Hokie Club
BLACKSBURG – In front of its home crowd for the first time this season, the Virginia Tech volleyball team put on a performance by winning 3-0 over William & Mary on Friday afternoon at Carilion Clinic Court inside Cassell Coliseum at the Hokie Invitational sponsored by the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Christiansburg.
The Hokies (4-0) saw two of their players put their names in the record book versus the Tribe (4-0), as middle blocker Marisa Cerchio tallied a hitting percentage of .812 and outside hitter Ester Talamazzi collected eight service aces. Cerchio's .812 clip was the third best in school history (minimum 10 attempts), while Talamzzi's eight aces tied the second-best mark in Tech history, tying Annie Spicer on Sept. 10, 2004, against ULM.
Kicking things off on a strong note, Tech went up 5-1 after a Talamazzi kill, but the Tribe stormed back to tie it at 8-8. Cerchio would respond with three kills to guide Tech to score seven straight points, forcing a William & Mary timeout. Out of the break, the Hokies kept it rolling and would go on to win 25-14 in the first stanza.
Momentum would stay on Tech's side as it went up 10-4 early in the second set, after a kill by Cerchio to make the Tribe take a timeout. Then the Talamazzi show began with the Italy native producing four aces in a row to force another W&M timeout, but it wouldn't stop the flow as Tech finished the match on a 15-2 run to win 25-6. The Hokies hit a blistering .846 clip in the set alone.
Knotted at 12-12 to begin the final frame, Tech went on a 8-3 run behind two combination blocks by freshman Talyn Jackson and Cerchio to make it 20-15 and wouldn't look back, winning 25-20. Tech finished with 13 service aces on the day, the most in the Jill Wilson era. The previous high was nine against South Dakota State on Aug. 25, 2017.
William & Mary was led by Claire Farrell, who posted seven kills and a dig.
(8/31/2018) 2018 VOLLEYBALL vs. WILLIAM & MARY
NOTES
- Sophomore Kaity Smith once again cracked the double-digit mark for kills, registering 10 on a .389 hitting percentage.
- Cerchio finished the day with 13 kills on 16 attempts, with no errors, and racked up four blocks. The .812 clip was a career high and the 13 kills was her second most wearing the maroon and orange.
- Talamazzi topped her previous high for aces with eight on the day, which was just one shy of the school record set by Lisa Pikalek in 1990. Her old career best was four, which she did twice in 2017. Talamazzi was solid off the service line as well, posting five kills and six digs.
- Setters Rhegan Mitchell (12) and Jackson (11) combined for 23 assists on the day. Jackson also was a force at the net, swatting four attacks to set her career high.
- Tech moves to 35-7 all time in home openers, including a 9-1 record over the last decade.
QUOTING HEAD COACH JILL WILSON
"I was really proud of how aggressive we came out with our serving, specifically Ester Talamazzi," Head Coach Jill Wilson said. "We worked really hard on our serving this weekend with really being aggressive and driving the ball. I was really proud of them coming out and immediately in the first set and making sure that happened.
"Marisa [Cerchio] played great. She played as a very mature middle today. Even when she didn't have a ball to put away, she would hit a really smart shot and get them out of system. For a middle to hit .812, that's a great day.
"We really challenged our group to stay focused, aggressive and make sure we weren't ending our own runs. They took that seriously today and came out and did a really good job with that."
TWEET OF THE MATCH
Set 2 | Talamazzi is feeling it 🔥
— Virginia Tech Volleyball (@HokiesVB) August 31, 2018
The Italy native records four aces in a row, giving Tech a 19-4 lead
STAT OF THE MATCH
- Tech won the hitting percentage battle by a margin on .396, respectively. The Hokies posted a .382 clip, their second-highest mark of the season, and the Tribe recorded a -.014 mark.
WHAT IS NEXT
- The Hokies will come back to Cassell Coliseum later this evening for a match with Campbell at 7 p.m. ET. The match will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra and the WatchESPN app.