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Matmen prepare to make history

Old Dominion, George Mason seek to spoil Cavs

The Virginia wrestling team will conclude its regular season this week as the matmen take to the road for their final two dual competitions against George Mason and Old Dominion.

The Cavaliers (17-7, 3-2 ACC) have participated in an abundance of dual matchups this season and are now only one victory shy of the program's all-time win record for dual wins in a single season. Virginia coach Steve Garland attributes the reigning ACC champions' success to the team's adherence to his 2010 season approach: practice comes secondary to competition.

"I learned it from my old assistant, Scott Moore: it's competition that makes you better," Garland said. "You can practice as hard as you want, you can do as many drills as you want, but these kids learn more about themselves in seven minutes in front of people, in a real match, with a real ref, with real-time scoring. That's when they learn, and that's when they make their biggest gains"`\nAlthough the team recognizes that it is well within reach of the Virginia all-time win total with matchups against the Patriots Thursday and the Monarchs Sunday, it is more focused on improving before the ACC Championships, which are set to begin March 5.

"We really never made it as a goal, but its just one of those things that's nice to have," sophomore Stephen Doty said. "So we're definitely going to wrestle our hardest at these matches. But what we really want is those two extra wins so we can go into ACC's with four straight under our belt. That's really our biggest goal right now."

This weekend's matches also should give the Cavaliers an added incentive to win with state bragging rights up for grabs, and because of the fact that the Cavaliers, Patriots and Monarchs all recruit similar athletes. The recruiting advantages of a win outweigh the nuisance of traveling to face the struggling Patriots (0-12) during a rare Thursday night event and the Monarchs (7-11-1) three days later, Garland said.

"It's important for us to wrestle against Mason," he said. "It's an in-state team, and we actually recruit a lot against those guys, and we want to build a rivalry there. The big thing for us is, we're in the commonwealth of Virginia and anytime we can wrestle in state like that, we will make some changes in our schedule and fit it in because we want people in this state to see us."

The Monarchs (7-11-1), meanwhile, already have a moderately fierce rivalry going with Virginia, and boast a rather impressive roster this season. Old Dominion is anchored by two talented seniors, 125-poundJames Nicholson and 133-pound Kyle Hutter, who rank fourth and 12th in the country, respectively. Virginia and Old Dominion have split their last four regular season meetings, and both teams are ready for another hard-fought, close go-around.

"The Sunday thing with ODU, that's just a grudge thing," Garland said. "We love wrestling them, they love wrestling us - it's always a war. Every year since I've been here it's just been crazy matches against those guys. It doesn't matter who's ranked where, it's always going to be a nutty match. Our kids love it. They love the rivalry there."

Garland hopes that his team will use the intense matchups against George Mason and Old Dominion to work out the kinks before the upcoming conference championships, as the Cavaliers will have the opportunity to only face one another in practice following these final two outings.

"Bottom line is there's a lot of technical things we need to fix, and I want to see those techniques that we've been working on executed in these matches," Garland said. "Again, it doesn't matter how well you can do it in front of me with no pressure, its how you do it when people are screaming and you have an opponent trying to kill you"

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