In late November, the Virginia women's basketball team gave Joanne Boyle a signature win much earlier in her first year at the helm than most might have expected. The Cavaliers, still clearly adjusting to their new team makeup, downed then-#3 Tennessee 69-64 in overtime. Suddenly things looked promising for a program dealing with its first coaching change in more than three decades.

Unfortunately, that wasn't a trend that would continue. Since then, Virginia has faced six ranked opponents - including #24 Georgia Tech this past Thursday - and they have lost all six games. The Cavaliers are 14-1 against unranked opponents and 1-6 against teams in the top 25. The margin of loss in those six games? From most recent to earliest: 10, 3, 7, 5 (2OT), 11, 26. In only one game - that 26 point loss to Texas in Hawaii - was Virginia actually out of the contest before the final minutes. That reads like a team that just barely can't get over the hump.

This past Thursday, the Cavaliers had their third road game of the season against a ranked team. They traveled to Atlanta to face the Yellow Jackets (or, more accurately, they traveled to Duluth, since Georgia Tech is without a permanent home this season while their new arena is being built) and came away with a 63-53 loss at the hands of the Rambling Wreck.

The story of that game - in much the same way as free throws were the story in the loss to #11 Miami - was rebounding. The Yellow Jackets out-rebounded the Cavaliers by an astonishing 48-28 margin. Where it looks especially ugly, however, is on Virginia's defensive glass. The 'Hoos pulled down 16 defensive rebounds... while the Jackets snagged 20 offensive boards. It's not too often that a team loses the rebounding battle just on its defensive end. It's also not too often that a team can win when putting themselves in that situation.

Senior Ariana Moorer was the lone Cavalier in double figures with 14 points. Telia McCall, Ataira Franklin and Lexie Gerson each added eight points. Simone Egwu added seven points while Chelsea Shine and Jazmin Pitts each tallied four to round out the scoring.

Virginia's defense was once again a strong point in this game. Only #5 Duke has held the Yellow Jackets to fewer points during ACC play (The Blue Devils won that contest 79-62). Georgia Tech also had 20 turnovers, in large part due to 12 steals on the part of the Cavaliers.

Virginia (15-7, 3-5 ACC) returns home on Sunday to host Florida State (11-10, 3-4 ACC) with a 3:30pm tip-off. Hopefully the Cavaliers can continue their streak of taking down un-ranked ACC foes and get back on the winning side of the ledger.

Virginia has added another top coach to its list, hiring Dennis Hohenshelt to be the next Head Coach of the Volleyball program. Hohenshelt - whose name will undoubtedly cause me much aggravation over the coming years - replaces Lee Maes, who resigned after his fourth season at the helm.

Hohenshelt brings quite the pedigree with him to Virginia. Most recently he was Penn State's top assistant coach. For those of you unaware of how the volleyball world works, Penn State is one of the premier teams in the country. The Nittany Lions won four consecutive national titles from 2007-2010, all with Hohenshelt working with the team. This past season, PSU made it to the Sweet Sixteen before falling to eventual champion UCLA. The women's program had 199 wins to only 18 losses during Hohenshelt's time with them. That's very impressive.

In addition to working with the women's program at Penn State, he also spent ten years as an assistant to the men's program. Virginia does not currently have a men's program, nor does the ACC compete in men's volleyball as a conference.

On the surface, this appears to be a very solid hire. It continues the trend of Craig Littlepage and company bringing in rising head coaches or top assistant coaches to take over the helm of our non-revenue sports. Brian O'Connor (assistant at Notre Dame), Brian Boland (Head Coach at Indiana State), Steve Garland (assistant at Cornell). The list goes on. What Penn State accomplished with Hohenshelt helping guide them is unquestionable.

That said, one will have to forgive Virginia fans if they're a little hesitant to get too excited about the hire. Lee Maes arrived at Virginia with a similar set of credentials. He had been a top assistant at longtime volleyball power Nebraska before coming to Charlottesville. But that past performance never translated into successful seasons for the Wahoos at Memorial Gymnasium. Maes recruited well and several players received individual honors, but the Cavaliers couldn't make it to the top of the ACC.

Of course, its not at all fair to hold anything that happened during Maes's tenure against Hohenshelt. His credentials are superb and are exactly what I would expect Littlepage to find in a new leader for the program. So I, personally, am looking forward to seeing what he can do with the program.

Official Press Release from VirginiaSports.com

After a tough, surprising loss last Sunday to Virginia Tech, the Cavaliers had an opportunity to bounce back over a rebuilding Boston College Eagles team. Virginia came out on top last night, posting a 66-49 victory over the Eagles in a game that wasn't anywhere near as close.

