virginia tech continues skid with loss to notre dame

Colby Talley

Staff Writer

October 17, 2021

BLACKSBURG — Virginia Tech came into Sunday looking for its first win in a month. The Hokies haven’t won since they hosted a non-conference invite — a 3-0 win over Wofford on Sept. 17.

It’s not to say that VT has been lifeless — it held its own against No. 2 Louisville on Friday night, despite the sweep — rather it hasn’t been able to push the right buttons or put together a winning formula since conference play began three weeks ago.

Next weekend, Tech will continue its search its elusive first conference win, too.

Notre Dame (8-10, 5-3 ACC) managed a straight sets victory against the Hokies (9-11, 0-8 ACC) at Cassell Coliseum to hand the home team its ninth consecutive loss on the season.

When looking at the conference stats for both teams, it’s easy to see them as polar opposites. The Fighting Irish rank last in the ACC for almost every defensive stat, while the Hokies can be found bringing up the rear in most offensive stats.

A struggling Hokies offense versus a passive Fighting Irish defense. Which one would cave in first?

As it turned out, the answer was the Hokies offense as their hitting percentage dipped to an underwhelming .065%.

The Hokies also had a noticeable issue with errors as the they frequently launched their serves straight into the net and swung the ball well out of bounds on numerous occasions.

The most notable exhibition of the Hokies’ struggles came during the first set when Notre Dame managed to win despite only scoring 10 kills because they got 15 free points courtesy of errors.

“I didn’t think we were very focused on what we wanted to do today,” head coach Marci Byers said. “I didn’t think Notre Dame did a ton in order to earn [its] points.”

Additionally, the Hokies had very few answers for the Fighting Irish tandem of setter Zoe Nunez and outside hitter Aubrey Hamilton, who set the pace for the majority of the contest. Nunez finished with 27 assists while Hamilton led the game with 13 kills.

The one bright spot for the Hokies was senior setter Talyn Jackson, who finished the game with 24 assists and led the team with nine digs.

After putting up a spirited fight against the Cardinals on Friday, Byers said it was “disappointing” to see the team get swept aside once again instead of picking up some semblance of momentum from its previous gutsy performance.

“It’s a little disappointing after playing the way we did on Friday,” coach Byers said. “You would think that would have given us some emotion coming into this match.”

Nevertheless, the Hokies will return to the court next weekend still searching for the bottom of their downward spiral.