Three schools sent crew teams to Charlottesville to face No. 9 Virginia on the Rivanna River over the weekend, and three schools left with multiple losses.
No. 20 Oregon State and No. 17 Tennessee both placed second in every event except for one. No. 18 Duke, which competed against Oregon State Sunday, challenged Virginia to a spontaneous novice eight race during Saturday's morning regatta. Virginia won the event with a time of 7:10.9 compared to Duke's time of 7:47.1.
"This is a typical race where we knew that we should have been on top, and we went out and did what we needed to accomplish," sophomore Lauren Fluhart said.
Against Oregon State, Virginia won the second varsity four, varsity four, varsity eight and second novice eight races in the morning regatta.
Virginia won the second varsity four, varsity four and second varsity eight races against Tennessee in the afternoon regatta.
Virginia's varsity four crew performed well against both opponents in the morning and afternoon regattas. The crew recorded a time of 7:14.4 against Oregon State, 10 seconds ahead of the Beavers. In the afternoon the Cavaliers won with a faster time of 7:13.6. Against Oregon State, the varsity four boat was manned by coxswain Caitlin Mixter, Mindy Fiesler, Annemarie Pitts, Allison Brennan and Kim Southern. In the afternoon race against the Lady Volunteers, Michelle Ellison served as coxswain of the boat.
"The four [boats] did really well this morning," Virginia coach Kevin Sauer said. "All the fours did well this afternoon."
Virginia's struggles, however, came with the varsity eight crew. Against Oregon State, the Cavaliers won the competition with the time of 6:19.7, and the Beavers finished about eight seconds behind with a time of 6:27.3. But in the afternoon, the Cavalier varsity eight fell to second against Tennessee. The slower time of 6:25.7 placed Virginia second to Tennessee's time of 6:21.5. The morning and afternoon varsity eight boats were manned by Catelyn Coyle, Ashley Jones, Margaret Matia, Andria Haneman, Mary Dobmeier, Carolyn McMillen and Melanie Kok.
Sauer said he was not pleased with the varsity eight's afternoon loss.
"The varsity eight did not do the job today, and we need to start doing the job," Sauer said. "We need to start stepping up, start racing like we are capable of. It is not that they have struggled -- it is like they are here and there. They are just losing races. A lot of them have been close, but they have just not done the job."
Apart from the varsity eight's inconsistency Saturday, Sauer said he does not want to take away from Tennessee's effort.
"This afternoon, I was really impressed with Tennessee's varsity, they really did a nice job and they came to race," Sauer said. "They took it to us and we did not do the job."
Between Saturday and the ACC Championships, Virginia has a week to train and prepare for the conference competition. The Cavaliers travel to Clemson, S.C. on April 23 to take on familiar foes.
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