While Virginia played better at both ends of the court during the first half, the Hoos just weren't able to shake off the pesky Eagles, who stuck around down eight at the half. When Joe Harris knocked down a three to open the second half, you just couldn't help but feel like Virginia was getting ready to put this one away, and that things were going to get a little bit crazy, a la Georgia Tech.

That didn't happen.

Instead, the Eagles fought and clawed (taloned?) their way back into the game, tying it up at 44 a piece with 10:29 to play in the game. It wasn't until then that the Cavaliers buckled down on defense and turned on the offense to close out the game on a 22-5 run.

Contributing to the run? That's right, it was previously MIA senior captain Sammy Zeglinski, who drained back to back threes -- including one from behind the NBA line -- causing Akil Mitchell to yell, "He's baaaaack!" Zeglinski, prior to this pair of threes, had been shooting 11.11% from beyond the arc and 17.24% overall since the Duke game.

Virginia will have a day off before going on to Game 2 of their 3 games, 6 days tour, at NC State. The Woflpack were victims to a heck of a blowout by Carolina tonight, falling 74-55 in a game that wasn't even that close.

What: No. 19/21 Virginia Cavaliers (15-3, 2-2 ACC) vs. Boston College Eagles (7-12, 2-3 ACC)

Time: 9:00 p.m.
Date: January 26, 2012
Place: John Paul Jones Arena
TV: ESPNU
Radio: Virginia Sports Radio Network

Spread: Virginia -18, Pomeroy: Virginia 65-45 (98%)
Last Meeting: Virginia 44, Virginia Tech 63
Last Time Out: Boston College 56, Wake Forest 71
Series: Virginia leads 7-6

BC Interruption previewed BC for us. We previewed UVa for BC Interruption.

Tonight's game plan is simple: just keep doing what you do. By all accounts, assuming Virginia plays anywhere close to how they've performed the last few games, the Hoos should come out with a win here. Yes, this includes the Virginia Tech game. Why? Because Boston College is simply not very good.

But of course, we are the team who sometimes has the tendency to play down to the level of their opponents. After all, Seattle -- the team that is still transitioning to Division I -- is the team that has scored the most on Virginia this season.

BC has won five of the past six matchups, including a season sweep last year. And unlike us, they actually have a center -- a 7-0 freshman, Dennis Clifford averages 10.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 0.9 blocks per game.

Aside from Clifford, though, BC runs a relatively small 3-guard lineup. Their starting point, Jordan Daniels, checks in at 5-8 (155 lbs), which really probably means 5-6 at best in real life. He, like three others of the starting five, is just a freshman. As a warning, if BC goes man-to-man tonight, be prepared for a lot of Jontel Evans shooting. It's not particularly often that Evans (5-11, 188 lbs) out-sizes the opposing point that much, so he might be feeling loose and fancy free tonight.

All three of Virginia's losses have been by just one possession, and in two of the three, the Hoos have had the final shot to win or tie. It should not come down to that tonight, but as a Virginia fan, you know better than to feel comfortable coming into this game.

Leave your pre-, in- and post-game thoughts here, and Go HOOS!

We went dark the last couple days because we were still trying to figure what, if anything, the Hokies did on Sunday to come away with the upset. I'm still at a loss. Frankly, Scott wasn't covered that well, he just factored himself out of the game. Sammy Z is still in some heck of a slump. When Bub Evans is your only player to knock down a three, things are...bizarre.

But all of that is behind us, as the Cavaliers look to bounce back with what should be an easy home game against Boston College tonight at 9:00 p.m. To help us scout the Eagles, our friends at BC Interruption asked if we wanted to do a Q&A. Never one to pass up on someone else writing my posts for me, I took them up on their offer.

When you get a chance, head over to BCI to see my answers to some of their questions.

StreakingtheLawn: Boston College is ...not having a good season. What has been the gem of the season? What has BC done right so far?

BCInterruption: No, Boston College is not having a good season. But I suppose that's to be expected when you lost every significant contributor from last year's 21-win team and have a roster filled with 9 freshmen and just one upperclassman. Tomorrow, the Eagles will start four freshmen and a junior transfer from Oregon (Matt Humphrey). The first player off the bench is a true freshman, and the rest of the bench is filled with other freshmen and sophomores.

There were literally no expectations for this program heading into the season, so it's hard to point to a single gem of the season. BC went just 5-9 in non-conference play this season, so any marquee wins were few and far between in the early season. Sad as it is to say, the gem of the season to date has probably been BC's two home wins in league play over Clemson and Virginia Tech. A lot of fans and observers of this team had the Eagles pegged to become the first ACC program ever to go 0-16 in a season, so it was nice to get the proverbial monkey off the back notching wins over the Tigers and Hokies.

