It was not supposed to happen. All the hard-work, training, preparation and a successful regular season were indications of a promising postseason. To an uninformed bystander, a second place finish behind talented No. 12 Maryland may seem acceptable for the No. 13 Virginia women's swimming and diving team. But not for this Cavalier team, where second place means the end to its streak of two consecutive ACC titles.
"Probably the most important thing that I can say is that Maryland had a spectacular meet," Virginia head coach Mark Bernardino said. "Everything that could go right for Maryland went right. More credit should go to Maryland for having the better meet than anyone else. Every athlete from top to bottom had the performance of their lifetimes. They peaked at the right time. We did not have our athletes peak at the right time."
The deep Terrapins squad scored 655 points, compared to the Cavaliers' 590.5 points. Maryland was led by senior co-captains Elizabeth Lavell and Megan Knepper.
"Maryland has a lot of good quality swimmers," captain Kate Wrenshall said. "They have a lot of fast girls."
As a team, the Cavaliers did not peak, but there were individual performers who did. Junior Brielle White proved to everyone why she is an All-American and ACC Champion. The Philadelphia native not only won both the 100 and 200 backstroke events, but set two Georgia Tech Aquatic Center pool records in the process. In the 100 backstroke, White touched first with an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 53.44 seconds. This championship title was White's third straight in 100 backstroke. In the 200 backstroke, she recorded a time of 1:57.67
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