BLACKSBURG – Opening the season on the road for the third straight year, the Virginia Tech volleyball team will head north to Oxford, Ohio, beginning its 2019 campaign.
The Hokies will take on host Miami (Ohio), USC Upstate and Northwestern Friday-Saturday at the Best Western Sycamore Inn Invitational inside Millett Hall. Tech's lone match of the weekend to be broadcast will be versus Miami (Ohio) on MiamiRedhawks.com ($).
WEEKEND SCHEDULE
Fri. | 11 a.m. ET vs. USC Upstate | Stats
Fri. | 7 p.m. ET at Miami (Ohio) | Stats | Broadcast
Sat. | 11 a.m. ET vs. Northwestern | Stats
Tech is entering its third year with Jill Wilson at the helm and returns 12 letterwinners. Four newcomers will don the maroon and orange for the first time tomorrow, including Logan Mosley, Cera Powell, Rachel Tam and Anabel Zier.
Of the Hokies' 12 letterwinners, four saw a good amount of playing time last season, playing in over 100 sets – outside hitters Kaity Smith (107 sets) and Ester Talamazzi (106), middle blocker/right-side hitter Marisa Cerchio (108) and libero Carol Raffety (107).
Last weekend, Tech took on JMU in front of a packed house, having 3,245 in attendance at Carilion Clinic Court at Cassell Coliseum. Cerchio, a junior, and freshman Cera Powell both tallied double-digit kills, while sophomore Talyn Jackson racked up over 35 assists.
The Hokies are 25-17 (.595) all-time in season openers, including a perfect 2-0 in the Jill Wilson Era. Ironically, Tech will open the season versus USC Upstate for the second consecutive year. Last time out against the Spartans, the Hokies swept them 3-0 behind a team-high 14 kills from outside hitter Kaity Smith in Charlotte, North Carolina.
SCOUTING USC UPSTATE
• USC Upstate went 13-19 last season, including an even 8-8 in the Big South. The Spartans played their best volleyball mid-October through early November, winning six of their seven games during that stretch.
• Head coach Ronda Shirley begins her first year in Spartanburg, following a two-year stint at Navarro College, a junior college. She amassed nearly 600 victories at the JUCO level, earning most recently AVCA Two-Year College Southwest Region Coach of the Year honors.
• Middle blocker Emily Russell looks to pace the Spartans once again after leading the team in kills (296) in 2018, while Lily Dempsey returns on the right side with her team-high 2.67 kills per set last year.
• Tech leads the all-time 2-0 and won its most recent matchup in 2018.
SCOUTING MIAMI (OHIO)
• Miami (Ohio) put together another championship season in 2018, winning the MAC regular-season title after posting a 13-3 mark in league play and a 23-9 reading overall. The RedHawks would end up making it to the MAC title game and to the postseason, too, playing in the NIVC.
• Head coach Carolyn Condit begins her 36th year in Oxford and is the reigning MAC Coach of the Year. No stranger to success, Condit has over 730 victories in her storied career, ranking eighth among active coaches in Division I.
• All-MAC first-team selection Margaret Payne, a middle hitter, returns after posting a team-best 321 kills last year and so does outside hitter Gaby Harper, who was named the MAC Freshman of the Year, averaging 2.52 kills per set.
• This will be the first meeting between the two schools.
SCOUTING NORTHWESTERN
• Northwestern finished 11th in the Big Ten last season after going 16-16 and 6-14 in conference play. The Wildcats went 0-11 against ranked opponents, all coming in Big Ten action.
• Head coach Shane Davis begins his fourth year in Evanston, following a successful career at Loyola on the men's side, winning two NCAA championships and three straight Final Fours. Davis played volleyball himself at Loyola, setting the all-time assists record at the school.
• Outside hitter Nia Robinson is back in the purple and white after racking up team-best 394 kills last season. Libero Michelle Lee also returns, scooping up 379 digs last fall.
• Northwestern leads the all-time series 3-1 and won the most recent matchup 3-1 in 2016.
