Historic Night On The Heights Sends BC Through to NIVC Quarterfinals

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. - The foundation of Boston College volleyball has long been built by a program fighting uphill against the tide. A team that didn't exist before 1990 didn't win its first conference game until 1994, and the constant challenge of playing in the original Big East and the realigned ACC formed a bit of a glass ceiling over the team's ability to consistently compete for wins. The players and coaches were dedicated to honing the program, but the fight for wins constantly ran into power programs at Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Georgetown and Rutgers before running into the national championship contenders at Duke, Florida State and North Carolina.

The merger of the old Big East's power teams into the ACC over the past decade made that look even more difficult, but Boston College took its next step by setting a new single season program wins record by winning its 21st match of the 2022 season with a straight sets victory over St. John's in the National Invitations Volleyball Championship.

"We took a very specific path in trying to build this and develop our roster," said head coach Jason Kennedy. "To see that growth and that maturity come to life, this late in the year and into December, is a huge testament to the team's ability to train, our coaches, our staff, and quite honestly, how hard this group of athletes worked to get here. This was a team that we lost to earlier in the year, and to see [our team] come back and beat them, at our place, in three sets shows the growth and development that we talk about."

"Chasing 21 [wins] has been a goal that we've had every season," said junior libero Anna Murphy. "To achieve it is special, but to achieve it with this group of girls is even more special."

Beating St. John's carried historical significance on several fronts, but the win furthered BC's season closer to a tournament championship. It avenged a loss from a five-set thriller in the Friday night matchup at the St. John's Classic in September while earning the Eagles' 10th win at home this season, though the straight sets victory gave off a more unbalanced score than the in-game platitudes weaved with a 25-18, 25-22, and 25-20 victory.

The Eagles' 44 kills bettered the Red Storm by a factor of 11, but St. John's posted more service aces and an even number of kills across each of its three sets. The story told was largely dependent on the 20 errors committed by St. John's, but the large bulk of the plus-8 disparity occurred during the more dominant first set by BC.

Even so, the hosts had to rally in each set. BC faced a 16-16 tie in the first set before lodging a 9-2 run to clinch the opening round, and the second set started with St. John's grabbing a 10-2 lead before a 12-4 rally from the Eagles tied the set at 14-aside. In the third set, BC grabbed five of the final six points to use another run to clinch the match.

"We weren't sure what it was going to look like as the [second] set evolved," Kennedy said. "We figured there would be points and opportunities to exploit some runs of their own. We tweaked our rotation a little bit. We used a little bit of a different combination that changed our offense, and that got them a little off-balance."

The win advanced the Eagles to the NIVC Quarterfinals for the first time in program history and continued a season that itself continued rewriting the team's record books. The 21st win set a single season program record for wins and established a second 20-win season over a four year span, and it moved Kennedy within a victory of becoming the all-time winningest coach at BC.

Andrea Leonard is still the only coach to claim 80 victories at BC and was at the helm when the Eagles won 20 matches in 2004, but Kennedy has an opportunity to tie or pass the mark in less time than his predecessor's seven years. He also had to deal with the COVID-impacted year that split 2020 into fall and spring seasons, and his 2019 team tied Leonard's 2004 team as the only teams in program history with winning conference records.

"The expectation was that we would always get a little bit better each year," said senior right side hitter Izzy Clavenna. "We're fortunate enough to be in a spot where we've worked really hard, and we're just getting better and better every day. I'm really happy to be doing it with these girls that I love so much."

It sets the Eagles up for a potentially-historic night on Wednesday when they host Xavier in the NIVC Quarterfinals. A newer Big East team that realigned out of the Atlantic-10 in 2013, the Musketeers were a postseason staple in their conference tournaments before narrowly missing the postseason bracket in 2018 and 2019. They slipped into the lower portion of the standings in the post-COVID, 2021 season but roared back into contention this year with a win over sixth-seeded Butler in the new, expanded format. They lost a second round matchup to Creighton in straight sets, but back-to-back wins over Central Michigan and Ohio University slotted Xavier into the quarters before BC's weekend kicked off at home.

"We're fortunate enough to play our next match at home," said Kennedy, "so we'll have a couple of days to rest and train. But it's win or go home. We have to put together the best plan that we can, and we'll need to give her best effort."

The Eagles and Musketeers have never met on a volleyball court but will compete in the NIVC Quarterfinals on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.

Historic Night On The Heights Sends BC Through to NIVC Quarterfinals

Players Mentioned

Izzy Clavenna

Anna Murphy

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