The Cavaliers scrimmaged in a “blue team” of defenders and a “white team” of offensive players with a unique set of scoring rules, rather different than a standard football game.
Virginia will next play in May's NCAA Tournament.
“The conversation starts and ends today with Harrison Didawick,” Pollard said. “He’s the heart and soul of this group. He’s unbelievably tough. He played great defense and came up with clutch hits.”
“I couldn’t be any happier with my men, the fight back,” Coach Lars Tiffany said. “And just unfortunately, how that final one went in off the rebound.”
The Cavaliers beat Wake Forest to reach last season's ACC Championship game. This time, the two powerhouses will meet in the final.
The Cavaliers have the opportunity to get a much needed win Sunday at 12:00 p.m. against Clemson to prevent the sweep and gain back some confidence.
The Cavaliers will face the Wolfpack in Sunday's final
“The overall performance in all phases was disappointing tonight,” Hardin said. “I know we’re capable of more than we showed and I know our team believes the same."
The Cavaliers will face No. 24 Notre Dame in the semifinals Saturday.
The Cavaliers had bested Stanford less than two weeks prior, and did so again.
“Coach Pollard says always just take today with a grain of salt and come back with amnesia,” Johnson said. “Tomorrow’s a new day, so just compete as hard as we can just get that win.”
Since Virginia women’s basketball decided to part ways with Coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton, the program currently finds itself in a state of flux ahead of the 2026-27 season.
“The hardest part is handling success,” Elliott said. “We have to go create this team's identity … We got to start over, we got to double down on our core values and we got to create an identity for this team based off of the foundation that's been laid from a program standpoint."
“The ejection had nothing to do with whether or not that was an infield fly or not,” Pollard said postgame. “I am always going to protect our players and coaches when somebody is verbally abusing them.”
Goalkeeper Elyse Finnelle played a pivotal part in securing the rivalry clash, saving three shot attempts from the Hokies in the concluding two minutes.
