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The clocks have sprung forward, and it's officially ACC Tournament Week. Let's get straight to it.
Rapid Fire
- The No.8 Women's Lacrosse team used a strong second half to defeat Harvard 13-9. Third year Kelly Boyd scored for the Wahoos and fourth year Liza Blue added two. Virginia scored the last five goals of the contest, three of which in that span were from Boyd. First year Rachel Vander Kolk recorded eight saves in cage for the Cavaliers. Next up, the Hoos host Loyola Maryland on Wednesday, 7pm.
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- Women's Tennis cruised this week, defeating Florida State 6-1 and George Washington 6-0 in a double header. Against Florida State, the No.5 Hoos grabbed the singles point before winning five of six singles matches. Top ranked Julia Elbaba easily won with a 6-1, 6-1 demolishing of No.102 Daneika Borthwick, clinching the team victory. Against George Washington, the Cavaliers won all six singles matches (there was no doubles point). Virginia is now 11-2 overall this season (4-0 ACC), and next plays No.15 Clemson on March 20th.
- Not to be outdone, the No.12 Men's Tennis team opened their ACC slate, taking wins over No.20 Wake Forest (5-2) and No.31 NC State (7-0). Against Wake, UVa. took the doubles point and got singles victories from Mitchell Frank, Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, Collin Altamirano, and J.C. Aragone. Against NC State, the Hoos played in their first outdoor match of the season and cruised to the easy win. Virginia swept the doubles matches and all of the singles matches to jump to a 9-2 record (2-0 ACC). They have a chance to knock off No.1 Oklahoma Tuesday.
- No.1 Baseball still haven't played in Charlottesville, but won their first ACC series of the year, taking two of three from Pittsburgh. The games were played in Cary, NC, as the Hoos once again had to escape the weather in Charlottesville. After dropping the first game, Virginia rebounded with a 2-1 victory before the bats came alive in a 10-3 slugfest to secure the series. In the final game of the series, Daniel Pinero had a career day with four hits, including a home run. Pitt jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but the Hoos responded with five runs in the bottom half of the first inning. Virginia will try once again for their home opener on Tuesday as they host Old Dominion at 4pm.
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HOO-mongous Wins
No.8 Men's Lacrosse grabbed a crucial victory, defeating No.7 Cornell 15-14 after withstanding a late five goal rally by the Big Red. Second year Matt Barrett was phenomenal in goal with 21 saves, improving the career high he set last week (20 saves) at Syracuse. The Cavalier defense hassled the Cornell attack all afternoon and contributed to them going just 14 of 58 shooting.
James Pannell went off to the tune of six goals and an assist, and midfielder Zed Williams scored one goal and dished out four assists. Long stick midfielder had the biggest groundball of the game, snagging the loose ball on the faceoff and allowing the Hoos to run out the clock to secure the victory. Virginia hosts St. Joseph's on Tuesday at 7pm, and welcomes Notre Dame for their first ACC game in Charlottesville on Saturday at noon.
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Men's Basketball clinched the ACC outright for the second straight year behind the craziest first half of basketball we've seen all season. After struggling mightily with the zone and turnovers, Virginia found themselves down 13-2 with about six minutes left in the half. Then the switch flipped and the Hoos scored 21 points to take a 23-20 lead in to half time. Brogdon had a dunk, Nolte hit a deeeep three, and Tobey had an alley-oop. Just re-read that.
The Hoos kept rolling in the second half, going on to win 59-47 and leading to some of the best post-game Tony Bennett moments.
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"We're back in the game. It's a dog fight."
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Virginia became the first non-North Carolina team to win back to back outright ACC titles, and the Cavaliers were well represented on this year's Media All-ACC team. Malcolm Brogdon was named to the first team, Justin Anderson the second, Anthony Gill the third, and London Perrantes earned an Honorable Mention. Coach Bennett pulled in his second consecutive Coach of the Year honor, and Darion Atkins was named the Defensive Player of the Year. Malcolm and Darion both made the All-Defensive team.
Congrats, guys!
Up next, the Hoos play the winner of Wednesday's Florida State/Clemson game at noon in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament. Fill out your STL #goacc Bingo Card and join in the fun!
In a major upset, No.18 Wrestling crushed the competition and won the ACC Championship, the fifth in program history. No one wrestler finished below fourth place, and six wrestlers made the finals. George DiCamillo (133 lbs.) and Nick Sulzer (165 lbs.) won individual ACC titles for their weight classes, the second for each of them. Seven wrestlers qualified for the NCAAs with their performances. The Hoos finished with 85.5 points, PItt in second with 71.0, and Virginia Tech in third with 59.5. The ACC title is the second for 2014-2015, with wrestling joining the Women's Swimming and Diving team.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Congratulations to the 2015 ACC Champions, the <a href="https://twitter.com/UVAWrestling">@UVAWrestling</a> Cavaliers! <a href="http://t.co/AQndNaVu4c">pic.twitter.com/AQndNaVu4c</a></p>— ACC Wrestling (@ACCWrestling) <a href="https://twitter.com/ACCWrestling/status/574737714689490945">March 9, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Well done, guys!
Go Hoos!