By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The official home of University of Virginia volleyball is Memorial Gymnasium, and teammates have told Katie Barrier that it’s a fun place to play. She has to take their word for it. She’s been at UVA for more than a year, but Barrier has never set foot inside the venerable arena.
“I’ve only looked through the window, just barely,” she said, smiling. “And I’ve seen pictures and videos.”
Mem Gym closed for renovations in late December 2024. Since then, the volleyball team has practiced at North Grounds Recreation Center and played its home matches at the Aquatic & Fitness Center and John Paul Jones Arena. The Cavaliers will be back at the AFC and JPJ again early this season, but their true home won’t be off-limits to them for much longer.
Virginia, which opens the season on Aug. 30 versus American at JPJ, is scheduled to play its first match in the revamped Mem Gym on Oct. 9, against ACC rival Duke.
“That’ll be so exciting,” said Barrier, a senior libero from Nashville, Tenn.
Being displaced from Mem Gym hasn’t been ideal for the program, but head coach Shannon Wells, whose current office is in the McCue Center, “challenged us to own it,” Barrier said. “Own the circumstance and say we're going to outwork you, no matter what. That was always our mindset. It doesn't matter, no excuses, we're going to keep going, keep pushing. But needless to say, everyone is pumped to be back in Mem Gym.”
The Wahoos’ preseason schedule started on Aug. 8 with the Blue-Orange intrasquad scrimmage at North Grounds, followed a week later by a trip to Harrisonburg to face JMU. Next up is UVA’s third and final exhibition, Friday night against Vanderbilt in Nashville.
For Barrier and UVA setter Hannah Scott, this is a much-anticipated trip home. They were classmates and teammates at the Ensworth School in Nashville and have been playing together for about a decade.
The Hoos’ extended stay in the Music City will include team events at the Barrier and Scott family homes, as well as a meal at the Loveless Cafe, a local institution owned by UVA alumna Trish Elcan and her husband. Among those in the stands at the exhibition Friday night will be the current Ensworth varsity team.
“It’ll be super fun,” Barrier said.
After Scott and Barrier graduated from Ensworth in 2023, the longtime friends headed in different directions: Scott to the College of Charleston and Barrier to the University of Tennessee.
Many members of Barrier’s family, including her parents and two of her siblings, attended the University of Mississippi. Ole Miss recruited Barrier but ultimately used that roster spot on another player. That didn’t crush Barrier.
“I think my parents really wanted me to go there,” she said, “but my heart was not in it. Playing a sport at a school is different than just going to the school. I was glad that my path took me a different way, because it was a different path.”
At Tennessee, she played in five matches as a freshman in 2023. As a sophomore, she started 14 of the 15 matches in which she appeared.
“I’m really grateful for my time there,” Barrier said, but Tennessee didn’t offer the college experience she was looking for, and she entered the transfer portal in May 2025.
“I had so much fun [at Tennessee],” Barrier said. “I learned so much about myself, about being a great teammate, about playing at a high level. But I really wanted to leave [college] feeling like I had cultivated meaningful relationships. People make the place, and that’s what's fulfilling to me, and so I wanted to get a second try at that.”
Barrier said she “was really looking for a place with a family culture. When you're talking to a lot of schools, a lot of times people tell you what you want to hear, and I wanted to make sure. I'm not transferring again. I'm doing this to make the most of my four years, and it was important that I knew what I was getting into.”
Scott was already on Grounds. She’d transferred from the College of Charleston to Virginia in January 2025, and she wasn’t the only player Barrier knew in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers’ roster also included Kadynce Boothe, with whom Barrier had played at Tennessee.
“Hannah had told me everything,” Barrier said, “and she was like, ‘We work really hard and it's a family.’ And knowing that and knowing Kadynce, that made me feel really good about my decision.”
Virginia didn’t recruit Barrier out of high school, but when Wells saw her name in the portal, she reached out to Boothe.
“Kadynce knew her really well and was like, ‘Right away, just personality-wise, you're going to fall in love with her. She's got tons of energy. She works her tail off,’ ” Wells recalled. “And in my conversations with Tennessee, they loved her too. She was just looking for maybe a little bit of a different fit.”