Hoos Look to Continue Ascent in ACC

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Inside Memorial Gymnasium, the bleachers were pushed back and no fans were present Tuesday afternoon, but sounds echoed off the walls of the venerable venue anyway: shouts of joy after kills and service aces, words of encouragement after lost points, and thumps of well-struck balls.

Welcome to a University of Virginia volleyball practice.

“I think they’re always like this,” outside hitter Brooklyn Borum said. “We just get in every day and we go after it, whether it’s a slower practice where we’re working on skills that we can develop or a high-intensity practice, we’re always bringing energy, giving high-fives, making eye contact, just trying to build as much contact with each other that we can.”

The payoff has been impressive. In its fourth season under head coach Shannon Wells, UVA is 17-4 overall, its best record through 21 games since 2003. At 7-3 in ACC play, the Cavaliers have already posted their most conference wins since 2015. They’re 6-1 in five-set matches.

“This group just wants to get better,” Wells said, “and since the day I got here, I’ve never had to motivate them to get better.”

The Wahoos’ practice Tuesday typified their collective commitment, Wells said.

“We switched the teams up, so it wasn’t starters versus non-starters,” she said, “and so they’re just competing against each other. But this is our group. They love each other. They fight. They compete, with people flying all over the court. [Fans] see it on Friday and Sunday, but we do this every day.”

This weekend brings two more opportunities for the Wahoos, who are tied with three other teams for fourth place in the ACC, to continue their ascent in the league. They’re hosting two nationally ranked teams at Mem Gym: No. 1 Pittsburgh (19-1, 9-1) at 7 p.m. Friday and No. 12 SMU (15-6, 7-3) at 2 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free for fans. Sunday’s match will air on ACC Network.

For Virginia, the keys this weekend will be embracing an underdog mentality and playing fearlessly, said Borum, who’s third on the team with kills (176), behind Elayna Duprey (225) and Abby Tadder (216).

“We’re playing the No. 1 team in the nation and another ranked team,” Borum said, “and they’re supposed to do things they’re going to do. They’re supposed to get kills on us. But the thing we can do is fight back and just make them very frustrated with how we play.”

Pitt and SMU are among the seven ACC teams ranked in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association poll. The others: Louisville at No. 4, Stanford at No. 5, Georgia Tech at No. 16, Florida State at No. 23, and North Carolina at No. 25.

Virginia received five votes in the poll this week. The Cavaliers’ sweep of then-No. 16 Florida State on Oct. 4 was their first win over a ranked opponent since 2010.

“Our conference is so good,” Wells said, “and so we’re playing some of the best teams in the country right now. And so if we can get one percent better and challenge up against Pitt and SMU, we feel like we’ll be in a great space.”

Only twice in program history have the Hoos advanced to the NCAA tournament: in 1998 and ’99. After this weekend, Virginia will have eight regular-season matches remaining, including dates with national powers Stanford and Louisville. A strong November would put UVA in position for an NCAA tournament bid, but Wells doesn’t want her players to get ahead of themselves.

“I think that was a lot of our conversation today,” Wells said after practice Tuesday, “and I think that’s the hard part. We think we have a really great résumé already, and we feel like if we just continue to stick with the things that are our pillars”—such as improving one percent every day—”then the results will take care of themselves.  And so we’re just trying to take care of business on our end and just get better.”

Virginia closes the regular season Nov. 30 against Boston College at Mem Gym. The Hoos’ goal is to keep playing in December, Borum said, ideally in the NCAA tournament, but there’s also the National Invitational Volleyball Championship.

During a team meeting this week, “we talked about how it’s great to be joyful and happy where we’re at, but it’s also great to want more,” Borum said.

Of the 16 players on Virginia’s roster, six are seniors: Borum, Tadder, Duprey, Ashley Le, Milan Gomillion and Heyli Velasquez.

“They all came here for the same reason,” Wells said. “They came here to rebuild UVA and get to the point that we are right now. It doesn’t always happen that way. You don’t always have that storybook ending, and I’m just proud of them and happy for them.”

Borum, Tadder, Le (team-high 519 assists) and Velasquez arrived on Grounds in 2021, a few months after Wells took over the program. Gomillion, a libero who leads the team in digs this season with 348, joined the program in 2023 as a transfer from Maryland. Duprey transferred to UVA in January after three seasons at Virginia Tech.

Until this season, the senior class had experienced many more lows than highs as Cavaliers.

In 2021, Virginia finished 8-20 overall. The Hoos improved to 12-17 in 2022 but dipped to 11-17 last fall. In none of those three seasons did UVA win more than four ACC matches, and that’s made this year especially gratifying for the senior class.

“It’s been amazing,” Borum said. “We’ve just had so many conversations about what success looks like to us, and we constantly talk about how it’s not the win or the loss, it’s how we go out and play and the culture that we continue to build, so I think that’s the most important thing. We’re not really relying on the wins, except they do help a little bit and they definitely build energy, but we’re just relying on trying to get one percent better every day.”

Virginia swept ACC rival Miami on Oct. 6 in the second-ever volleyball match at John Paul Jones Arena. The Cavaliers’ home matches are usually at Mem Gym, where the atmosphere has steadily improved, Wells said.

“We want fans who want to be engaged,” she said. “I’ll take 50 people who are going to be loud over 900 people that are just going to sit there. And so we have a very passionate fan base that understands volleyball, that’s been along with us since year one with me, and I feel like every week has gotten better and better with our fan base, and they’re starting to understand the game a little bit better.”

Pitt and SMU are accustomed to playing in facilities larger than Mem Gym, and Wells hopes the Hoos can use that to their advantage.

“We are excited about this weekend,” she said. “Let’s pack this place with really loud and engaged fans and make it really an awesome environment.”

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