The Virginia Volleyball team welcomed three directional schools to Memorial Gymnasium for the 2011 Marriott Cavalier Classic. Which is not to be confused with the 2011 Holiday Inn Jefferson Cup, which is this weekend. How did we get two hotels to sponsor back to back volleyball tournaments? I have no idea.
Anyway, Western Michigan, Western Carolina and South Carolina Upstate (yes, you read that right - and they're coming to JPJ for basketball too!) were this years challengers in the Cavalier Classic. In the end, Western Michigan "won" (I don't think there's actually a winning team in this thing) by going 3-0. Virginia went 2-1, USC Upstate went 1-2 and Western Carolina went 0-3.
Virginia's first match of the weekend was on Friday at 7pm against Western Michigan. The Broncos won 3-1, but it would turn out to be a hard-fought match, going four sets and with only one of those sets being won by more than three points. When Virginia took the third set 25-23, they didn't know it at the time, but it would be the only set that WMU would drop the entire weekend.
Virginia's second match was Saturday at 1pm against USC Upstate. Upstate had beaten Western Carolina 3-0 the previous day, so they were riding the momentum. But that didn't matter for the Cavs as they took down the Spartans in straight sets.
Virginia's third and final match was Saturday night at 7pm against winless Western Carolina. The Catamounts didn't fare any better against the Cavaliers than they did against the Spartans or Broncos, however. Virginia took the nightcap in straight sets to finish the tournament 2-1.
Virginia Juniors Jessica O'Shoney and Beth Wildermuth were named to the All-Tournament Team.
As mentioned above, Virginia next hosts the Holiday Inn Jefferson Cup. East Carolina, California and Long Island come to Charlottesville for that tournament, which begins with UVA and ECU at 11am on Friday. California is the #1-ranked team in the country, so the 'Hoos will have their hands full on Friday at 7pm. They finish off the weekend against the Blackbirds of Long Island at 3pm on Saturday. I'm assuming that the schedule for this event was moved up (as compared to the Cavalier Classic) due to the home football game at 6pm on Saturday.