The Skinny on weekend matchups for men’s lacrosse, baseball, women’s rowing, and softball
The No. 14 Virginia women’s lacrosse team has been nearly unstoppable of late and continued that trend Thursday, defeating No. 7 Duke in the first round of the ACC tournament, 7-5.
The Virginia softball team took both games of their doubleheader Wednesday afternoon against Liberty. The Cavaliers (8-40, 1-22 ACC) put forward a tremendous effort in all facets of the game to douse the Flames (7-42, 2-19 Big South) by a combined score of 16-4.
The No. 1 Cavaliers smacked four round-trippers, freshman right-hander Alec Bettinger spun six lights-out frames and sophomore right fielder Joe McCarthy racked up five RBIs as Virginia posted a 13-0 win in its 141st all-time meeting with the Richmond Spiders.
At first glance, this integral piece of the Virginia team may seem to be its offense—among the nation’s best, scoring 12.93 goals per game—however, this is not the most important component for its success. Rather, a great deal of the Cavaliers’ favorable postseason position can be attributed to freshman goaltender Matt Barrett.
The No. 4 Virginia men’s tennis team begins its postseason in Cary, N.C. this weekend at the ACC Tournament. The Cavaliers have won the tournament title nine out of the last ten years, with 2006 being the lone exception as they fell to then-No. 3 Duke in the Finals, 4-3.
It was just over a month ago on March 22 that the No. 14 Virginia women’s lacrosse team took a long, somber bus ride from Durham, N.C. back to Charlottesville. This was not the way the Cavaliers had expected their season to go. The preseason excitement was gone, as Virginia had fallen to 4-6 and 0-3 in the ACC after a 16-11 loss against No. 7 Duke.
Tuesday night in Richmond, the Virginia baseball team won a rollercoaster ballgame against Virginia Commonwealth, 5-4, on junior center fielder Brandon Downes’ 10th-inning solo home run.
Virginia softball dropped both games of its Tuesday doubleheader with James Madison. The Cavaliers (6-40, 1-22 ACC) fought hard to stay close with a top-25 RPI Dukes (35-13, 9-3 CAA) team.
Tuesday morning, the ACC revealed the Virginia men’s basketball team’s conference opponents for each of the next two seasons. The Cavaliers, fresh off their first Sweet 16 appearance since 1995, will play an 18-game conference slate with an even split of home and away contests in both 2014-15 and 2015-16.
Student-athletes can sometimes seem like entirely different beings: incredibly fit and often-intimidating creatures roaming Grounds in official ACC sweatpants, identifiable by the names and numbers attached to their backpacks. Here’s something crazy, though: they’re humans just like the rest of us – except they’re humans who also happen to perform nearly superhuman feats. Our peers in the Athletics Department balance the same academic pressures as everyone else – then they go out and win for the glory of dear Virginia.
Following the Virginia baseball team’s 10-0 win against George Washington on April 2, the team’s offense, which had struggled, looked poised to break out.
The No. 8 Virginia men’s golf team won its second consecutive tournament Saturday, shooting a 4-over 292 to best second-place Clemson by three strokes at the rain-shortened Wolfpack Spring Open at the Lonnie Poole Golf Course in Raleigh, N.C. The event was condensed from 54 holes to 18 holes after rain precluded Friday play.
With one week remaining in the regular season Virginia softball comes crawling to the finish line looking for a more positive end to a disappointing season. The Cavaliers wrap up their home schedule with a Tuesday doubleheader against James Madison and a Wednesday series against Liberty. Virginia’s burden does not get any lighter on Tuesday.
The No. 4 Virginia women’s rowing team competed in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge this weekend on Belleville Lake, winning nine of twelve races against No.
Despite splitting the last two regular season matches, the No. 9 Virginia women’s tennis team earned a share of their first ACC women’s tennis regular-season title.
Despite North Carolina handing Virginia just its third loss in 25 home games this season, the Cavaliers took two of three games against the Tar Heels this weekend.
The No. 4 Virginia men’s tennis team traveled to Blacksburg over the weekend, clinching its eighth consecutive undefeated conference record with a victory against No. 36 Virginia Tech.
Virginia track and field wrapped up three days of competition at the ACC Outdoor Track and Field Championships Saturday, with the Cavalier women finishing seventh with 60 points while the men placed eighth after collecting 53 points.
Despite entering the tournament ranked behind three other teams, the No. 23 Virginia women’s golf team claimed second place at the ACC Championships in Greensboro, NC this past weekend.
