LYNCHBURG, Va. – Winning its first tournament match for the second weekend in a row, the Virginia Tech volleyball team defeated Elon 3-1 on Friday night inside the Vines Center.
Behind a well-balanced attack, the Hokies (2-2) had five players with five or more kills, with junior Marisa Cerchio leading the charge with a team-high 13 kills versus the Phoenix (1-3). Defensively, Tech had quite the block in the Liberty Invitational affair, owning 15 on the night – the second-most in the Jill Wilson era.
Running the show offensively, setter Talyn Jackson posted 38 assists, four kills, two aces, eight digs and three blocks. Similarly on defense, libero Logan Mosley had a big outing, scooping up 21 digs – her second 20-plus dig match – while getting two assists and an ace.
THE MATCH
A very competitive first set began the match, with 10 ties and two lead changes taking place. The score wouldn't change hands too much out the gate, beginning knotted at 11-all after an ace from Jackson. Then at 17-17, Tech got hot by getting a combo block by freshman Cera Powell and junior Kai Young and then junior Kaity Smith followed to make it 21-17, forcing an Elon timeout. But Tech would score four of the next six points to claim it 25-19.
Again knotted early on, the Hokies started pulling away after it was tied at 10-10 thanks to big plays by Cerchio, getting a kill and then a block assist with freshman Anabel Zier to make it 16-12. Tech never looked back, though, extending its lead to as many as seven to win it 25-18.
With the score tied at 11-11, the Phoenix began their run by going up five at 19-14. However, Tech recovered and trimmed the deficit to one at 20-19, getting two kills from Smith. But that would be their lone run, as Elon finished on a 5-2 run to win the third frame 25-21.
Unlike the first three sets, Tech jumped out to a big lead early, going up 15-9. From there, the two teams would see saw back and forth with each scoring 10 points apiece, as the Hokies fought off some runs to be victorious by a score of 25-19.
QUOTING HEAD COACH JILL WILSON
On the team showing improvement at keeping plays alive defensively:
"I was really pleased with how we responded with that," Jill Wilson said. "Elon is known to be a feisty, gritty team that keeps a lot of balls off the floor. And in the third set, it kind of caught us off guard a little bit but we had told them that. So I was proud of their maturity in the fourth set, we got our rhythm back. We did some really nice things offensively and then defensively, Logan [Mosley] had another great match with 21 digs."
On the balanced attack on offense with many players stepping up:
"We are excited because each of our outsides and middles really bring different things to the table," Wilson said. "It's been fun to see that we can be a little bit more creative with our offense than we have in the past. We are obviously still tweaking it a little bit, but I'm excited of the potential."
NOTES
- Zier (8) and Young (7) each had seven or more blocks, marking the first time since Aug. 25, 2018, versus Charlotte, that Tech had two players have at least seven blocks in the same match. It also marked just the second time that has happened in the Jill Wilson era.
- Smith, who returned to an offensive role tonight, showed flashes of what she will be able to do on the outside her junior season, recording seven kills and 10 digs.
- Tech had its A-game with keeping balls of the floor, having four players with at least 10 digs – Mosley (21), junior Kylie Thomas (13), senior Ester Talamazzi (12) and Smith (10) – marking the first time since Nov. 16, 2018, at Boston College.
- Thomas' 13 digs were her most since Sept. 1, 2017, versus Arkansas State, tying her career high and marking her fourth time of owning 10-plus digs in a match.
- Speaking of someone's fourth time, Cerchio posted her fourth outing of collecting 13 or more kills in her career. The Ohio native hit .375 on the night and had five blocks.
UP NEXT
Tech will be back at it Saturday with two matches on deck, taking on Davidson (1-2) at 1 p.m. ET and Liberty (0-2) at 7 p.m.Gallery: (9/6/2019) 2019 VOLLEYBALL vs. ELON