LYNCHBURG, Va. – After dropping the first set in extra points, Virginia (7-1) came roaring back to knock off West Virginia (3-4), 29-31, 25-16, 25-21, 25-19, in the first of its two Friday matches at the Liberty Tournament. Virginia is off to its first 7-1 start since 2004.
UVA was led by right-side hitter Lauryn Bowie (14 kills, .265 Hit%, 4 blocks), who made her first start of the season, and Abby Tadder (11 kills, .296 Hit%, 7 blocks). Three of Tadder’s seven total blocks were solos and matched her career best. Cavalier libero Milan Gomillion and setter Ashley Le recorded season highs in digs (23) and assists (46), respectively. Le also added 15 digs and defensive specialist Kate Johnson supplemented 13.
With the help of Gomillion, Le and Johnson, the Cavaliers notched 78 total digs in the win, the most in a four-set match since last year’s contest against UMBC on Sept. 10, 2023.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Set 1: West Virginia 31, Virginia 29
The Mountaineers leaped out to a 21-15 lead midway through the opening set, but UVA clawed its way back to tie things, 24-24, after WVU had set point on three instances. After that, the two teams were tied five more times before the Mountaineers eventually claimed their only set win of the match. The Hoos had chance to win game No. 1 after securing set point [27-26], but a UVA attack error tied the score once again. Bowie led all UVA hitters with six kills on 12 swings and Elayna Duprey had five terminations. Tadder tallied five blocks, including all three of her solos, in the opening set.
Set 2: Virginia 25, West Virginia 16
After making some tweaks to its rotation, including checking in Kadynce Boothe off the bench and leaving Le on the floor for six rotations, the Cavaliers scored the first six points of the second and did not look back. UVA ultimately led by as many as 10 points [23-13] amid a 4-0 scoring run. Boothe, who had three aces in yesterday’s win, Gomillion and Le registered one ace each in game No. 2. For the second straight set, Le registered six digs to help hold the Mountaineers to just 11 kills in the frame.
Set 3: Virginia 25, West Virginia 21
After the intermission, both teams found themselves tied 17-17, but UVA outscored the Mountaineers 8-4 the rest of the way to take set No. 3 and a 2-1 lead. Brooklyn Borum (10 kills, 9 digs) and Tadder tallied five kills each. Tadder’s fifth termination sealed the set.
Set 4: Virginia 25, West Virginia 19
Both teams were neck-and-neck to begin the…