Charlottesville, VA (cvillerightnow.com): We are nearing the halfway point of the spring sports season.  Last week, Softball had a huge comeback win, Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse took care of business, as did both Tennis teams, the outdoor track season began, and Baseball suffered a tough result against another ACC opponent.  It’s Monday, time for your Wahoo Rundown! 

First however, a hearty salute to the UVA Women’s Swim and Dive team that just won their fifth consecutive NCAA championship in Federal Way, Washington.  The team, which won six individual and four relay events, as well as six NCAA and American records, won the title by 127 points.  Congratulations!

UVA TFXC began its outdoor season fresh off stellar finishes at the NCAA Indoor Championships last week.  The Women’s squad began their season winning 16 of 18 events in the Virginia opener.  The Men also started strong, winning nine events of the 18.  This week, Thursday through Saturday, TFXC heads to the 2025 Raleigh Relays.    

Eden Bingham already had a perfect game under her belt this year, and Tuesday against George Mason, she put on another virtuosic pitching performance against the George Mason Patriots, striking out 10 batters in a complete game victory for the Hoos, 1-0.  The lone run of the game came from a Kelly Ayer single that scored Jade Hylton from second base.  That set up the Cavaliers for a challenging yet thrilling ACC series against a California Golden Bears team with a near-identical record to their own.  The Bears plated three in the first three innings of game one, before the Hoos loaded the bases up for MC Eaton, who barreled it up and blasted the ball clean out of Palmer Park to bring the score to 7-3 UVA.  Cal did manage to fight their way back into the game and brought their deficit down to one before Bingham entered in relief to save the game for Savannah Henley, who got the win after striking out four in four innings of work.  In game two, the Hoos once again fell behind in the early innings, surrendering five runs to begin the game and scoring none of their own.  However, Virginia brought resilience to the field with them on Saturday, striking for two runs in the third, and one more in the fifth, to bring the score to within two going into the seventh inning.  Veteran third baseman Macee Eaton tied the game with her team’s backs against the wall by smacking a two-run home run over the left field wall.  The game went into extras, and in the bottom of the eighth, Jade Hylton had two runners on with a chance to win the game.  She did not miss, shooting an RBI single into shallow left to walk the Bears off 6-5.  Going into game three, the Cavalier pitching staff had worked quite a bit throughout the series, and after a big win earlier in the week and a save in the series, Eden Bingham was hit around, beaten for seven runs in 2.1 innings of work.  The Virginia bullpen was struck for five more runs, and its offense only managed three in the game during a losing effort for the home team, 12-3 in favor of California.  With no midweek contest ahead, the Hoos will rest up for a battle next weekend with the 13-19 Notre Dame Fighting Irish.   The Irish, coming off a sweep at Stanford last time out, will be the Hoos opponents for a three-game road set that begins Friday at 6:00 PM, continues Saturday at 1:00 PM, and ends Sunday at noon.   

Virginia Baseball, after a disastrous week last week, Virginia Baseball now stands at 12-10 and will hit the road to Lynchburg on Tuesday with a four-game losing streak.   On Tuesday, the Hoos welcomed a talented Richmond Spiders team that entered play 18-2 on the year, one off to a strong start in the A10.  Full report HERE, but in a familiar tale for Virgina Baseball this year, the pitching staff struggled to find the zone and get the swing and miss against Richmond’s talented hitting core, and the Hoos’ own offense only managed a pair of runs as their struggle with leaving runners on base and finding the big hit continued.  The game ended 6-2 with an upset victory for the Spiders.  The Blue Devils of Duke came to Disharoon Park this weekend in a similar state to the Hoos and looking to reverse their fortunes.  That is exactly what the visitors got after jumping on Jay Woolfolk in the middle innings on Friday, Tomas Valincius on Saturday, and Evan Blanco on Sunday, with it all ending in a series sweep that saw the Blue Devils plate 35 runs against Virginia pitching (including a mercy rule victory on Saturday), while the Hoos managed 13 in response across three games, full report on the Sunday game HERE.  Looking ahead, the Hoos Tuesday opponents, the Flames of Liberty, are 17-8 coming off a series defeat against New Mexico State last time out, but they do have some impressive wins this year, including against #11 Wake Forest, Duke, and NC State.    Awaiting the Hoos when they get home on Thursday are the #20 Stanford Cardinal, who are 15-6 on the year having just suffered a sweep at home to the California Bears last week.  The Stanford games will begin at 7:00 PM Thursday, 6:00 PM Friday, and 1:00 PM Saturday.  You can listen to game one and two here on Cvillerightnow.com and pregame coverage will begin 15 minutes before first pitch.  

