The Skinny on weekend games for Virginia’s field hockey, volleyball and women’s golf teams. More extensive previews for the football and men’s soccer teams are available online and in Thursday’s issue of The Cavalier Daily. A full preview for the women’s soccer team is also available online.
Field Hockey
What: No. 9 Virginia (3-2) vs. No. 11 Louisville (4-0), Rutgers (3-1)
Where: U-Hall Turf Field
When: Friday, 6 p.m. (vs. Louisville); Sunday, 12 p.m. (vs. Rutgers)
The Skinny: After an up-and-down start to the season, the Cavaliers will look to establish some consistency this weekend with a pair of home matchups.
Virginia opened the year by pounding William & Mary, 9-0, but then lost two straight road games against No. 6 Penn State and No. 20 Iowa. But last Sunday, the Cavaliers bounced back by edging No. 7 Princeton, following that up with a shutout win against Miami (OH) in their first two home games.
A corps of sophomores has lead the team thus far, with leading scorers midfielder Lucy Hyams and strikers Riley Tata and Caleigh Foust accounting for 13 of the team’s 21 goals. Preseason All-ACC selection Tara Vittese, a freshman midfielder, leads the team with five assists — good for second in the ACC.
The Cavaliers will look to those standouts to provide much of the scoring against Louisville; thus far, the Virginia defense has not held up well. The Cavaliers rank No. 54 in the NCAA in goals allowed this season, and against a Louisville attack tied with the Cavaliers for No. 3 nationally in goals per game, coach Michele Madison’s team should be in for a high-scoring affair.
After winning their first three games without too much of a test, Louisville comes off an impressive 1-0 victory against No. 13 Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois. Thursday, the Cardinals will look for back-to-back wins against Virginia in the first-ever match between the teams with ACC implications. Virginia beat Louisville in Charlottesville last season, 3-2.
Rutgers remains somewhat less threatening than the Cardinals. Despite a 3-1 record, the Scarlet Knights floundered the only time it faced a quality opponent this season, falling 6-1 to No. 16 Temple last week. Rutgers struggled in its opener against unranked Bucknell, squeaking out a 3-2 overtime win, and tallied two more victories against Sacred Heart and Lafayette.
—compiled by Matt Comey
Volleyball
What: Wildcat Challenge: Virginia (6-0) vs. Loyola (3-3), Youngstown State (7-1) and Northwestern (5-1)
Where: Evanston, Ill.
When: Friday, 11 a.m. (vs. Loyola) and 6 p.m. (vs. Youngstown State); Saturday, 8 p.m. (vs. Northwestern)
The Skinny: The Virginia volleyball team hopes to remain unbeaten in 2014 when it travels to Illinois to face Loyola, Youngstown State and host Northwestern in the Wildcat Challenge this weekend.
Playing in front of their home crowd for the first time this season, the Cavaliers beat LIU Brooklyn, Navy and Alabama last weekend at the annual Cavalier Classic. Junior middle hitter Natalie Bausback was named tournament MVP for a second consecutive tournament after leading the team with 13 blocks (12 assisted and one solo) and 36 kills in the three matches. Junior outside hitter Kayla Sears added 43 kills to lead the Cavaliers.
The Cavaliers will face Loyola University (3-3) in the tournament’s first match. The Ramblers return all six of their starters from last season’s team, which went 13-18. Missing from 14 of those matches was sophomore outside hitter Morgan Reardon. Reardon had double-digit kills in 13 of 16 matches before a leg injury cut her season short.
Virginia’s second opponent in the tournament is Youngstown State (7-1). Youngstown State senior middle blocker Shannon Watson was named the Horizon League Defensive Player of the Week after recording 22 blocks in four games last weekend. Watson is one of the few returning starters for the Penguins, who finished last season 16-15.
The Cavaliers close out the weekend with host Northwestern (5-1), which went 16-16 last year. Wildcat sophomore setter Caleigh Ryan led the Big 10 in assists last season but has been replaced in the starting lineup by freshman Taylor Tashima. Tashima had 40-plus assists in two of three games last weekend.
—compiled by Chanhong Luu
Women’s Golf
What: Cougar Classic
Where: North Charleston, S.C.
When: Sept. 14-16
The Skinny: The No. 20 Virginia women’s golf team heads to its first tournament of the season Sunday, the Cougar Classic hosted by the College of Charleston.
The Cavaliers will be one of 24 teams competing at the event, a field which includes 13 programs ranked in the top 50. Among them are No. 3 UCLA and No. 2 Duke, last season’s national champions.
Virginia returns to the Cougar Classic after last competing in it in 2012, when the team started out strong but slid to an 11th-place finish by the end of the three-day event. No. 21 Florida won the tournament each of the last two seasons and returns to the field this year looking for a three-peat.
After finishing at No. 14 in the NCAA Championships in the spring, the Cavaliers hope to benefit from diving right in and facing some of the nation’s strongest teams at the start of the season. Virginia will look to senior Briana Mao and sophomore Lauren Diaz-Yi, who finished in 28th-place at NCAAs in just her first season, to lead the lineup on the golf course.
—compiled by Peter Nance
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