Six ACC Championships Up For Grabs This Weekend

Friday, April 23 2010 by Tim

The Atlantic Coast Conference is holding six ACC Championships this weekend, some of which have already started. Let’s take a brief look at each of them and how the Wahoos are likely to compete in each one:

Women’s Tennis: I’ll start here, since this one already started. The women’s tennis championships are being held in Cary, NC starting yesterday and ending Sunday. The Cavaliers are the 6 seed and they defeated Boston College, the 11 seed, yesterday 4-0. They take on third-seeded Clemson today at 3pm. Duke, North Carolina and Miami round out the other top-four seeds in the tournament and the Hoos lost to all four during the regular season (with FSU being the only other ACC loss). In other words, tough sledding for the Cavs. But this is a team that can surprise people and regardless of how they do, they’ll likely be in the 17-32 grouping of the NCAAs. Chance of an ACC title: 4%.

Women’s Lacrosse: This championship has started as well. The third-seeded women’s lacrosse team got an easy first-round game, facing the last-place Hokies; they took care of business too, clobbering them 18-6. But their draw after that probably could not have been worse. They face second-seed Maryland, in College Park, today at 5pm. Maryland was the Cavaliers only ACC loss this season. Maryland only lost one game the entire season (conference and non-conference) and that was to top-seeded North Carolina – who, ironically, were handed their only loss of the entire season by the Cavaliers. It’s a tough slate, but this team is much improved from their early-season 5-11 drubbing they took at the hands of Maryland the first time, so who knows, maybe they’ll push through. Chance of an ACC title: 15%.

Men’s Tennis: The men’s tennis championship is also being held in Cary, NC. The difference here is that the men are the #1 team in the entire country, not just the ACC. They haven’t lost an ACC regular season match since before you were born. OK, not really. But it has seriously been several years. The Hoos are the definite favorites to win, and while certain teams might be able to compete (Duke and North Carolina both lost 3-4 to Virginia, for instance), I expect a Wahoo victory. Virginia is currently playing, and beating, Miami in the first round. Assuming they win, they will face the winner of the GT/VT game at 10am tomorrow. Chance of an ACC title: 75%.

Men’s Lacrosse: This is probably the most worthless ACC championship ever. Don’t get me wrong, I love lacrosse and I’m all for watching the Cavaliers win more. But there are only FOUR ACC schools with men’s lacrosse teams. Virginia played all three in the previous three weeks of the season, and now here they are as the top-seed facing bottom-seed Duke who they just lost to for the eighteen gazillionth time in a row on Saturday. But that’s how it goes. So the Cavs take the field in College Park against the Blue Devils today at 5pm. I think all teams are pretty capable of winning this championship. The only reason I’m not going to say the Cavaliers are favored is because they play Duke first. If Duke were in the 2/3 game, they’d probably lose and the ‘Hoos could coast. The winners of the games today play on Sunday. Chance of an ACC title: 20%.

Rowing: The ACC rowing championships are held tomorrow at 9am in Clemson, SC. Clemson is our only real competitor here and they’re the only other school who has won an ACC rowing title other than Virginia. Virginia also struggled a bit last week, falling from #1 to #3 in the national rankings after losing a few races against Princeton and Yale. But Virginia is still clearly the best team in the ACC and should be able to win this competition. Chance of an ACC title: 70%.

Men’s Golf: So here’s an ACC championship that I know very little about. In the April 7th rankings, Virginia was ranked #18, behind #14 FSU and #16 GT and just ahead of #19 Clemson. Based solely on that, I’d have to think that Virginia has a pretty good chance at competing for this title, but they’re not going to be the favorite. Pretty astute, eh? Of course, at the event that immediately followed those rankings, Virginia finished 11th, behind all three of those teams, plus Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina State and Wake Forest. Ouch. So, it might be interesting to watch, but I’m not expecting a title here. Chance of an ACC title: 10%.

So, there you have it. a quick rundown of each event and the Wahoo chances at bringing home a title. There’s a very good chance that we’ll walk away from this weekend with two more ACC titles, giving Virginia 6 for the school year. A 7th would be a record in the post-expansion ACC and there’s definitely some teams that could do it.

Enjoy the weekend!