The Virginia swimming and diving teams will look to continue their undefeated seasons Sunday when they host Penn State at the Aquatic and Fitness Center at 1 p.m.
The 12th-ranked women's team (3-0) is coming off a second place finish in the Continental Airlines Classic held last Friday at Rice University. Junior two-time all-American Mirjana Bosevska won both the 500- and 1,000-meter freestyles and sophomore all-American Carlie Dykehouse won the 200 butterfly. In the 1,000 free, Bosevska set the meet and pool record with a time of 9 minutes, 53.75 seconds.
"I think we've had a good beginning to our season," Virginia coach Mark Bernardino said. "I feel as though we're well positioned to continue to have a good season at this point in time."
The 10th-ranked men (2-0) have not swam competitively since beating Clemson on Oct. 27, something that the team hopes will translate into an advantage.
"We're pretty much ready to go," sophomore Luke Anderson said. "We've had three weeks to get psyched and ready to go."
Penn State should be a tough test for the Cavaliers, as the Nittany Lions men's and women's teams are ranked 16th and 10th respectively.
"Penn State is an extremely deep and talented team," Bernardino said. "They're an incredibly good women's team and we'll have our hands absolutely full with them."
The women's team faced Penn State along with four other teams in the Continental Airlines Classic and beat the Nittany Lions, who were without two of their top swimmers and finished sixth. But the meet was far from typical, as each school was allowed only 10 swimmers.
"The scoring system of that meet means nothing," Bernardino said. "The way it was scored was to our advantage, not Penn State's advantage. [The scoring system] took away Penn State's depth."
The Virginia women's team will continue to be without the services of NCAA champion and ACC swimmer of the year Cara Lane. Lane, a junior, has been out all season with a rib injury and no timetable has been set for her return.
The Cavaliers instead will be led by Bosevska, a two-time Olympian and the ACC and collegeswimming.com's swimmer of the week last week. In two meets at Rice last week, Bosevska won four different events, swimming free, butterfly, and individual medley.
Bosevska will "be one of the critical pieces to the puzzle not only this week, but probably every week of the season," Bernardino said. "She's one of the most versatile swimmers in the country. Mirjana is one of the stars of our team and one of the premier swimmers in the NCAA right now. In many ways, how Mirjana goes, the team will go."
The Virginia women will be seeking some revenge from the Nittany Lions, who beat them last year in the NCAA tournament.
"Everyone's going to need to step up and race hard," Bosevska said. "We can definitely win this meet."
One of the key races will be Bosevska against Penn State all-American Corrie Clark in the 200 individual medley Bosevska is not focusing on this race, however.
"It's important that you go out and win regardless of who is beside you," she said.
On the men's side, the sprint freestyles will be key, as Penn State traditionally is known for its speed.
"We obviously expect to win," Anderson said. "But their ranking does not reflect how good they are."
On the whole, it should be an extremely tight meet on both sides, potentially coming down to diving.
"I see both meets as being extremely close and probably going down to the last event," Bernardino said.
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