Virginia’s 55-game regular season begins this Friday at the Hughes Bros. Challenge in Wilmington, N.C. and concludes with a three-game series at Wake Forest in May. In between, the Cavaliers will likely have their ups and downs in a schedule that features 10 ACC teams.
The No. 6 Virginia women’s lacrosse team welcomes No. 9 Loyola (Md.) to Charlottesville this weekend for its first home game of the season. The Cavaliers opened the season with a hard-fought defeat last Sunday against No. 4 Northwestern, who secured a 13-12 win after the Wildcats broke a 12-12 tie with 16.7 seconds remaining in the game. Despite the losing effort, the team found plenty of positives from their play on the field.
Duke at North Carolina, Syracuse at Pitt and a possible snow day this week, what more can an ACC basketball fan ask for? Answer: If all four of those teams could somehow lose.
The ACC tabbed four Virginia athletes for weekly awards Tuesday. Honorees included redshirt junior wrestler Joe Spisak, sophomore lacrosse player James Pannell, junior JB Kolod of the men’s swim and dive team and freshman swimmer Leah Smith.
Valentine’s Day is fast approaching. The candy section at Kroger has taken a turn for the heart-shaped; the cheesy jewelry ads are out in full force, and the less festive of us just want to fast forward through the whole ordeal. But this year, that’s not an option. Valentine’s Day and the week leading up to it coincide with events much bigger than chocolate hearts.
With four ACC games in eight days, it hasn’t been easy for Virginia. The Cavaliers have had to grind out wins much more than they did earlier in conference play. They have not had the luxury of lofty first-half leads, forcing them to rely on their depth to outlast teams and pull away in the second half.
Behind 19 points from senior guard Joe Harris, the No. 17 Virginia men’s basketball team topped rival Maryland 61-53 Monday night.
Virginia sent its 20 seniors off with a bang Saturday as the Cavaliers, in front of their home crowd for the first time in three months, dominated the visiting Panthers. The No. 7 Virginia women’s swim team defeated Pittsburgh, 189-103, while the No. 20 Virginia men’s team also secured the win, 179-112. Virginia gained victories in 31 of the meet’s 32 events, making it the program’s most dominant win of the ACC season.
The No. 14 Virginia women’s tennis team finished 2-1 at the highly competitive Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Team Indoor Championship in Charlottesville this weekend. The Cavaliers (5-1) suffered their first loss of the season Friday, falling to second-ranked University of Florida in a close 4-2 match. Shaking off the loss, Virginia dominated the rest of the weekend, blanking No. 7 Texas A&M 4-0 Saturday and defeating No. 12 Alabama 4-1 to end its tournament appearance Sunday.
Virginia softball kicked off its season at the South Carolina Upstate Classic in Spartanburg, S.C. this weekend. The Cavaliers (1-4) struggled around the board, and fell by mercy rule in the tournament’s final two games.
The University of Richmond played its first-ever NCAA Division I men’s lacrosse game Saturday, as 4,249 fans packed Robins Stadium in Richmond, Va. to watch the Spiders host No. 7 Virginia. The crowd was representative of the sport’s rapid growth in the United States in recent years.
No. 12 Virginia wrestling claimed two more ACC dual wins this weekend at home against North Carolina, 21-9, and on the road against North Carolina State, 25-7. The Cavaliers (17-3, 5-1 ACC) won 14 of the weekend’s 20 bouts to conclude conference action.
In their first game of the 2014 season, No. 8 Virginia women’s lacrosse team traveled to Atlanta, Ga. to face No. 4 Northwestern on a neutral field. The Cavaliers fell just short of avenging last season’s loss to the Wildcats, as Northwestern scored the go-ahead goal with 16.7 seconds remaining and held on for a thrilling 13-12 win.
Virginia track and field concluded a weekend of stiff competition at the “Doc” Hale Virginia Tech Elite Meet, competing among a field including two ranked men’s teams and three top-10 women’s teams. The meet featured several strong performances from Cavalier athletes, including a record-breaking effort in the 200-meter dash by junior Jordan Lavender.
The seventh-ranked Virginia men’s lacrosse team spoiled the Richmond Spiders’ inaugural Division I game Saturday by way of a tight 13-12 victory. With the victory, the Cavaliers remained undefeated, moving to 2-0 on the season.
A huge second-half run helped the No. 20 Virginia men’s basketball team avoid a disappointing road loss against Georgia Tech. Down 44-42 with just less than 10 minutes to play, the Cavaliers outscored the Yellow Jackets 22-1 down the stretch to take a 64-45 win.
The No. 7 Virginia men’s lacrosse team opened the 2014 season with an exhilarating overtime victory against No. 12 Loyola Thursday night at Klöckner Stadium. After watching a 12-4 lead evaporate in the fourth quarter, Virginia needed a goal with less than one second remaining to force overtime and squeeze out a win.
The Virginia women’s basketball team travelled to Chestnut Hill, Mass. for Thursday night’s matchup against Boston College having won four of five games. The Cavaliers, however, stumbled against the struggling Eagles, losing 69-65 after blowing a 15-point second half lead and coming up just short in a last-minute comeback.
Extensive previews for Virginia’s men’s and women’s lacrosse and softball events this weekend ran in Thursday’s edition of The Cavalier Daily and remain available online.
The Virginia women’s lacrosse team opens up their season this weekend against Northwestern as they try to make another appearance in the NCAA tournament.
