Courtesy: Matt Riley / UVa Media Relations Marlow Bruneau, Shannon Davis and Beth Shelton

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia volleyball team sent its three seniors out on a high note in Memorial Gymnasium on Friday night, defeating instate rival Virginia Tech, 3-2 (25-21, 25-21, 20-25, 19-25, 15-12), in a five-set thriller. Virginia concludes the season with a 17-15 overall record and a 9-11 mark in the Atlantic Coast Conference, while the Hokies finish at 20-11 and 11-9 in the league.

“It’s always emotional when you know that it’s your seniors’ last match here,” head coach Lee Maes said. “We were excited to have a fantastic turnout tonight. You know it’s always a good match when you’re playing Virginia Tech. But, it’s most special that our three seniors were able to come out here, play well and finish their career with a win, especially because they’ve given a lot to this program. They’ve been great role models in terms of just being the type of people who are outstanding representatives of great student-athletes here at Virginia.”

Fourth-year Shannon Davis (Austin, Texas) landed six kills and collected seven blocks to conclude her career with 1,111 kills and 429 blocks. Those totals rank her ninth on the career kills records at Virginia and seventh on the career blocks. Earlier this season, Davis became just the fifth Cavalier to reach the 1,000-kill and 400-block plateau.

Classmate Marlow Bruneau (Lakeville, Minn.) dished out 20 assists this evening to finish her career ninth in the programs career assist records book, with 1,271 helpers, while fifth-year Beth Shelton (Cincinnati, Ohio) collected 14 digs, but ended three shy of the program’s top-10 career mark.

Third-year Lauren Dickson (Austin, Texas) led the Cavaliers attack tonight with 14 kills, while Shelton contributed her final double-double, knocking down 12 kills to go with her 14 digs.

Third-year Brittani Rendina (Lisle, Ill.) dug a match-high 25 attacks to move her season total to fifth in Virginia’s single-season dig records and second-year Sydney Hill (Kalamazoo, Mich.) blocked five attacks to reach 127 blocks assists this season and rank sixth in the single-season records.

Second-year Kelly Irvin (Pacific Palisades, Calif.) distributed 21 assists and second-year A.J. Cushman dug (Richmond, Va.) 13 attacks.

For the Hokies, Felicia Willoughby paved the way, landing 15 kills on a .426 hitting percentage, while Jill Gergen collected 24 digs. Erin Leaser dished out 52 assists.

The Cavaliers used momentum from its senior day celebration to jump out to a 9-4 lead in the opening set, forcing Virginia Tech to call a timeout. Dickson landed a kill out of the break and the Cavaliers held on to their lead until the Hokies called their second timeout, down 20-13. An 8-3 run in favor of Virginia Tech narrowed the Cavaliers’ lead to just two at 23-21, but Dickson and Davis provided the necessary kills for points to push the Cavaliers ahead 25-21.

The second set was much closer, featuring eight tie scores and six lead changes, including an even 19-19 score. Irvin landed an ace to break the tie and Shelton landed a kill to put Virginia up 21-19. The Hokies rallied, but a service error kept them from knotting the score at 21 and pushed Virginia ahead 22-20. The Hokies knocked down a kill to pull within one, but a kill from Irvin and back-to-back aces from Hill secured a 2-0 lead for the Cavaliers, at 25-21.

With the score knotted at 15 in the third frame, four straight points from the Hokies gave them their largest lead of the match at 19-15, forcing Virginia to call a timeout. Hill landed a kill for the Cavaliers out of the break, but two more points from the Hokies pushed Tech ahead 21-16, allowing the Hokies to hold on for a 25-20 victory.

The first portion of the fourth frame was neck-and-neck, but it was the Hokies who controlled the second half. Using a 4-0 run to break open an even 13 score and extending their lead to seven by 22-15, the Hokies battled for a 25-19 victory to force a deciding game.

Virginia held the advantage midway through the final set, gaining a 9-6 lead and never looked back. The Hokies struggled to get any closer than one-point as third-year Kendahl Voelker (Fort Myers, Fla.) blocked an attack to give Virginia a 13-11 lead and a Hokie attack error made it 14-11. Tech landed a kill in attempts to start a rally, but Bruneau landed her final kill as a Cavalier to secure the match win for Virginia, 15-12.

Virginia’s three seniors, Bruneau, Davis and Shelton concluded their careers with an overall record of 75-44 throughout four years and a 41-15 mark in the friendly confines of Memorial Gymnasium. The trio had a hand in defeating each ACC opponent at least once in Charlottesville and helped win a school record 16 conference matches in 2006, en route to a runner-up finish in the league.

“Exciting things are going to happen with our program, we’re confident in that,” Maes said. “We have some incredible recruits coming in and we have a really nice foundation after having a chance to instill some of our techniques and systems. Our team has been wonderful in their receptiveness and responsiveness to the changes that we’ve brought and we’re already really looking forward to starting again. Our future looks bright.”