The UVa women's team gathered its third win of the season after defeating East Carolina, Tennessee, and NC State.

The Virginia players found their toughest competition thus far in NC State, yet even though UVa inside center Zoe Schmitt claims the score doesn’t reflect the actual game, UVa shut down NC State to take home a 75-0 victory.

“We don’t normally get that many points on them,” Schmitt said. “We’ve beaten them the past couple of years, but it’s never been that wide of a gap.”

NC State’s saving grace was the team's physicality. Even as the point differential increased, NC State continued to play hard enough for UVa to think the score was must closer than it showed. Yet, its downfall was ball movement, and UVa was able to defend what little ball went wide.

“I think their main goal plan was for the forwards to carry the ball, and our forwards did such a good job covering them and launching from the fence that we were able to shut them down effectively,” Schmitt said.

UVa’s outside center Summer Harris-Jones was shifty as always, and NC State’s defense was not ready for her speed or power. Harris-Jones played with the forwards as well as the backs to create chaos for the defense. Her speed on kickoffs and sidestep on offense was a significant component to the scoreline.

UVa lock Hannah Turley had been playing as a wing up until this point, yet proved to be a valuable player inside the forward pack on offense. Hooker Heather Thompson was the first person off the defensive line to start UVa’s hard launch and made sure there was enough coverage near the ruck to stop NC State’s pick-and-go rhythm.

Yet, NC State reciprocated on defense and made it difficult for there to be any sort of large ball movement in UVa’s backline. Ball was forced back on the inside, which is where Harris-Jones, Turley, and Thompson took advantage of the power and support of the rest of their forward pack.

“Sometimes we get a score like that and our coaches are like, ‘Oh, we could have done better.’ But, I think they were definitely very happy with this one,” Schmitt said.

Both UVa and NC State will be playing in tournaments within the next few weekends before getting back into their regular league play.