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.”
For Pollard, Gracia’s loudest trait is not exit velocity or bat speed — it’s the poise. He is as advanced between the ears as he is between the lines.
The Virginia men’s week in Georgia was one of individual brilliance undermined by a lack of depth throughout the roster. The Cavaliers’ top three point scorers — King, Williamson and Heilman — each made A-finals and medaled, sitting among the ACC’s elite.
Curzan, Moesch, Canny and Curtis closed out the championships by obliterating Virginia’s previous NCAA record of 3:05.84 with a 3:05.30 — the old mark swum by alumnae and Virginia legends Maxine Parker, Kate Douglass and Gretchen and Alex Walsh.
That tale of two Georgia Tech results, separated by five weeks, offer a verdict on where these two programs stand heading into Tuesday night's rematch at John Paul Jones Arena.
As a whole, the Cavaliers outshot Notre Dame by a 26-15 margin. Although 26 shots signaled a successful attacking outing, allowing just 15 shots from a top-five team might be even more impressive.
This weekend, the Cavaliers continued their stellar start.
