.