Charlottesville, VA (cvillerightnow.com): It was quite an excellent weekend to be a Wahoo fan!  Saturday alone saw one of the busiest days on Grounds yet seen in 2025.  Baseball, Women’s Tennis, and Men’s Lacrosse were in action on Saturday.  Softball, Men’s Tennis, and Track were carrying the banner on the road.  Here’s how it all went down this past weekend!   

After a painful sweep at home at the hands of the Duke Blue Devils, Baseball was in dire straits going into a midweek matchup against Liberty.  Bradley Hodges took the ball in Lynchburg on Tuesday night, and despite Jacob Ferrence going deep in the early innings, the Flames got the better of a struggling Wahoo bullpen.  The offence also failed to materialize against a shutdown effort by the Liberty pen, and the game ended 5-3 in favor of the home team.  Virginia dropped to 12-11, and the weekend outlook looked bleak against one of the better hitting teams in the nation in the Stanford Cardinal.  At the close however, Virginia clutched up and put in three of their best performances of the year in front of massive crowds enjoying wonderful weather, sweeping the Cardinal away with a total of 33 runs in a three-game sweep.  James Nunnalee and Harrison Didawick had the big hits in game one that kept the Hoos in front while the bullpen shut the door 11-8.  After going down 5-0 in game two, the trumpets sounded once more, and a three-hit day for freshman Chone James, a Chris Arroyo moonshot, along with a three-rbi day for Eric Becker charged the offense up to turn the battle on its head by a score of 13-7.  Finally in game three, six hits from middle infielders Becker and second baseman Henry Godbout kept the Hoos in the game despite Stanford’s best efforts to pull away.  It took 10 innings to settle the score, but after James Nunnalee reached base, a rocket to the gap from centerfielder Aiden Teel walked the Cardinal off and brought the Hoos a 9-8 victory, and the sweep.  The now 15-11 Hoos will tangle with the Old Dominion Monarchs Tuesday at 6:00 PM at Disharoon Park.  The Monarchs are 8-17 but have notched some impressive wins in close games against talented opponents, in Auburn and Southern Mississippi.   They took one from Appalachian State on the road this past weekend.    Pregame coverage starts at 5:45pm.  NC State comes to town for a weekend set, game one starts at 6:00pm, game two 3:00pm on Saturday, and game three at the same time Sunday.  Pregame coverage will start 15 minutes before gametime on WINA.  The Wolfpack are 18-10, barreled through the month of March winning 11 games in a row, but are coming off a series defeat against in-state rivals Duke this past weekend.  They will play UNCG before taking on Virginia.   

Meanwhile in South Bend, Indiana, #22 Virginia Softball could not find their way into a groove in their series with Notre Dame.  The Virginia offense put up three runs in the early innings of game one, with the home team keeping pace going into the fourth inning.  Eden Bingham, dominant all year, entered in relief but could not quash an Irish rally.  A sacrifice fly off Bingham was enough for the Irish to take the victory as neither team scored for the remainder of the game, final score Notre Dame 4, Irish 3.  Game two saw the Irish pelt the Hoos with singles and good baserunning.  Taking advantage of some unforced errors allowed the home team to pull out to a five-run lead they would never relinquish by the end of the game.   Game two ended Notre Dame 7, Virginia 2.    The beginning of game three looked more of the same, with an early homerun in the second inning surrendered by Virginia pitcher Ava Hodges.  However, Eden Bingham took the mound in relief and gave up three runs across eight innings of work, she also struck out eight batters in her effort to keep her team in the game which turned out to be quite successful.  Sarah Coon tied the game in the sixth with a single up the middle.  Macee Eaton gave Virginia the lead with a rocket in the eighth.  Two singles from Eaton and Kelly Ayer gave the Hoos the lead again in the ninth.  After another game-tying hit in the bottom of the ninth, Jade Hylton drove the dagger through Irish hearts with a two-run homer that brought the score to 6-4 Virginia. Bingham did the rest in the bottom of the tenth to allow the Hoos to nab one game in the series.  This week, the Hoos return home for a midweek tilt on Tuesday at 5:00pm, before they head to Tallahassee to face Florida State for three games this weekend.  Maryland is coming off a sweep at the hands of #7 UCLA, they are 15-18 this year.  NC State has won 33 games and are about to take a 13-game win-streak in a battle against #4 Florida this week. The NC State series gametime are Friday at 6:00pm, Saturday at 1:00pm, and Sunday at noon. 