STL: By now, presumably you know that Mike Scott is key to, well, everything for Virginia. How will the Eagles respond?

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The 15th-ranked Hoos were returning to JPJ after a two game road trip, its first home game of the semester. A packed and rowdy sellout crowd awaited, ready to explode. The rival Hokies, coming off an 0-4 start in the conference, were coming to town. All seemed to be set up for a Wahoo romp over Tech....but the Hoos chose this game to lay an egg, falling to their in-state rivals 47-45.

There isn't much to say about this one. To be fair, part of that is because, after all of the energy that went into this one, it still hurts to consider writing about the outcome. But a complex breakdown isn't really necessary to understand what went wrong. Rather, we could look at two simple numbers: 1 for 14 three point shooting and 14 of 22 from the free throw line.

Sammy Zeglinski has given us more cause for concern, as he continues to be streaky, especially in big games. After missing 5 threes against Duke on 0-8 shooting, he went 0 for 7 against Tech, clanking 6 three-pointers. Considering Sammy's great start to the year, it's tough to put a finger on what the issue is, but the team needs him to regain his confidence quickly. Tony Bennett reported that Zeglinski is still recovering from a bout with the flu, which likely affected his legs late in the game, but those missed shots really hurt.

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What: No. 15/17 Virginia Cavaliers (15-2, 2-1 ACC) vs. Virginia Tech Hokies (11-7, 0-4 ACC)

Time: 6:00 p.m.
Date: January 22, 2012
Place: John Paul Jones Arena
TV: ESPNU
Radio: Virginia Sports Radio Network

Spread: Virginia -8, Pomeroy: Virginia 60-51 (84%)
Last Meeting: Virginia 61, Virginia Tech 54
Last Time Out: Virginia Tech 68, North Carolina 82
Series: Virginia leads 81-52

In a game thread intro post that's strangely similar to the Georgia Tech game, I have to say it once again -- this game is a big one. Huge. In front of a sell-out crowd at John Paul Jones Arena, the Hoos will face the toughest 0-4 team in the country, and they'll do so without senior starting center Assane Sene, who will miss approximately six weeks due to a right ankle injury sustained Thursday night while playing Georgia Tech.

The Hokies gave Carolina a good first-half run, before, quite frankly, their talent ran out in the second half and Carolina, more athletic and better conditioned, ran away with the game. But the other three ACC losses were decided by four points or less -- 58-55 to Wake Forest, 63-59 to Florida State and 61-59 to Boston College. Granted, Wake and BC are clearly in the bottom half of the conference so far this season, but that Florida State loss is looking pretty quality right now (if there is such a thing as a quality loss), after FSU beat Carolina and Duke in the same week.

Bottom line: Hokies are hungry for a win, and they're too talented to remain winless in the conference. Virginia comes off a blowout victory at Georgia Tech, but will be trying a whole new rotation tonight without Sene, whose defensive presence will greatly be missed. I think Virginia, even with just eight able-bodied scholarship players, should be able to come out with a solid win, but this is the first sign of adversity that the Hoos will have faced this season. Let's see how they respond.

Leave your pre-, in- and post-game thoughts here, and Go HOOS!

After a long quiet period for the Virginia wrestlers, the team moved into the meat of its ACC schedule in style this weekend. With the two Carolina schools visiting, the Hoos had duel meets on back to back days and did not falter against lesser combination. The team took care of business in its 39-3 win over Duke and 24-10 victory against North Carolina.

Neither match ever figured to be much of a challenge for 22nd-ranked UVA, who improved to 6-1 on the year (3-1 ACC). Duke's wrestlers, winless in duel meets this year, have spent almost as much time on their backs as their counterparts on the basketball team. North Carolina's loss drops them to 2-10 on the year, with one of its wins coming against Duke in Chapel Hill. The teams have some familiarity this year; all competed at the Southern Scuffle in Chatanooga on New Years Day, with Virginia finishing in 6th out of 22 teams, UNC 12th, and Duke 19th.

Against Duke, UVA won 9 of 10 matches, most in dominating fashion. Six wins were by major decision (8 points or more), and two were by default. In fact, the Blue Devils finished the trip with just three takedowns. Virginia lost its opportunity to post a shutout when Sam MacGregor, wrestling in place of Nick Nelson, dropped a decision 8-2. However, Duke would drop its final 7 matches without threatening in any.

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