Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com Marriott Jefferson Cup Champions

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia volleyball team swept it’s own Marriott Jefferson Cup this weekend to open the season 3-0 at home. The Cavaliers defeated Appalachian State, 3-0 (25-19, 25-15, 25-21), Saturday evening to claim the tournament title for the fourth time in six years.

Virginia (7-2) opened the tournament defeating Virginia Commonwealth, 3-0, before beating Binghamton, 3-0, earlier today.

“We look at each match as another opportunity for us to continue building and applying the things that we continually emphasize and teach throughout the week in practice,” first-year head coach Lee Maes said. “We’ve grown leaps and bounds throughout the season and now we’re working on being able to sustain a certain level of effort and focus on what we’ve been taught.

“Our match versus VCU was a great environment. I love that we had such a great crowd that was engaged and loud. It really created a wonderful home match experience for everyone. That is something that we would love to keep cultivating for every home match.”

Tournament MVP Shannon Davis (Austin, Texas) paced the Cavaliers throughout their final match, versus Appalachian State, posting a .545 attack percentage and blocking four attacks.

Third-year Lauren Dickson (Austin, Texas) contributed 11 kills in the convincing victory, and another member of the all-tournament team, fourth-year Marlow Bruneau (Lakeville, Minn.), dished out a match-high 26 assists.

First-year Simone Asque (Chicago, Ill.) led all players with a personal-best 15 digs, while Brittani Rendina (Lisle, Ill.) had 10. A.J. Cushman (Richmond, Va.) and Rendina came up with career-high service aces for the Cavaliers, scoring three and four, respectively.

Second-year Sydney Hill (Kalamazoo, Mich.) rounded out the all-tournament team selections for Virginia, recording four kills and a block in the win over the Mountaineers.

On the other side of the net, Jordan Jesberg had 11 kills, while Heather Kale led the team with 12 digs. Lauren Swecker was Appalachian State’s lone tournament team honoree, while Ashley Allen from Binghamton and Eli Kueknel and Ariel Newman from Virginia Commonwealth completed the all-tournament team.

Against the Mountaineers, service aces from the Cavaliers set the pace early in the opening set for Virginia. Five aces were landed between three Cavaliers, enabling the team to take the lead and finish with a 25-19 victory.

The Cavaliers presented a strong force at the net to open the second frame. Virginia’s stingy defense created a total of 24 team digs and limited the Mountaineers’ kills to seven with five attack errors. The Cavaliers finished the set off with a 25-19 victory.

After taking an early lead in the third set, Appalachian State tied the game up at 18 and then took a two point lead before the Cavaliers went on a four-point run and forced the Mountaineers to take a timeout at 22-20. Virginia finished off the match with a 25-21 win.

The Cavaliers will take a three-match win streak to Illinois next weekend. Virginia will face it’s toughest competition of the season, playing No. 5 UCLA at Friday at 11:30 a.m. ET. The Cavaliers will then play host Northwestern at 8 p.m. ET, before concluding the tournament on Saturday, with a match versus Georgetown at 7 p.m. ET.