As the student body files away for spring break, the women Cavaliers will take the court one last time this regular season at U-Hall to host the No. 7 Carolina Tar Heels.
North Carolina (24-3, 12-2 ACC) defeated Virginia (14-12, 8-7) in their meeting at Chapel Hill 74-54 earlier this season, but Virginia has shown it is a different team at home than it is on the road, picking up six of its eight conference wins at home.
Virginia started ACC play by losing four straight games in early January and dropping to eighth in the conference. Since then, the Cavaliers have catapulted to the No. 3 spot in the conference--with an ACC record of above .500 and a winning overall record.
It has been a rocky road thus far for Virginia, but with a 20th consecutive NCAA appearance at stake, the Cavaliers must prepare for the ACC tournament March 7-10. Winning the tournament would give Virginia an automatic bid to the 2003 NCAA tournament, but without a strong showing in the conference tournament Virginia's 12 (potentially 13) losses could keep the Cavaliers from getting a bid. The team won't, however, be thinking about NCAAs on Sunday.
"No, I'm not going to talk about that," Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said. "That's not something we really need to focus on right now. We need to focus on just playing the next game. This is not a team that needs to focus on things like that; I don't think that helps this team. It probably helps us not to talk about it."
Although a win Sunday would not elevate Virginia to the Tar Heels No. 2 spot in the conference, it would do a great deal to build the Cavaliers confidence in their ability to beat a top 10 team going into the ACC tournament. Both North Carolina and Duke are in the top 10, and Virginia has not beaten either team so far this season.
"I think that if we beat them, then that will build our confidence a lot more from where it is now," sophomore guard and leading scorer Cherrise Graham said.
Virginia played close to North Carolina early, going into the half down just one point. The Tar Heels, however, out scored Virginia 48-29 in the second half, pulling away in the final ten minutes.
"I think we played them very well for 30 minutes down there, maybe a little over 30 minutes," Ryan said. "We're just going to have to play our game and try to rebound with them. I think that's the key to Carolina, being able to rebound with them to neutralize their athleticism a little bit."
Virginia was out rebounded by Carolina in their last match 51-46, but gave up an even larger offensive rebounding margin of 12 and had a season high 27 turnovers.
Since losing to North Carolina, however, Virginia committed over 20 turnovers just once at No. 2 Duke and won six of the seven games since losing to Carolina. In the Cavaliers' win over Florida State Sunday, the team committed just 13 turnovers.
Since defeating the Seminoles, Virginia has had an entire week to recuperate and prepare for Carolina.
"We have a week to get ready for Carolina, and I think it will be a good opportunity to give the players some time off," Ryan said. "But we won't take a lot of time off, we'll take maybe two days this week off and use the rest to get ready for Carolina."
Beating Carolina would solidify Virginia's place at No. 3 in the ACC and give the Cavaliers a winning record in the conference.While North Carolina is assured of staying above Virginia, they also have an opportunity to overthrow Duke and lead the ACC if Duke loses the rest of their games. Yet Virginia will try to focus on the game at hand and not the implications of the outcome.
"I think what it really comes down to is whether we want to win, what we want to do with the end of our season," Graham said. "We really think we can beat Carolina, and we're going to play to win. We're going to focus on beating Carolina and let that take us from there."
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