“The Skinny” on weekend matchups for cross country, rowing, field hockey, volleyball and wrestling
Wednesday evening, ESPNW announced Virginia senior center back Emily Sonnett won its 2015 Soccer Player of the Year award. Sonnett anchors a Cavalier defense that has allowed an average of only .58 goals per game and amassed 12 shutouts through 19 matches.
After falling to Florida State 1-0 in the 2014 national title game, the Virginia women’s soccer team had one goal to begin 2015: win the NCAA championship.
It is the eve of the 2015-16 NCAA men’s basketball season and storylines abound.
A pair of players from the Virginia men’s tennis team and four from the women’s side head to Flushing Meadows, New York, for the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship beginning Thursday.
Entering his seventh season in Charlottesville, coach Tony Bennett has undoubtedly brought Virginia basketball back into the national spotlight — back-to-back 30-win seasons and ACC regular-season titles will do that for a program.
If the Cavaliers want to be bowl-eligible for the first time since 2011, they must initially go through a tough Louisville squad on the road this Saturday. Virginia (3-6, 2-3 ACC) has to win its final three games for any hope of playing postseason football this winter.
But April rolled around and senior forward Sarah Imovbioh, who had earned a fifth year of NCAA eligibility, decided to take her talents to Columbia, South Carolina, where the preseason-No. 2 Gamecocks have turned into a premier program.
The Cavaliers (15-10), losers of five of their last seven matches, have now suffered three consecutive losses.
At U.Va., we consider men’s basketball as its own holiday season. After the long period of mourning often associated with the football months of defeat, students transition to John Paul Jones Arena and see coach Tony Bennett and his Top 10 team — currently ranked 5th/6th in the preseason national polls — hit the court.
Virginia women’s tennis wrapped up their weekend at the Kitty Harrison Invitational Sunday in Chapel Hill, N.C., where they won two of their three singles matchups while struggling in doubles play.
The Virginia wrestling team made significant efforts this weekend in the Midwest as they traveled to No. 25 North Dakota State for their first dual meet of the season on Friday, and then to Minnesota on Saturday for a quad meet, where they faced No. 24 Minnesota, South Dakota State, and Grand Canyon.
The Cavaliers (14-5, 3-3 ACC) mounted an improbable comeback in the closing minutes of the game to send the game to overtime, but Syracuse junior forward Emma Russell buried a shot six minutes into the period to send the Orange to the ACC Championship.
Virginia football’s road losing streak extended to 14 games following a 27-21 defeat at the hands of Miami Saturday afternoon at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
No. 1 Virginia (16-1-2, 9-1 ACC) could have hung their heads when Florida State (14-2-4, 6-1-3 ACC) freshman midfielder Natalia Kuikka intercepted and netted the opening goal or when junior defender Kirsten Crowley buried a go-ahead score in the second half.
Following a strong home performance against then-fifth-ranked North Carolina, the fifth-seeded Virginia men’s soccer team had nine days off before returning to action in the ACC tournament against a familiar foe, fourth-seeded Notre Dame.
“The Skinny” on weekend matchups for women’s and men’s soccer, women’s tennis, volleyball and wrestling
Virginia kicks off the ACC Field Hockey Championship Thursday at 11 a.m. against Duke, the nation’s No. 4 team.
“They’re a team that has got a new sense of energy,” coach Mike London said.
Fear always arises following the departure of star players and it was no exception with guard Joe Harris and forward Akil Mitchell after the 2014 season.
