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Monday Motivation: Leap Year Edition

An extra day to bask in Virginia winning. Yes, please!

Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Another exciting week in the books for Virginia fans as the sun (finally) came out, temps made lacrosse actually a spring sport, and the Hoos had another great showing for the ESPN Gameday crew.

Rapid Fire

-Congratulations to Virginia Wrestling Assistant Coach Keith Gavin!

-Football season tickets are on sale today. Get some and get to Scott Stadium in the fall!

-Former Virginia cornerback, Maurice Canady, is participating in the NFL Combine today. In a touching gesture, Canady honored fallen Prince William County Police Officer, Ashley Guindon, who was tragically killed responding to a domestic dispute on her first day of patrols.

Canady has performed well so far in the combine:

-No.18 Women's Tennis picked up two wins Sunday with a 6-1 victory over Louisville and a 7-0 blanking of Norfolk State. The Hoos are now 7-3 overall and 3-0 in the ACC. Next up, Virginia hosts two ACC foes with No.6 North Carolina and No.34 Clemson coming to town.

-No.14 Men's Lacrosse bounced back from a head-scratching mid-week loss to High Point to take down Penn 15-10 in front of over 1,500 fans on Sunday. James Pannell and Ryan Lukacovic led the way with three goals each, and AJ Fish, Zed Williams, Ryan Conrad, and Mike D'Amario all had two goals apiece. Matt Emery added the last score. Defensively, Virginia forced eight turnovers and goalie Matt Barrett had 12 saves. The Hoos went 19-27 from the faceoff X, and long stick midfielder Michael Howard nabbed seven ground balls in the game.

Virginia opens their ACC slate with No.3 Syracuse on Friday at home. The game is at 5:30pm and will be televised by ESPNU.

-Women's Lacrosse, currently ranked No.7, picked up two wins this week. First, the Hoos took down Richmond 18-12 behind 56% shooting and getting goals from six different players. Besser Dyson, Posey Valis, and Kelly Reese all had four goals in the game.

Next, the Hoos upset then No.3 Penn State on Saturday in Charlottesville, 16-13. The Cavaliers got another outstanding performance in goal from Tewaaraton watch list member Rachel Vander Kolk, who finished with 11 saves against the Nittany Lions. Third year Kelly Reese had another high-scoring affair, this time scoring a career-high five goals.

Virginia has a tough week coming up with home games against William and Mary and No.2 Syracuse.

Inside Lacrosse has made Kelly Reese a finalist for their Player of the Week. Go vote!

-Baseball had a dominating win over VMI midweek, winning 18-1. Pavin Smith continued his hot hitting with a grand slam accounting for four of his career-high six RBIs. First years accounted for 11 of Virginia's 18 hits. An 11 run third inning blew the game wide open.

Next, Virginia has one game against William and Mary before welcoming Monmouth for a three game series this weekend that will hopefully make the series loss to ECU this past weekend a distant memory.

-Women's Basketball did Senior Day in style, defeating North Carolina 72-68 behind Mikayla Venson's 23 points and fourth year Faith Randolph's 11 points. Venson hit three threes in the game, giving her 64 on the season, a new Virginia record.

The Hoos will be the No.9 seed in the ACC tournament and will face Duke on Wednesday at 2pm. Game will be televised on Regional Sports Nets.

HOO-mongous Win

-Clearly this is going to be Gameday.

Fans arrived early, like two and a half days early, to show their support for the Wahoos on ESPN Gameday's second trip to Charlottesville in as many years.

Well, Virginia fans crushed it again, leading to more praise from the show's host, Rece Davis.

Oh, and Andrew Board banked in his first attempt at the $18,000 half court shot.

If the morning was fun, the night was epic.

No.3 Virginia welcomed No.7 North Carolina in a game that was crucial to seeding for the ACC and NCAA tournament, and their 79-74 victory kept the Hoos in the hunt for their third straight regular season ACC title.

Malcolm Brogdon was ready.

Brogdon led the way with 26 points on 9-of-16 shooting and Anthony Gill and London Perrantes contributed 15 and 12 respectively. Defensively, the Hoos held North Carolina to just two fast break points and limited Brice Johnson with just 12 points and seven rebounds (and five turnovers!) in the game.

Brogdon is now widely considered the front runner for ACC Player of the Year (unless you're Seth Davis) after taking over down the stretch.

Next, Virginia heads to Clemson on Tuesday and then hosts Louisville for the final home game of the season (HOW IS IT TIME ALREADY?!)

Go Hoos!