VIRGINIA BEACH, VA (WTKR)- It's every team's goal to peak at the right time and be playing its best when it counts the most. Virginia Wesleyan volleyball looks like it's doing just that.
The Marlins' 3-1 victory over Washington & Lee on Wednesday night marked their fifth straight win and pushed them into sole possession of first place in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. Now they find themselves just one win away from hosting the ODAC Tournament in their own gym.
"If we can get a win on Wednesday, we'll have the number one seed and we'll be able to host all of our playoff matches," VWU head coach Karissa Cumberbatch said. "That's something that has never been done here. We've never hosted a championship match."
"We're just pushing ourselves every day to get better and better and better and not stopping at where we are now," added senior setter Haley Sutton. "We're looking for an NCAA Tournament appearance this year."
Virginia Wesleyan last won the ODAC in 2019, the program's first ever conference championship. Now the Marlins are hoping to set themselves up to add another banner to their history. They currently hold a record of 19-5, 10-1 in league play, and find themselves growing even more confident with each win.
"They just buy into you and they trust your opinion and it's easier to just have confidence and play and do what the coaches are asking you to do and just build that chemistry together as you go through the season," Cumberbatch pointed out.
"When we walked into W&L, we haven't beaten them in a very long time, since my whole career, and we beat them last night and we walked into that gym with swag and confidence and knowing that we could beat them and we want to be number one," said Sutton.
The Marlins will face Lynchburg on Wednesday in their final regular season ODAC match of the season, before heading to Baltimore to face New York University and Johns Hopkins on October 29. The ODAC Tournament begins on November 2.
