By Rachel Brandt Cavalier Daily Senior Writer
After hosting a quad meet last Saturday in Memorial Gym, the Virginia wrestling team will return to action in full force tomorrow. The Cavaliers have a busy weekend ahead of them as they have three matches scheduled in a 24-hour time frame. Virginia will be in Pennsylvania tomorrow to take on the Lehigh and Drexel squads before traveling to Fairfax on Sunday to face George Mason.
No. 7 Lehigh has won five straight matches, but will take on Hofstra tonight before tomorrow's competition against Virginia. In Cambridge last Saturday, Lehigh rolled to a win over Harvard, 38-8. The Mountain Hawks' top wrestlers, Brad Dillon and Troy Letters, each won twice, and they passed and tied the all-time mark at Lehigh for consecutive dual wins respectively.
In Saturday night's contest against Drexel, fatigue may be a factor, since it will be both teams' second match of the day. Virginia will aim to capitalize against the Dragons, who have lost three straight. Sunday's opponent, George Mason, has also lost their last three.
Three matches in two days may sound extreme, but Virginia coach Lenny Bernstein made the schedule with good reason.
"We are really training for the end of the year," Bernstein said. "For ACCs you wrestle three times a day. For Nationals, you are wrestling three straight days and you are wrestling three times a day."
The Cavaliers performed well in last weekend's quad meet, posting victories in two out of the three matches. Virginia had a first-rate start to the day, beating in-state opponent Old Dominion, 25-14. Yet in the second session of dual matches, the Cavaliers were defeated by Kent State, 29-10. Virginia bounced back in the third session to post a decisive victory over rival Virginia Tech, 31-8. The Cavaliers won seven of 10, including the first three matchups, and easily handled the Hokies.
"It was a good day for us," senior Tim Foley said. "We were a little bit down for the second match against Kent State, but coming into that third match against Virginia Tech, being that it was Virginia Tech, made us go out there and outperform them."
Foley, who is ranked No. 10, is the current ACC wrestler of the week. Wrestling at 165-lbs., he is 23-3 overall and won three matches at the quad meet. Foley's selection marked the fourth time this season that a Virginia wrestler has won the conference honor. Teammate Scott Moore, who is ranked No. 1 in the country, has won the award three times earlier this season.
The senior Moore, who is a perfect 35-0 with an NCAA-leading 25 victories coming by fall at 141-lbs., is the first Virginia wrestler ever to be ranked first in the country.
Behind the prowess and leadership of Foley and Moore, the Cavaliers will attempt to bring last weekend's momentum into the upcoming contests.
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