The Virginia women's rowing team, which is ranked No. 1 in the NCAA South Division, is coming off a perfect showing at ACC championships last weekend winning both first varsity races and both second varsity races, as well as winning the first varisty four.
Now, No. 11 Virginia will face No. 20 Boston University in a regatta at 4 p.m. tomorrow.
The regatta at Rivanna Reservoir will pit the Cavaliers against a Boston team that went to NCAA championships last year.
"It's a home race," coach Kevin Sauer said. "But most importantly, we get to race Boston University, who was in the NCAAs last year. How we do against them will show us where we're at right now."
This weekend's race comes in between the ACC championships and the Eastern Sprints, the biggest regatta on the Eastern seaboard, where the Cavaliers hope to qualify for NCAA championships.
While Virginia is preparing for the up-coming races, the team is focusing more on competition outside the ACC.
Other ACC teams have posted better times than usual, but the Cavaliers still are looking for the stiff competition to be outside the ACC.
"ACCs were definitely a high point for us," junior Amanda Kennedy said. "The ACC is getting faster, but it's not our best competition."
Although Sauer acknowledged that the race this weekend against Boston will help to show where the Cavaliers stand outside of the ACC in preparation for Eastern Sprints, he said the most important thing for this weekend was to concentrate on the race against Boston.
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After this weekend's regatta, the Cavaliers' next hurdle will be Eastern Sprints. Virginia already has competed against most of the best teams they hope to face at NCAA championships.
"I think we're improving," Sauer said.
Even with the changes in personnel that Sauer continued to make throughout the season, Sauer added.
The Cavaliers' low point of the season came at San Diego in a race that included Washington University, the No. 1 ranked team in the NCAA West division.
After San Diego, Virginia gained much needed confidence when it took a victory in a come-from-behind race at the George Washington Invitational a week before ACC championships.
Although the Cavaliers have continually improved their times since the beginning of the spring season, Virginia is not content with where it is right now.
"It's not a matter of maintaining, it's a matter of increasing" speed, Sauer said. "We have a very high standard, if we don't think we're right there we challenge ourselves."
The Cavaliers, having raced against the best crew teams in the country, believe they can compete for a national title.
"It's going to be a dogfight," Kennedy said of the NCAA championships. "I think we're definitely right up there. It will be really back and forth."
According to Sauer, his team will take each race as it comes because any team they race can beat them if they are not focused.
The Cavaliers may find it hard, however, not to look at the big picture. Virginia has continued to get faster and challenge highly ranked national teams. The Cavaliers are on a hot streak that started at the George Washington Invitational and they don't look to be slowing down.
"I see us just getting better and better and better," Sauer said of the upcoming month leading to NCAA championships.
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