Despite winning six of 10 matches, the Virginia wrestling team lost its second close meet of the weekend to Virginia Tech on Sunday.
The Cavaliers dropped a 22-19 decision to James Madison University on Saturday, and looked to improve their 1-6 dual match season against the Hokies.
In a match marred by several ugly incidents, the Cavaliers could not overcome Virginia Tech and fell to 1-7 in dual meets on the season.
One of Virginia's victorious matches came in the 125-pound weight class, but initiated a series of unsportsmanlike altercations.
Virginia Tech's Geoff Head (15-8 on the season) shoved Cavalier wrestler Byron Dunlap (10-13) into the mat and onto the hardwood floor, after a whistle to stop play. Head drew a penalty after he repeated the offense.
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"The ref should have called it earlier," Virginia coach Lenny Bernstein said. "It got worse when [Head] got down by a lot. The ref almost lost control of the match."
Head ignored the referee and his coach, and stormed into the locker room after losing a lopsided match, 9-4.
"It was very unsportsmanlike conduct, and it will be dealt with when we get back to Blacksburg," Virginia Tech coach Keith Mourlam said. "That's not what I teach."
Another incident arose in the 141-pound weight class. Hokie wrestler Sean Gray (23-3), who is ranked third in the nation, shot his hand up to Virginia's Bob Seidel's face, accidentally drawing blood. Seidel (6-10) reacted by jerking toward Gray. When the referee stopped play, Gray announced to Seidel before the crowd, "If you want to play like that with me you are going to get hurt."
"Sean overreacted," Bernstein said. "He is a competitor, and so is Bob."
Gray went on to pin Seidel two minutes and three seconds into the match. Gray's pin was one of three that lifted the Hokies to victory. Virginia lost because of pins by Scott Justus (23-0), ranked second in the nation, David Hoffman (26-2), ranked 17th in the nation, and Gray.
Hoffman's pin came in an uneven match againt Ryan Stewart (0-7), who was playing up a weight class with the 133-pounders.
Justus pinned Steve Mazzola (5-12) at the 2:23 mark.
"Virginia won more matches and they should have won, but we got some pins and came away with the win," Mourlam said.
Virginia was at a special disadvantage, since three of their wrestlers were out with injuries. Two Tech pins came in bouts where the injured Cavaliers were missing. Bernstein said that with a full Virginia roster, Tech would have been unable to get those pins.
"They might have won those matches, but not on pins," he said.
The meet came down to the last match where Virginia's Will Durkee (14-14) needed a pin to take the meet for Virginia. Durkee only managed an 8-4 win over Tomas Ovalle (4-17).
Bernstein seemed optimistic despite the frustrating loss.
"I'm much happier about this loss than our loss last night to JMU," he said. "It was frustrating because we know we're better than we've been wrestling, but I think if we can get everyone back we can be the biggest sleeper in the NCAA tournament"
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