Positivity

A good friend and part-time contributor to this blog on Friday noted that I might be a little negative towards the UVa sports teams.  That’s not ENTIRELY true, but I have been calling them like I see them.  So in this weekends wrap up, I will say one nice thing about each team in an attempt to bring a little happiness to my fellow Hoo faithful.

Baseball

Positive Karma:  This was the first series win against the Pack since 2002.

If there is one thing that being in this business teaches you is that you are more wrong than right.  Well, in some crazy bizzaro-world, we were right a lot this week, and it started with baseball.  Game 1 rained out on Friday, the Hoos had to play a double header on Saturday.  And lo and behold, the game was actually on TV, for the first time this season.  But me and my big mouth wrote last Thursday that “If there is one game that Danny Hultzen is going to have problems in, it will be this one.” Well, he did.  The 6th inning was Danny’s undoing, as he went 7.1IP, 11 H, 6R, 2 ER, 1 B, 5 K and the Hoos just couldn’t get the offense going in a 6-2 loss.  But no worries folks. Redemption, thy name is Tyler.  Wilson threw another gem, only allowing 1 run as the Hoos spread 3 runs around the 2nd, 3rd, and 8th innings to secure the 3-1 victory.  The rubber match on Sunday proved to be a doozy as this was Will Roberts most difficult matchup to date.  While he started strong and the Hoos bats woke up to take a 5-0 lead after 3, Roberts got knocked around a little and left the game with a 5-4 lead.  The Cavs tacked on one in the 5th and one in the 6th to lead it 7-4, but a two-run double in the 8th closed the gap again to one run.  No matter, it was “Kline Time” as Branden came in and got his 2nd save of the weekend in a 7-6 win.  The series win keeps the Hoos 1 game out in first from Georgia Tech who swept BC over the weekend.  Next up is a home game against VCU and then a trip to BC to keep pace with the field.

Men’s Tennis

Positive Karma: Five-Peat Baby!!!

It couldn’t have been any easier.  The Hoos won their 5th straight ACC Championship as they cruised to 4-0 victories over #48 Maryland, #16 Georgia Tech, and #13 Duke.  There will be no doubt that the Hoos will have the #1 overall seed come the NCAAs as the Hoos will host the First and Second rounds and then travel to Stanford for the Finals. But that’s not for 3 weeks, so we will talk about it more when the pairings come out.

Rowing

Positive Karma: 11th ACC Title in 12 years.

3 sports, 3 right predictions.  The Hoos indeed swept every race at the ACC and won decidedly over Clemson to win yet another ACC Title.  Now like Lacrosse, this is not the end of the regular season as they still have a handful of races left starting next weekend against Princeton, Tennessee, and Columbia.

Men’s Golf

Positive Karma: Virginia places 4th in loaded field

We thought it was going to be anyones race and it kinda was...after Georgia Tech.  The #6 team in the country lapped the field and won the ACC title by 20 strokes.  But the Hoos held their own and ended up even for the competition, 3 strokes behind Clemson and 2 strokes in front of Florida State.  Individually, the top Cavalier was #19 Ben Kohles, who finished T8th.  Virginia will be in one of the NCAA regionals come mid-May.

Track & Field

Positive Karma:  Both Men and Women each earn an individual title.

Stephanie Garcia won the Steeplechase and Anthony Kostelac won the 800 m individual titles over the weekend. The men finished 6th behind favorite FSU and the women finished 5th behind favorite Clemson.  Track and Field has a few different championships outside of the NCAAs like the ECAC, USATF, and Penn Relays, all of which are coming up from now through the end of June.

Men’s Lacrosse

Positive Karma: We still have more games to play.

The great thing about lacrosse is that the Hoos still have a game to play to boost the NCAA tournament resume. And after the 19-10 loss to Duke in the semis on Friday, the Hoos are going to need a solid win against Penn to make the field at large.  No doubt Starsia will have the Hoos ready come Saturday.

Women’s Lacrosse

Positive Karma: We scored 5 goals against UNC.

But UNC scored 16 goals against UVa to win the ACC Quarterfinal game walking away.  The Hoos have two more games against James Madison and Northwestern and then they will head to the off season.

Women’s Tennis

Positive Karma:  The Hoos played and amazing game against FSU.

Unfortunately, they were on the losing end of a 4-3 Quarterfinal game against the Noles.  But no worry as the Hoos are squarely in the NCAA tourney and could host first and second round NCAA games, which would be a huge advantage to get to the finals in Cali.

Softball

Positive Karma:  We have a chance next week to not be in last place.

For the moment we are in last place, as #22 Georgia Tech beat the Hoos 8-0 and 9-2 over the weekend.  But if the Hoos win 2 of 3 from 7th place NC State we will move out of the cellar and not have to face GT in the Quarterfinals of the ACC.