“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.
For Chang, it is his second straight individual title after winning the Calusa Cup last week. The graduate student, a one-time Virginia club player, has vaulted himself into the ranks of the nation’s best this year and his performance will prove vital to the Cavaliers’ national championship hopes in the coming weeks.
Virginia was not even out-hit, with the hit total actually ending at 12-9 in favor of the Cavaliers. However, the timeliness of those hits as well as some free passes allowed for the Rams to reap the full benefits of its success relative to their Commonwealth counterparts.
“This is going to be a sustained excellence program,” Roussell said. “How we go about things, how we handle ourselves, the perception of our women's basketball program will matter.”
Sunday’s win is exactly what Virginia needed at the exact time they needed it. Stability and length from the bullpen, contributions from all parts of the lineup and its stars showing up in a big way.
“I think we'll continue to find our group and find our rhythm,” Hardin said, “This is tough stuff, because they feel so frustrated and upset, because it really matters to them. They care, and I think they can really appreciate that about the girls. So we'll continue to communicate, continue to fill out our depths and our distances together.”
“I want to give Syracuse credit,” Tiffany said. “I felt like their entire team had a greater sense of urgency … Syracuse’s offense is really, really difficult to stop.”
This tracker will follow all major news — additions, departures and important updates — and will be updated regularly as the offseason progresses.
The Cavaliers capped off their best regular season in program history.
Overall, the Cavaliers (25-11, 9-8 ACC) had a tendency to shoot themselves in the foot all afternoon — giving up numerous free bases to fuel the Fighting Irish (16-14, 7-10 ACC) offense.
“It's awesome to see that second year class really shine, particularly on the offensive end of the field,” LaMonica said. “What a vote of confidence for those guys to make an impact for us in that way. And it's … a sign [that] the future is bright.”
Both programs now have 10 ACC wins, with the final game of the series serving as a tiebreaker for the third seed in the conference tournament.
“Every time somebody asks me about Didawick, I always say he deserves all of the success he’s having,” Coach Chris Pollard said. “He’s in a good place … he and Sam Harris both, working through some adjustments.”
