Boston College volleyball looked to end its season with an upset victory over Virginia on Saturday afternoon. The Eagles attacked the game seeking their 11th all-time win over the Cavaliers, who had their best record since 2006.
An upset is exactly what BC (15–17, 8–12 Atlantic Coast) found, as it took a 3–2 win over Virginia (21–10, 11–9).
Commanding the Eagles’ offense, Haggerty leads the nation in total blocks and is second in the nation for solo blocks with 46 blocks.
At the start of the first set, Brooklyn Yelland scored an ace to push BC ahead and set the team’s pace for the rest of the set.
BC held the Cavaliers to a tight score alternating winning points at the beginning of the first set, with BC’s Morgan Riddle scoring the Eagles’ second ace of the game. BC began to pull slightly ahead towards the end of the first set, as it maintained a 24–20 lead over Virginia following a Haggerty kill.
BC was able to lock down the win in the first set to lead the match 1–0, and started off the second set in a similarly aggressive fashion, keeping the score close and denying Virginia chances to pull far ahead. As the set progressed, the Cavaliers began to pull ahead, though, forcing the Eagles to scramble for a way to come back.
Virginia sat at a comfortable nine-point lead, and Cavalier’s Ashley Le served an ace to push Virginia to match point, giving the Cavaliers a 25–15 second-set victory.
At the end of the second set, Eagles’ outside hitter Audrey Ross sat at a match-high eight kills. But in the third set, the Eagles needed to do more if they wanted to complete an upset against the Cavaliers.
BC did just that.
Off a Ross kill, the Eagles took a 21–7 lead in the later moments of the third set. BC ran away with the score, giving Virginia virtually no chance at working its way back from the score deficit. The Eagles locked down the win of the third set with a kill by Cornelia Roach to put BC up 2–1 in sets, capturing the second set with a dominant 25–9 win.
BC refused to slow down when starting off the fourth set, winning seven-straight points against Virginia. But the Cavaliers battled their way back from a large score deficit to tie the score 22–22.
The Eagles attempted to hold on to their lead, but Virginia refused to let BC take the match in three. The two teams alternated point wins until Virginia’s Ashley Le served an ace to win the fourth set for the Cavaliers, pushing the game to a fifth set.
BC had to claw its way back at the start of the fifth set after allowing Virginia to take the fourth set. The Eagles had serve aces from both Ross and Riddle to propel BC’s offense.
What ultimately earned the Eagles their final win of the 2024 season was another Ross kill, which gave the Eagles a 15–9 victory in the fifth set.
