The Cavaliers will now travel to the west coast for matches at California and No. 12 Stanford.
Virginia now turns its attention to postseason play — as the No. 8 seed in the standings — where the Cavaliers will need that kind of urgency from the opening tip, not just when their backs are against the wall.
The team competes in Formula SAE, an international student design competition where college students design, build and race formula-style electric racecars.
Virginia closed out its first ACC dual of the season with a complete team performance, improving to 9-2 overall and 1-0 in conference play while continuing to defend home court.
“I was standing there at second and, as soon as Beck stepped into the box and we had two outs, I was thinking to myself that I am scoring on anything,” Murray said following the game’s thrilling conclusion.
“I was proud of our draw unit today and Kate Galica with how she dominated,” LaMonica said. “It was unfortunate that we couldn't use that to our advantage today, on the offensive end and capitalize.”
The Cavaliers were up 2-0. They were up 5-1. They were up 8-3. They were up 11-4. They were up 12-8. Games are not won on the basis of the score during or at the end of the first, second, or third quarter, though.
“Naturally, you're going to take punches,” Odom said. “This is a competitive sport and we punch people [and] they punch us. They punched us a lot more than we punched them today. And that's what it is. And so you’ve got to cover yourself, you’ve got to make sure you're not getting hit as much, and you move on to the next thing.”
Following an abbreviated game against George Washington courtesy of an 11-0 run-rule victory, the Cavaliers took the field on Friday afternoon with eyes set on another series sweep as they hosted VCU for the second weekend series of the year.
This year figures to be another heavyweight clash, as Virginia boasts a high-powered offense averaging just under 17 goals a contest, while Johns Hopkins has shown to have the stingier defense.
“We're just going to do what we always do, and that's get ready for the next one,” Odom said after the NC State win.
“I try to live my life in a way that hopefully other people can look at and be inspired to do amazing things of their own,” Jones said. “The driving factor behind [writing] it is that … those kids can look and say, ‘Damn, he came from the same project homes that I did, and he did that. I can do the same thing too.’”
“It was a rough start,” Coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton said. “We wanted to set the tone in our gym, but … we were trying to … get out of that hole the whole game.
After a pair of road and home victories, Virginia has now extended its win streak to 14 since its opening loss to then-No. 8 Arkansas.
In front of what could be a raucous crowd at John Paul Jones Arena, the Cavaliers can make significant bounds towards breaking a lengthy NCAA Tournament drought.
The gesture highlighted not only Bennett’s profound impact on Virginia, but also the influence he continues to have on Odom, the current team and the roster as they strive to push the program back to where Bennett once had it.
“I thought it was our most complete performance of the year,” Coach Chris Pollard said. “I thought our approach in the first inning was good, but I thought with two outs in the first, our approach was elite, and stayed on the gas and continued to push runs across.”
The men’s and women’s teams took on the ASICS Last Chance Invitational in Winston-Salem, N.C., Saucony Battle for Boston in Mass. and the VT Challenge in Blacksburg, where they delivered dominant performances as they look to spike up for the championship season.
In 1987, Freeland was the first African American athlete in the ACC to help Virginia earn an ACC Championship — the team’s first — marking a major milestone for the program.
“This is a really really good team, and they steamrolled us,” Wade said. “They’re better than we are. If we played them 10 times I’m not sure we could beat them. Maybe once if we get lucky on a neutral court. But, I mean, they’re just flat out better than us.”
