Charlottesville, VA (cvillerightnow.com): The penultimate week of the Winter Sports Season is upon us.  Last week, we saw the home finale of the regular season for the Cavalier Women’s Basketball team, the men’s team battling the projected #1 prospect of the NBA Draft, Todd Desorbo’s Swim and Dive team setting yet more records at the ACC Championships in Greensboro, and the track and field squads splitting up and showing out once more as outdoor season looms.  Plus, on the spring sports side, Baseball battled a frigid weekend in Texas, while Softball took on a bevy of opponents from the Northeast here in Charlottesville.  This is your Wahoo Rundown! 

 Ron Sanchez and his men had a pair of dates with the Blue Bloods of the ACC (the Blue Devils of Duke, and Tar Heels of UNC) bookending the week.  Beating a Duke that has already locked up the ACC title, despite a packed John Paul Jones Arena, was a tall order, and it proved too much for the Hoos to handle.  Cooper Flagg and company ran roughshod on offense, and saw the Hoos off comfortably, 80-62.  Find a full report HERE, but UVA needed to refresh after a stagnant offensive performance starting on Saturday against UNC.  The Heels, despite a messy season, also proved to be too difficult of an opponent for UVA, and the Men’s squad dropped another, 81-66 in Chapel Hill, full report HERE. Wake Forest and #18 Clemson await this week, on Wednesday and Saturday respectively.  Despite an 85-73 loss to NC State last time, the Deacons are 19-8 on the year sitting at fifth in the Conference.  Meanwhile, Clemson is second behind only Duke, and after they knocked off the Devils earlier this month, the Tigers are on a three-game win streak, seeing off UNC and Florida State in the other two games since their upset of the conference champs-elect.  They are 22-5 on the season.     

 Coach Mox and the Cavalier Women entered play this week 13-13 with the two California teams of the ACC set to take them on.  Thursday would see a difficult test at home against the California Golden Bears, and last night, the Stanford Cardinal tried their luck.  The game against California was filled with promise, like a number of contests have for the Hoos this year, entering the interval with a lead.  Out of the locker room though, the Bears chipped away at the lead, got back in the game, and despite the Hoos waking back up, late shots made by the visitors buried the Hoos 76-70.   The Cavalier Women got back on form quickly on Sunday night though, putting up 25 in the first quarter, and 28 in the third, blowing the Cardinal out 89-69, full report HERE.  Two games remain on the schedule, on the road at SMU on Thursday at 8 and #9 UNC on Sunday at 2pm.  The Mustangs are 10-18 this year, dropping their last game to Boston College 87-78.  UNC is 25-4 after a 79-75 victory against Louisville and will face #11 Duke on Thursday before facing Virginia.   

The Cavalier Swim and Dive team put up an incredible points total at the ACC championships in Greensboro on Saturday.  After several records were set by the top-ranked Cavalier Women, report HERE, they sealed their sixth consecutive conference title with a whopping 1451.5, besting Stanford by 300 points in second place.  They won 13 events over the course of the full meet, including four golds on the final day of the meet, one relay and three individuals.  Their winners were Claire Curzan in the 200 Backstroke, Gretchen Walsh in the 100 Freestyle, and Alex Walsh in the 200 Breaststroke.   A wonderful finish to the 2024-25 season!  The men’s team finished 8th in the final standings.  NCAA championships will be held in Washington at the end of March.   

Wrestling finished the regular season on Friday on the road against #18 Pittsburgh.  And though the Panthers haven’t been on the best run of form, they were still too much for the Hoos.  Wins from Jack Gioffre, Nick Hamilton, Gable Porter, and Dylan Cedeno earned 13 points for the Hoos, but they needed 24 to beat Pitt on the Panthers’ home mats.  It finished 23-13 Pitt, causing the Hoos to fall to 6-6 on the year.   

Track and Field was at the Arkansas Qualifier and the Virginia Tech challenge over the weekend, and both the Men’s and Women’s team performed high above expectations.  The highlights of the weekend though came in the DMR (Distance Medley) relay in Arkansas. The team of Wes Porter, Conor Murphy, Alex Sherman and Gary Martin finished with a time of 9:14.19, that is the fastest time in the world for that race on a 200-meter track. The team beat both the NCAA record and the facility record, and Arkansas Qualifier meet record. It will be the ACC Indoor Championships up next for the TFXC teams, and those will be the first through third of March this weekend in Louisville.   

Women’s Tennis welcomed #19 Clemson and Georgia Tech on Friday and Sunday at the Boar’s Head Indoor Courts this weekend and opened the ACC campaign two strong results.  On Friday, the two doubles pairs of Sara Ziodato with Meggie Navarro, and Martina Genis Salas with Annabelle Xu, took the lead after an initial win for Clemson going into singles play.  Ziodato, Genis Salas, and Melodie Collard then won three matches in a row to seal the deal on UVA’s fifth ranked win of the year.  On Sunday, Elaine Chervinsky with Melodie Collard, along with Genis Salas and Xu once again took the lead that would not be relinquished.  The Jackets got two straight victories to start Singles play, but once again, turned it around thanks to Ziodato, Xu, and Blanca Pico Navarro, to bring the Hoos to a record of 10-2.  SMU awaits this Friday on the road at 2:00 PM.  They are 7-5 after a 4-0 win against Incarnate Word last Sunday.   

