Virginia wrestling salvaged a split Saturday, losing to N.C. State 23-10 early and beating Duke 19-15 in a come-from-behind win later in the evening. The Cavs dropped 7 of 10 matches to the Wolfpack but took six from the Blue Devils, including five of the final six.
Virginia (4-5, 1-1 ACC) had a little less luck with N.C. State (6-6, 2-1) in the afternoon meet. The Cavs opened against the Wolfpack with Brian Muir's 10-4 loss to Dustin Kawa at 174 pounds, but Jimi Massey rebounded at 184 to beat Jason Gore and put Virginia on the scoreboard.
"I lost to that kid last year," Massey said. "So there was a vengeance factor coming in. I just went in there and didn't stop wrestling."
The Cavaliers lost the next three matches, including Josh Etu's heavyweight bout with Ricky Fowler. Fowler narrowly defeated the Virginia sophomore in overtime.
"I got called for stalling twice," Etu said. "I don't think he took a single shot, so I was a little upset about the officiating. He has 35 pounds on me and he wrestled tough, but I should have won the match. I didn't wrestle up to my ability."
Toby MacDonald defeated Ryan McCallum 3-2 at 133, grabbing a win that was, in the words of Cav asst. coach Jim Harshaw, a "bright spot."
Virginia's only other victory came from Greg Francesca at 165, who beat Scott Garren 12-7.
"We lost a lot of close matches," said Cav coach Lenny Bernstein. "141, 157 and heavyweight were all winnable matches, so that's nine points right there."
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Bernstein also pointed out that while the conference loss has little impact on team standings, individual losses likely will hurt some wrestlers when they are seeded for the ACC Tournament in March.
In the afternoon meet, Duke (8-5, 0-1) won the first two matches and grabbed an early 6-0 lead before Bob Seidel earned a 6-3 victory at 141 to bring Virginia within three.
The Blue Devils' lead grew to 12-3 after Andre Solimon pinned Ernesto Vera in the 149-pound weight class, but Virginia rallied to take the 157, 165, 174, 184 and heavyweight divisions. Muir's 10-2 decision over Frank Cornely at 174 gave the Cavs a 13-12 lead and Massey's win at 184 extended it to 16-12.
After Virginia's Zach Freday lost at 197 the Cavalier lead shrunk to one, but Cav heavyweight Ryan Painter sewed up the team victory with a 10-3 win over Levi Karnehm.
"We expected to win that one - it's nothing out of the ordinary," Harshaw said.
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