The Virginia softball team will kick off the 2000 UVA Hoo's Who Tournament at when they face Pittsburgh at noon and Bowling Green at 4:00 p.m. today at The Park. The tournament also features Rutgers and Penn State, who the Cavaliers will play on Sunday at noon and 2:00 p.m., respectively.
The Hoo's Who Tournament is the Cavs second set of home games this season. Earlier in the season, the Cavaliers won the UVA Cavalier Classic with a perfect 4-0 record at The Park, Mar. 3-5.
Virginia (10-22) enters the tournament with a losing record, but the team has been improving. They have won two of their last three games, defeating Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 3-2 Mar. 17 and Middle Tennessee State 4-1 Mar. 18.
The Cavaliers are also coming off a challenging spring break road trip in California, where they won four out of 15 games while facing extremely tough competition.
"Spring break was a tough trip, but I think we learned a lot," senior pitcher Stacey Zagol said. "We played a lot of great teams and also played very well. We're still trying to put it all together."
This weekend, the Cavaliers will look to the excellent hitting of freshman Ruby Rojas, who drove in two runs and led the team with a perfect 3-for-3 effort at the plate in the Cavs' win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The team will also rely on the leadership of seniors Jen Krill, Corinne Good, and Amy Peay as well as the consistent pitching of Zagol, who was picked as ACC Softball Pitcher of the Week for the week ending Mar. 5.
Sprangel said she foresees Penn State and Rutgers to be the most challenging opponents this weekend, although Pittsburgh and Bowling Green are no gimmees.
"We will have to stay on our toes," she said. "We played [Penn State] in the fall and lost 1-0, but it was a real good game. We are confident we can beat them, but we're going to have to be on top of our game."
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"We're going to go game by game, and we're going to expect that the other team is the best team we've ever played as we go into each game," Zagol said.
Having spent the last three weeks playing on the road, the Cavs are motivated by finally returning home. Proving themselves in the Hoo's Who Tournament has been a focus for the Cavaliers all spring.
"We've been preparing all season," Zagol said. "We've had a lot of game practice, and now we're just fine-tuning. We'll be ready."
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