Monday Motivation: Virginia Baseball dominates MLB postseason

There was no football this weekend, and for the first time in a long time, I missed it. Lots of other action took place around the Wahoo sports world, however, so let’s get to it!

Rapid Fire

-The #3 Virginia Field Hockey team is on fire and picked up two wins this past week to bring their overall season record to 10-1 (3-0 ACC). They now have won nine straight games, and played four straight shutout matches.

On Monday, the Hoos dominated Pacific to the tune of 6-0.

In their second game of the week, Virginia took a little longer to find the net against #13 Wake Forest. First year Rachel Robinson put the good guys on the board 56 minutes into the game, and Tara Vittese (SHOCKER) gave the Hoos a little breathing room with under three minutes to play to secure the 2-0 victory.

Vittese now has 21 goals and 54 points for the season, both of which lead the NCAA.

Next up, the Hoos have a HUGE game at home against #5 North Carolina on Friday (October 6) at 5pm. Get out and get loud!

-It’s baseball postseason time, so this week let’s give a round of applause to the seven UVA Baseball alumni who will be playing in October!

From left to right: Kyle Crockett (Cleveland), Sean Doolittle (Washington), Derek Fisher (Houston), Brandon Guyer (Cleveland), Mark Reynolds (Colorado), Chris Taylor (Los Angeles), Ryan Zimmerman (Washington).

-#15 Women’s Soccer only had one game this week, but did the scoring of three games as they unleashed the fury on Pitt in a 7-0 victory.

Veronica Latsko recorded a hat trick - her first goals of the season - as the Hoos cruised against the ACC foe. Latsko, a Pittsburgh native, also added two assists for a total of eight points in the game, which matches the points in a single game record for the Hoos. First year Taryn Torres kept her hot streak going as she scored two goals and became the Hoos’ leading goal scorer this season with five.

The Hoos are now 7-3-2 (2-1-1 ACC) on the season and will host Notre Dame Thursday at 7pm.

-SOON.

-Micah Kiser is up for so many (deserved) awards, I’m losing track. This one is for Jason Witten’s Collegiate Man of the Year Award.

This one is for the Campbell Trophy.

Team of the Week

The #10 Men’s Soccer team is an impressive 6-1-2 (1-1-2 ACC), with their only loss coming to #7 North Carolina in a 2-1 game. This past week, the Hoos picked up a dramatic 2-1 walk-off (yes, walk-off!) win over Davidson and played to a 1-1 tie with #7 Notre Dame on the road.

First, against Davidson. How do you walk-off in soccer? Like this:

In their second game of the week, the Hoos traveled to #7 Notre Dame and played a hard-fought battle. Pablo Aguilar got Virginia on the board first in the 32nd minute, but the Irish found an equalizer in the 51st.

Next up, the Hoos host Portland tonight at 7pm.

Wahoo of the Week

Congratulations to Doug Knight, former UVA lacrosse superstar, who was inducted into the US Lacrosse Hall of Fame. Virginia coaching legend - and most interesting man in the world - Dom Starsia was on hand to present his former player his plaque.

Doug Knight still holds the Virginia record for career goals (165), goals in a season (56), and points in a season (86) and is second in career points (249). Knight averaged 4.15 points (2.75 goals) per game over his career and is considered one of the most prolific scorers in the game. He played for Coach Starsia from 1994-1997, and held the career points record until Steele Stanwick broke it during his fourth year in 2012 (although Stanwick played nine more games in his career).

Knight used to hold the top two positions for goals scored in a season with 56 (1996) and 52 (1995), but Chris Bocklet’s 53 goal season in 2010 bumped Knight to first and third (again, Bocklet had three more games than Knight).

Coach Starsia, a Hall of Famer himself, had some kind words about his former player at the event:

“Doug was an irreverent, emotional, athletic, fearless player. It was about the sense of competition and playing really hard. For him, what was important was when the lights went on for the game. We couldn’t ask of him in practice what we were getting from him in games. He played so hard, and such a physical style of lacrosse, that he would not have been able to hold up.”

Knight was inducted alongside Leslie Blankin Lane, Jim McDonald, Laurette Payette, Casey Powell, Jill Johnson Redfern, Brooks Sweet, Robyn Nye Wood, and Don Zimmerman.

Hall of Fame and StLMMWotW in the same week? Big time.

Enjoy your week, Virginia fans. Go Hoos.