The NCAAs Come to Charlottesville (Carolina, Too)

Friday, May 14 2010 by Tim

If Foxfield weekend was a weekend all about ACC Championships, the weekend starting today is all about NCAA Championships. No national champions will be crowned this weekend, but there are a lot of NCAA Championship events occurring, specifically here in Charlottesville.

There will be eight NCAA Championship contests held in Charlottesville this weekend and Cavalier teams will be competing in up to six of them. Toss in a baseball weekend series with the Tar Heels (who are fighting for that last slot in the ACC Championship later this month) and we’ve got a great sports weekend here in The Hook. Let’s take a look at what’s on tap:

Women’s Tennis

The Women’s Tennis team kicks things off this afternoon at 2pm against the Princeton Tigers. Virginia is the second seed in this regional, but they got to host because of the superior facilities to what Duke (the top seed in this regional) has. Duke takes on Long Island in the later game today. The winners of the two matches will take the court tomorrow after the men’s games.

It’ll be a bit of a coup if the Cavaliers can beat Duke tomorrow. Duke is quite good. I’d love to see us get out of here and move on to the round of 16, but I’ll just be happy if we beat Princeton and put up a good fight against Duke.

Men’s Tennis

The men take the court tomorrow at 1pm against Navy. Virginia is the top seed, so naturally Navy is the bottom seed. Wake Forest takes on Columbia in the early match tomorrow, starting at 10am. The winners will take the court on Sunday at 1pm.

Virginia, ranked #1 in the nation, is the clear favorite in this regional. I don’t expect much resistance, though we could get a good battle from someone like Wake who has seen us already this year (and sees us regularly).

Men’s Lacrosse

The Virginia men’s lacrosse team will on Saturday take its next step in a long journey to overcome what has happened to the Virginia lacrosse community these past few weeks. There were some questions for a while as to whether the team would even compete in the NCAA Championships. But the right steps were taken, the right questions asked and ultimately, I believe, the right decisions made and the Cavaliers will take the field at Klockner Stadium Saturday night at 7:30pm against Mount St. Mary’s in the first round.

Virginia is the clear #1 seed in the tournament this year, having clearly the best resume of the teams in the field. Mount St. Mary’s is clearly one of the furthest from Virginia in terms of talent. Not to slight MSM, but this match should not be close. Virginia prevailed on the road in March by a score of 15-7 and even with that margin, they were still suffering from early-season rust. The only reason this game will be closer than that game is if Virginia is still feeling the impact of the last couple weeks. If they are, I don’t think anyone in their right mind could blame them.

If Virginia does win, they move on to face the winner of Stony Brook and Denver next Saturday in Stony Brook, NY. Yes, you read that correctly – the #1 seed could be playing at the #8 seed in the second round.

Women’s Lacrosse

It’s fitting that the women’s team has an extra day to prepare for what will undoubtedly be a VERY emotional lacrosse match on Sunday. They take to the field as the #6 seed at noon against Towson and quite frankly, I don’t know what to expect. The tragic loss of Yeardley Love is the most obvious thing that will impact this team and that might be enough to knock them off kilter a bit. They also have a host of injuries to deal with.

I expect that Virginia will come away with a win on Sunday and I expect there will be a lot of tears at the event – on the field and in the stands. Virginia played very well down the stretch and I think that, at least for this one game, their emotions will work to their advantage to snag a win.

If they do win, they move on to face the winner of the North Carolina and Navy match that occurs tomorrow at noon. I assume that if North Carolina wins (since they’re the higher seed) they’ll host the quarterfinals. If Navy wins, Virginia would host the quarterfinals. So needless to say I’ll be pulling for Navy in the hopes of having another home game for the ladies.

Baseball

The three-game weekend series starts tonight at 7pm with what will likely be the highlight matchup of the weekend: Virginia’s Danny Hultzen (7-1, 2.00 ERA) and Carolina’s Matt Harvey (6-2, 2.68 ERA) square off on the mound. The Saturday and Sunday contests will both be at 1pm. North Carolina is fighting to make sure it gets into the ACC Championships in two weeks. Ironically, while they’re barely the eighth best team in the ACC, they’re ranked #21 by at least one poll. I know the ACC is good at baseball and all… but that’s a little absurd. Virginia is looking to set themselves up nicely for a first-place battle with Miami. The Cavs and the Canes are currently tied for first in the ACC and they meet next weekend for a three-game series in Coral Gables that will likely decide who finishes the regular season in first place.

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Enjoy the weekend!