Both Lacrosse teams were in action over the weekend with the Women at Klockner Stadium, and the Men on the road.  Head Coach Sonia LaMonica’s unit had their ACC opener against Stanford on Saturday but fell to red-hot Cardinal team 13-7.   Madison Alaimo and Jenna Dinardo charged up the offense, and it the scoring bug spread to Addi Foster, Kate Miller, Abby Manalan g, and Lauren Pederson.  That was where the good news ended though, with ten penalties awarded against the Hoos and some defensive woes, the Hoos could not find a way back into the game.  The team will have an opportunity for a rebound on Wednesday vs Navy beginning at 5:00 PM from the friendly confines of Klockner Stadium.   

Following a tough defeat against Richmond, the Men’s team entered Tuesday looking for a rebound against the High Point Panthers.  The Hoos delivered on a blustery night at Klockner thanks to a career night from Ryan Colsey, who put up nine points, seven goals with two assists, in a 17-8 trouncing of their opponents.  That provided Lars Tiffany’s unit with some significant momentum going into Saturday against a tough Ohio State team on the road.   They parleyed the momentum into an opening goal, along with four more scores scattered across four quarters.  The offense, against stalwart Buckeye defense and goalkeeping, could not get going.  Caleb Fyock, Ohio State’s keeper, stopped 12 shots from the Wahoos over the course of the match.  It all ended 14-5 in favor of Ohio State, dropping UVA to 2-2.  They will take on the Blue Jays of Johns Hopkins next with the Doyle Smith Cup up for grabs.  The Jays fell to UNC last night out after the Heels pulled off a late comeback to win 13-12 last time out, causing JHU to fall to 4-1.   

Softball ended their first invitational weekend strong with a run rule victory over Saint Francis.  Hosting last weekend in Charlottesville, after scheduling delays thanks to inclement weather, the Hoos picked up right where they left off.  Saturday saw the Penn Quakers and Deleware Blue Hens both try and wipe the Hoos off their home diamond at Palmer Park, neither succeeded.  Virginia surrendered only a first inning sacrifice fly to Penn and put up five to win game one, 5-1.    The Hens also scored first with a homerun and rbi single from their catcher Sydney Shaffer, before Kailyn Jones got a manic sixth inning rally going with an infield single.  Kamyria Woody-Giggetts clever and quick baserunning made sure the inning would never end, before Kelly Ayer punctuated the scoring with a 2 run single.  When the dust cleared, the game ended 5-2 in UVA’s favor.  Ava Hodges took the mound for UVA on Sunday facing Penn again, going five strong innings, striking out four batters.  Jones added to her excellent weekend with a triple to right in the fifth, and the Hoos sealed a 3-0 win.  The Hoos then ended the weekend with a nine-run drubbing of Delaware that was called after six innings, finishing 11-2.  The end of the Mizuno Classic is set for 2:30 PM Monday against Longwood at Palmer Park in Charlottesville.  The Lancers swept a doubleheader against North Carolina Central at home in Farmville last time out and are 4-6 on the year.   

As for Baseball, the Hoos had their home opener cancelled during Wednesday’s snowstorm, before heading to Texas for what was supposed to be a much warmer weekend at the Round Rock Classic.  However, the cold followed them there, taking the field against Oregon State on Friday night in 40-degree air.  The Beavers entered play 4-0 and would leave it 5-0 after scoring 7 unanswered against a bevy of Wahoo pitchers who could not keep the OSU offense quiet.  Joe Colucci took the loss, and the Hoos fell 7-2.  They got back to winning ways quickly way late inning heroics against the Minnesota Golden Gophers, including a big home run from Aidan Teel, getting the W with a 4-2 triumph.  On Sunday, Tomas Valincius proved he was here to stay in the Virginia rotation, striking out six batters in six innings of work while surrendering three runs. Luke Hanson and Trey Wells provided the big hits, but a marathon game would not end in the Hoos’ favor.  Matt Lanzendorfer took the loss in an 12th inning defeat to the Oklahoma Sooners, 5-4.  Up next, the Keydets of VMI will be the Hoos’ opponents for their home opener.  The SOCON outfit is 7-0, sweeping Coppin State this past weekend, putting up at least 13 runs each time.  They have swept 70 bases already in the young campaign.  The game will be broadcast live on WINA beginning at 2:45 PM for Pregame coverage.   

Wrapping up the rundown, both squash teams were in action this weekend to close their regular season slate.  In a battle of #3 vs #6, the Women’s team fell 8-1 to the Tigers, while the men competed #5 vs #2, and again the higher rank won out, seeing the Hoos fall 8-1.  The Men’s team finished 10-4, while the Womne’s team put up a record of 9-5.  Both teams head to the CSA Team Championships in Philadelphia this weekend.   That concludes your Wahoo Rundown, enjoy this week’s action, see you on Monday, and go Hoos!