This weekend, the Cavaliers continued their stellar start.
“Our other guys showed no urgency,” Garland said. “The ACC tournament is right around the corner. Our staff will do everything we can from now until then to help our guys improve.”
The new lineup struggled, resulting in a 16th-place finish out of 17 teams with no players cracking the top 40 on the leaderboard.
It was a stark contrast to last year's showing, where the team's lone highlight was a memorable hole-in-one. This time, Virginia dominated from wire to wire, shattering personal bests and rewriting the record books.
The question is not whether Virginia can win these games, but whether this young team has learned enough from their opening weekend to ensure they will.
Virginia's retooled pitching staff only took one loss and added plenty in the offseason.
“They're special. But what's frustrating to watch is [Stanford] executed exactly their game plan like we have game plans all week,” Garland said. “But it doesn't matter what we know. They got to actually do it.”
Virginia, now 8-4 overall and 0-1 in the ACC, has faced more consecutive road matches than any other winter sports team, a grueling reality caused by the Memorial Gymnasium renovations.
The Cavaliers will need to find ways to turn their narrow losses into wins as they enter arguably the most important stretch of the season. Their next five duals will all be conference matches, with three taking place at home.
Virginia wrestling traveled to Raleigh, N.C., Friday to conclude a lengthy stretch of road matches with its first ACC dual of the season against No. 9 NC State.
