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    Virginia Volleyball Earns Comeback Victory Against Notre Dame

    A thriller of a match ended in favor of the Cavaliers, giving them a 3-2 victory over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Mem Gym

    Not only did the match between Virginia and Notre Dame go the distance, but out of the five sets, only one had a final point differential of more than two points, and two of them needed extra points to settle. It’s clear that this was a tightly contested match, so it is extra exciting that the Cavaliers came out on top.

    In the first set, Virginia jumped out to an early lead thanks to Abby Tadder, who had four kills and a block to score five straight points and give UVA a 12-7 lead. Notre Dame got one point, but then Tadder added another kill and block, and then an ace and a Brooklyn Borum kill compiled a 10-1 run and gave Virginia a 16-8 lead. Notre Dame quickly bounced back with a 5-0 run thanks to some Virginia errors, and then managed to creep back more and more until a 4-0 gave the Fighting Irish a 23-22 lead. Virginia quickly stopped the bleeding after that, getting kills from Borum, Tadder, and Hecht to win 25-23. Abby Tadder had an astonishing nine kills in the set and Ciera Hecht had five.

    While Notre Dame came up short in set one, there was a clear switch in momentum that carried over to set two. Two straight blocks and a kill made the score 9-4, and while Virginia pieced together some points to pull within two, Notre Dame kept pushing. Soon, Notre Dame led 19-13, and then finished the set with a 25-19 victory, making this the one set where a team led the entire way.

    Notre Dame began serving even more competitively in sets two and three, making it difficult for Virginia to pass well enough to get the balls to the middle hitters. Therefore, the typical production of Abby Tadder and Veresia Yon was lower in those sets. Set three featured a few kills from several Cavalier hitters in another thriller of a set, but also the most errors combined for the two teams. There were many lead changes in this set, with Virginia leading most of the way at first, but Notre Dame taking the lead briefly at 13-12. A 5-1 run with two kills from Veresia Yon helped Virginia lead 19-15, but then Notre Dame put together an impressive 5-0 run to tie the score at 21. From there, the teams traded kills before Notre Dame got two in a row to win 26-24.

    Brooklyn Borum, Abby Tadder, and Chloe Wilson all had multiple kills in set four to help Virginia get a match-best 20 kills and hit .295. Early on, no team led by more than two points, until Notre Dame went on a run to take a 12-8 lead. Chloe Wilson and Brooklyn Borum had five kills in seven points to bring Virginia within two, and then several two point bursts helped Virginia take a 23-22 lead. A key stat was Virginia had three out of four first ball kills in a row late in the set, and the other one was still a successful point for the Cavaliers. This meant that Notre Dame couldn’t score in bunches, and meanwhile Virginia was able to do just that. Notre Dame tied the score at 23, but then two kills gave Virginia the 25-23 win and pushed the match into the fifth set.

    Virginia has had some dramatic five set matches, and this one proved no different. An ace from Heyli Velasquez gave Virginia a 2-0 lead, and then two Brooklyn Borum kills made it 4-2. Two long rallies ended in a Notre Dame block and a Cavalier error, tying the score at five. The back-and-forth affair continued as it had all match, with Virginia leading by two points and then three, but Notre Dame fighting back. For a second, Virginia was up 13-9 and was just two points away from victory, but a service error and ball handling error gave Notre Dame two points. Veresia Yon had a first ball kill to prompt match point, but then a first ball kill from the Fighting Irish and two errors from Cavaliers blocked three straight match points. With the score tied at 14, Veresia Yon managed another kill, and then it was Notre Dame’s turn to have an attack error. Virginia won 16-14, and secured the 3-2 match win.

    Abby Tadder and Brooklyn Borum both set career-highs with 21 kills, and Veresia Yon had 12 kills and eight blocks. Ashley Le, Milan Gomillion, and Regan Trueblood all had double doubles: Le had 41 assists and 22 digs, Gomillion had 11 assists and 20 digs, and Trueblood had 18 assists and ten digs.

    Virginia (10-15, 3-12 ACC) will host Duke for senior night on Friday night and then will have a few days off before facing NC State on Wednesday. 

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