Both the Men’s and Women’s lacrosse teams took on the Syracuse Orange over the weekend, and both had huge implications for the season ahead.  In New York, it was a battle of 11 vs 8 for the Women’s team.  The Hoos entered the fourth quarter of play having been hit hard by the Orange for most of the game.  They led by four, 12-8.  However, with their backs against the wall, a spectacular team effort tied the game while keeping the Syracuse attack quiet.  Madison Alaimo continued her unselfish play with three assists, Kate Galica and Jenna DiNardo were responsible for most of the scoring, but Abby Manalang came up big with two goals in the fourth quarter.  Unfortunately, the efforts were not enough to hold the Orange off for the full length of the quarter, as the final blow was struck late to allow the home team to survive the onslaught 13-12.  In a similar fashion, Lars Tiffany’s Virginia Men’s Lacrosse team got out to a 6-1 lead in the first half at Klockner Stadium, AND dominated one of the best faceoff men in the country, but a second half comeback from the Orange allowed the #8 team in the country to storm back into the ballgame and win by just two goals, 12-10.  It doesn’t get any easier for either team, with the Men’s team squaring off against new #8 North Carolina next Saturday on the road in Chapel Hill, while the Women’s team heads up to Richmond on Wednesday for a 4:00pm battle with the VCU Rams before coming home to Klockner to battle the Louisville Cardinals on Senior Day.  The UNC Men’s team is 7-2 just after their second loss of the year by one goal, 13-12 to the Army Black Knights.  The VCU Women’s team is 5-7 after an 18-9 loss to St. Bonaventure, and Louisville is also 5-7 after their worst loss of the year to #4 Stanford, 15-2 at home.   

 The Men’s Tennis team, ranked #5 in the nation going into last weekend, met Louisville and Notre Dame on Sunday and Friday respectively.  Proceedings looked bleak against Notre Dame after two doubles defeats and #21 Dylan Dietrich falling in the first singles match of the day.  Fortunately, the team’s breadth of talent is large, James Hopper put the first points on the board for Virginia.  Roy Horvitz got his first #4 singles win for the Hoos directly following.  Finally, Jangjun Kim and Mans Dahlberg each won their matches to carry the day for Virginia, finishing 4-3 UVA.   The boys handled Louisville a little easier with only Natan Rodrigues managing to get points on the board for the Cardinals, UVA improved to 15-4 in the all-time series against their conference rivals and finished their second match of the weekend 4-1 in their favor.  Georgia Tech and #22 Clemson await next weekend.  The Jackets are 12-8 after a 4-1 defeat to #1 Wake Forest, and the Tigers are 18-5 coming off of a 7-0 victory over the College of Charleston.  The Georgia Tech match is at 3:00pm Friday, while the Clemson match is at noon on Sunday.   

 Meanwhile in Charlottesville, #5 Women’s Tennis defended Virginia’s home court at Boar’s Head Resort against Louisville and Notre Dame respectively.  Louisville only managed to take one point off Virginia, with the Hoos, led by ranked players Annabelle Xu, Isabelle Lacy, and Elaine Chervinsky, winning out comfortably 4-1.  The Hoos extended their win streak to three matches on Sunday by handling Notre Dame by the same score.  After getting blanked in doubles play, #24 Sara Ziodato, Martina Genis Salas, Melodie Collard, Lacy, Xu, and Chervinsky blanked the Irish in singles play.  When the fans looked up, the score said 4-1 Virginia.  The team hits the road next weekend for a Friday battle in Massachusetts against Boston College at 3:00pm, and a Sunday salvo with Syracuse at 11:00am.  BC, coming off a 4-0 defeat to Georgia Tech, is 5-13 on the year.  Syracuse is 8-7 after losing 4-2 to Clemson, and they’ll face Virginia Tech before taking on Virginia.   

 As we wrap up our rundown for the week, both golf teams were in action early last week.  The #9 Men’s team was down in Williamsburg, and four Hoos finished in the top 15, Maxi Puregger, Sam O’Hara, Matthew Monastero, and Benny Haggin all had solid finishes at the Golden Horseshoe Intercollegiate.   The #13 Women’s team was in Tennessee at the Chattanooga Classic and their finish as a squad was superb, clocking in at +25, good for second place.  Jaclyn LaHa finished in second at 3 over, and Megan Propeck also cracked the top 10 at 4 over.  The regular season comes to an end for both teams next week at The Calusa Cup in Florida for the Men, and Wolfpack Matchplay for the Women.  Elsewhere, the #13 Virginia Rowing team got the season started right with five wins at the B1G-ACC Dual in Columbus Ohio over the weekend, getting the better of Ohio State and Michigan.  Rowing heads to California in two weeks’ time.  Finally, the Track and Field team gets set for action at the Colonial Relays in Williamsburg beginning on April 3rd after a great performance at the Raleigh Relays.  Annika Kelly, in her outdoor debut, broke the school record in the Hammer Throw with a 64.71m rocket.  That’s all the time we have for this one, support UVA athletics however you can!  Go Hoos!