Virginia Men’s Lacrosse entered last week badly needing a victory, and for their trouble, they earned two.  Last Tuesday, they tangled with the Great Danes of UAlbany.  In that game, goalkeeper Matthew Nunes rose to the occasion, giving the Virginia attack a wide berth to win the game by making 14 saves on the Danes across four quarters.  That number allowed Nunes to take third on the all-time saves list in program history, behind only Tillman Johnson and Alex Rode.  Thanks to Nunes, Virginia finished the Danes off 12-9.  On Saturday afternoon it was the offense’s turn to wow the crowd, as three separate Cavaliers earned hattricks against the University of Utah on a beautifully sunny day at Klockner Stadium.  Truitt Sunderland, Griffin Schutz, and Ryan Colsey each found the cage three times against a porous Utah defense.  Nunes made 11 more saves at the other end to bring the Hoos’ record to 5-4 on the year, and the Hoos won the day 14-9.  Their next opponents will be the #10 Syracuse Orange, who are coming off a ranked triumph against #20 Colgate last time out 16-12.  The game begins at Klockner on Saturday at 1:00 PM, and you can listen along right here on Cvillerightnow.com 

#12 Women’s Lacrosse continued their mighty run of form as the business end of their season begins.  On Wednesday the Hoos won a ranked battle against the #14 JMU Dukes by a score of 14-11, full report HERE. On Saturday, they also were able to take to Klockner and get a huge in-conference victory over the Pitt Panthers 16-12.  The star of the afternoon was unquestionably Madison Alaimo, who notched career best nine points in the win (three goals and six assists).  The rest of the UVA attack was ready to make the most of the stellar service, with Jenna DiNardo and Addi Foster also earning hat-tricks.  Kate Galica also allowed the Hoos to put their stamp on the contest with a whopping 11 draw controls across four quarters of action.  The Hoos hit the road to battle #9 Syracuse next Saturday at noon.  The Orange are 7-4 after a thrilling one goal triumph against #20 Notre Dame, 12-11 last time out.   

Both Tennis teams were in against the two west coast ACC teams in California and Stanford over the weekend.  Neither squad was able to get the better of California, with Martina Genis Salas being the only point scorer for the women with a singles victory, the final score was 4-1.  The men notched two more points than the women but still fell short 4-3 to the Bears.  National #10 Rafael Dietrich, #21 Dylan Dietrich, and James Hopper were the points scorers for the Hoos.  Sunday was a new day however, and both teams comfortably handled the Stanford Cardinal.  The #2 Women’s team shut the Cardinal out, with #18 Elaine Chervinsky, Genis Salas, and Melodie Collard saw off the match after doubles wins by #40 Sara Ziodato/Meggie Navarro, and Chervinsky/Collard.  Henry von der Schulenburg and Nico Godsick got on the board for the Stanford men’s team but two more wins from Dietrich and Jodar, along with Keegan Rice and Jangjun Kim bringing the score to Virginia 4, Stanford 2.  For the #6 ranked men, Notre Dame awaits Friday at 5:00 PM and Louisville on Sunday at noon.  Both matches will be on the road.  As for the Women’s team, they will remain in Charlottesville to face Louisville at 4:00 PM Friday, and Notre Dame Sunday at 11:00 AM.   

 

That concludes your Wahoo Rundown, happy spring, and let’s go Hoos!