Hokies Sweep the citadel to give marci byers first win

Duncan Weigand

September 14, 2020

BLACKSBURG - Virginia Tech opened up their season at Cassell Coliseum on Thursday with a sweep of the Citadel, winning in three sets.

In the first set, the Hokies scored first and quickly went up 8-0. The Bulldogs looked sloppy and unprepared to face Tech, who looked like they were in midseason form with little errors and great team chemistry. The Hokies took the first set 25-13 racking up 17 kills compared to the Citadel’s seven.

Virginia Tech opened up the scoring in the second set and continued their dominant performance from the first set. The Bulldogs looked more comfortable and tried to keep it close, but the Hokies ran away with the set, winning 25-16. Tech recorded eight kills and only three attack errors compared to The Citadel’s eleven kills and a whopping nine attack errors.

The third and final set was The Citadel’s best set of the match. The Bulldogs took a quick 9-5 lead and it looked as if they might run away with the set, but Tech fought back to bring the score to 10-9, setting up a pivotal rally. Sophomore libero Logan Mosley made a few incredible saves and digs in the longest rally of the game to tie the set at ten a piece.

The rest of the set was back and forth, but the Hokies pulled away and won the set 25-18 completing the sweep of the Citadel Bulldogs. Marci Byers picked up her first win as head coach of the Hokies while handing The Citadel their second loss of the season.

Brie Postema set the tone early for Virginia Tech when she served throughout Tech’s 8-0 run in the first set. Postema continued her serving dominance through the rest of the match, playing all three sets and recording four aces. The freshman also had a team-high 20 assists in her debut. Even though Postema served a lot during the three sets, she only had two service errors which is solid, especially for her first start.

Another player who stood out in the win was Ashley Homan. The graduate student played in all three sets and had a team-high twelve kills. Homan also had zero attack errors on eighteen attack attempts. Homan recorded five digs and only two reception errors on thirteen attempts. The outside hitter played a crucial role in scoring, earning twelve points.

Marisa Cerchio was another standout for the Hokies, recording a team-high 13.5 points. The senior from Ohio also had nine kills and only one attack error on fourteen attempts. Cerchio had three solo blocks and three block assists for a total of six blocks, and did not record a block error. Cerchio also recorded one dig, stuffing the stat sheet in Thursday’s match.

As for the road ahead, the Bulldogs travel to Charlottesville for a face off against Virginia, still looking for their first win of the season. For Tech, they host North Carolina in the first ACC matchup of the season on Thursday. The Hokies will look to build off of their strong Thursday performance ahead of Byers' first ACC match as the helm of Virginia Tech.