Charlottesville, VA (cvilleirightnow.com):What a week it was in UVA Athletics!  We saw the beginning of the spring sports season, two great wins for UVA Men’s Basketball, and wrestling blowing the roof off John Paul Jones Arena!  Let’s get into it! 

We begin on the hardwood, as did the week, with UVA Men’s Basketball on the road as underdogs against an NCAA tournament hopeful in the Pitt Panthers.  The Hoos were undeterred in the face of their opposition and pulled off an impressive upset against the hosts, headed home with an impressive 73-57 victory in what was the Hoos’ most impressive offensive performance of the year.  Find a full report on the game HERE.  A week of no game action and good practice after the win seemed to do Ron Sanchez’s men good.  On Saturday, they welcomed Tony Bennett home to John Paul Jones Arena to honor his career, capping the day off with another impressive victory over ACC foe Georgia Tech, 75-61, much to the delight of the Charlottesville crowd.  The full report on the game is HERE, on Saturday, the Hoos hit the road again to try for revenge in the Commonwealth Clash at Cassel Coliseum against the Hokies.  Tip off is at 2:00pm on Saturday on the Virginia Sports Radio Network.  VT won a squeaker against Notre Dame last time 65-63 to get back to winning ways after a tough run of form, putting them 11-13 overall.   

As for the Cavalier Women, they had two games at home last week against a lethal offense in the Florida State Seminoles, and a team seeking revenge in the Virginia Tech Hokies.  Coach Mox’s squad to the court against the Seminoles on Thursday night and ran into a buzzsaw. Though the Hoos’ heavy hitters were not kept quiet, the Noles jumped over the century mark with an unstoppable attack, and the scoreboard read 101-68 at the horn.  Full report HERE, and despite the defeat, the Hoos were confident going into Sunday afternoon and welcoming a Hokie squad they had already beaten at Cassel Coliseum.  However, the Hokies would get the last laugh in a blowout win 87-62, the Hoos just could not get into any rhythm.  Full report HERE, the good news though, is that almost a full week off looms ahead, so a reset before they head to Pittsburgh to take on the Panthers on Sunday afternoon at 2:00pm.  The Panthers knocked off the SMU Mustangs by 1 in their last game, 58-57 and will play the #2 ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Thursday before welcoming the Hoos.  Their 11-14 this year. 

Staying with winter sports, Virginia Wrestling, after some tough results in recent weeks, took the mats in front of a John Paul Jones Arena crowd on Friday night against the Duke Blue Devils.  In a day that honored the program and its successes in the past, every current member of the team did his job and did it well.  Keyveon Roller started strong at 125, and heavyweight Gabe Christenson finished with a flourish, pinning Duke’s Tyler O’Boyle to seal a 39-0 shutout of the struggling Devils to the delight of the Arena crowd.  Its a much needed injection of momentum for the Hoos, as they’ve got a big duel on Friday on the road against North Carolina, before coming home again to tackle American on Sunday.  Carolina earned a squeaker of a victory against a dangerous squad in the Pitt Panthers last time out, bringing their season record to 7-5, and American is 8-8 on the year after a 25-13 win against Brown.  As for the Hoos, they are now 5-4 on the year and 1-4 in ACC action.   

The Cavalier Invite took place over the weekend at the Aquatics and Fitness Center on Grounds and both the Women’s and Men’s Swim and Dive teams put up impressive numbers across multiple days of competition.  19 of 26 individual events were won by the Hoos.  Amidst those victories, four pool records were set by the Virginia Women.  Claire Curzan got the first in the 200 Free final (1:41.99), good for fourth-fastest in the NCAA, Gretchen Walsh set one with a 57.37 in the prelims of the 100m backstroke, Alex Walsh beat her sister’s time with a record of her own in the final to win the event with a 56.85, and Katie Grimes finished off the records with a 15:53.40 in the 1650 free that broke a 21 year old mark to win that event.  Next up for both teams will be the ACC championships in Greensboro beginning on February 18th.   

Both tennis teams were in action over the weekend.  The Women’s team remains in action at the ITA National Indoor Championships until tomorrow, we will have a full report on that action tomorrow when it ends.  As for the men though, they were on the road taking on Georgia Friday night.  Dylan Dietrich and Mans Dohlberg got the match off to a good start with a 6-2 win in doubles play, with James Hopper and Keegan Rice followed it up.  Niels Ratiu got the hosts’ first points knocking off Rice in singles action, before #44 ranked Rafael Jodar and the newly ranked #26 Dietrich, along with Jangjun Kim all won their battles to get the match out of reach for the Hoos, winning it as a team 5-2.  The #5 ranked Hoos will take the boost from the win into the Men’s Indoor Championships in Dallas beginning Friday.   

Spring sports began on the weekend too, both Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse were in action at Klockner Stadium over the weekend.  The Cavalier Women played first against Liberty on Friday afternoon putting 20 goals past Liberty in an offensive clinic.  In significantly worse weather on Saturday, the Men’s team battled Colgate in cold rain and won 19-9 to get Lars Tiffany’s first win of the 2025 season.  UVA battles Richmond next weekend at 11:30am on Grounds.  The Spiders got their first win last time out against Robert Morris to go to 1-1 on the year by a score of 17-2.  The Women will hit the road to take on #17 Princeton on Saturday at 12:00pm.   

The Cavalier Softball team also got their season started over the weekend, heading to Columbia, South Carolina for the Gamecock Invitational at the University of South Carolina.  The Gamecocks battled the Hoos twice to start it off and beat UVA both times on Thursday and Friday, 7-6 and 5-4 in 8 innings.  Fortunately for UVA, they won out to close the weekend, with victories over East Carolina (4-2), Toledo (4-1), and a run rule smashing of St. Francis (12-0) to wrap it up.  UVA heads to Clearwater Florida for the Shriners Children’s Clearwater Invitational to tangle with Kentucky, Auburn, #8 Texas A&M, San Diego State, and #5 UCLA.    They get started against Kentucky on Thursday at 2:00pm.   

The final four teams in action were both Squash and Track teams.  Squash was at the MASC Conference Championship in Lancaster, where both teams made their respective finals.  However, both fell at the final hurdle, the #6 ranked Women to #4 Stanford in the Gaynor Cup, 7-2, and the #5 ranked Men to #7 Drexel in the Holley Cup Final, in heartbreaking fashion, 5-4.  Speaking of hurdles, Men’s and Women’s Track and Field helped host the East Coast Invitational in Virginia Beach.  The men’s 4×400 relay team capped off a stellar display for both squads, Alex Sherman, Gage Gose, Max Russo and Evans White IV broke a UVA record in the event, 3:10.56, the fourth best time in the event.  Also notable was Gary Martin.  The Wahoos’ star distance runner finished the mile in 3:48.82, beating his PB by six seconds, good for fifth in the race. 

That concludes this marathon Wahoo Rundown for the week of February 10th!  As far as the remaining action this week, both Squash teams head to Ithaca to battle #8 and #9 Cornell, #14 Rochester, and William Smith.  Action there begins Saturday at 12:00pm.  Also, Men’s Golf is in action in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico for the Puerto Rico Classic until Wednesday.  Finally, Baseball gets its season underway Friday at 1:00pm, also from Puerto Rico.  The Hoos take on the Michigan Wolverines right here on Cvillerightnow.com from Ponce, Puerto Rico.  They take on Villanova and Rice on Saturday and Sunday, at 7:00pm and 4:00pm throughout the weekend.   

 

To wrap it up…Go HOOS!  See you  next week.