CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW)- Virginia women’s soccer opened NCAA Tournament play Friday, hammering visiting High Point 5-0.
The Cavaliers, the top seed in their bracket, got goals from Ella Carter, Allie Ross, Addison Halpern, a Maggie Cagle penalty kick, and Sophia Bradley.
The win sets the Hoos up for a rematch with Penn State on Thursday at 6 p.m., again at Klockner. The Nittany Lions fell to the Hoos in the regular season, 1-0.
Men’s Soccer: Meanwhile in Cary, N.C., the men’s soccer team reached the ACC tournament finals by beating Cal, 2-1, on Thursday. In the championship match, paired up with SMU, Virginia fell 1-0 on Sunday.
Stephan Soghomonian’s penalty kick for the Mustangs, who UVA defeated in the regular season, giving them the title.
In the semifinals, Virginia got an own goal by Cal, and a score by AJ Smith to advance.
The Cavaliers now await their seed in the NCAA tournament.
Field Hockey: The NCAA Tournament run for Field Hockey ended much earlier than many thought, on Friday. The Hoos played host to Miami Ohio in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament, even taking an early lead thanks to Mia Abello. But the visitors took a 2-1 lead that they would ultimately not let go, and the normally reliable Virginia defense fell short in a shocking upset.
Volleyball: The Hoos’ road trip to North Carolina yielded mixed results over the weekend. Going up against the No. 15 UNC Tar Heels on Friday, Virginia fell 3-1, winning the second set, but losing the other three.
However, the break that Hoos were looking for since conference play began finally arrived against Duke on Sunday. They won two sets straightaway, surrendering set three to the home side, before finishing them off in set four by a score of 3-1.
Two more Carolina teams will face the Hoos next on the schedule, this time at home. NC State comes to Charlottesville Friday, and Wake Forest on Sunday.
Football: The Wake Forest defeat was made a distant memory by hitting the road and beating the Duke Blue Devils by a score of 34-17. Chandler Morris returned and threw two touchdown passes but also two interceptions, leaving his true health status in doubt, but the Hoos executed when it mattered, leaving only the Virginia Tech Hokies as a regular season opponent. They will need to beat the Hokies, but do not control their own destiny for the ACC Championship.
Basketball: It was a good week for Ryan Odom and the men’s basketball team. They played two games and won both against two solid, non-conference opponents in the Marshall Fighting Herd and Hampton Pirates. They beat Hampton 91-56, and put up triple digits for the first time against Marshall by a score of 104-78.
Meanwhile, the women’s team hit a snag as their non-conference schedule continued. It fell 61-56 on Thursday night against UMBC in a game that saw the Hoos fail to make a three-point shot all night. UVA rebounded 77-46 against Radford on Sunday. The Virginia women have one more home test before they go to the Emerald Coast Classic in Thanksgiving week. They face Longwood Thursday night at 6 p.m. Meanwhile, the men’s squad heads to the Greenbriar in West Virginia to face Northwestern and Butler at 5 p.m. Friday and Sunday at 2 p.m. respectively.
More action: Men’s and women’s cross country both finished well at the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships, with three top ten finishers between the two sides to earn the Men third and the Women fourth. Wrestling took care of Kent State in a 27-6 dual victory. Finally both Squash teams had terrific weekends, with the Men winning two ranked battles against No. 9 Dartmouth and upsetting No. 4 Yale, and the Women also beating No. 11 Dartmouth and No. 8 Yale.
