Virginia wrestler Anthony Burke won the opening 125-pound class match against Ohio State's Nathan Costello, but the Buckeyes won the next seven to beat the Cavaliers 28-10 at Memorial Gymnasium yesterday.
Virginia fell to 5-4 on the season. Ohio State improved to 4-6.
"We weren't offensive," Virginia coach Lenny Bernstein said. "That was the main thing. We talked about that we needed to get the first takedown and get a chance to get on top. We didn't give ourselves chances. We weren't daring out there."
Burke, a 5-foot-2 sophomore, won a major decision 14-2 over Costello to give the Cavaliers an early 4-0 lead.
But just as Bernstein said he feared last week, the match turned into a battle of individual toss-up matches, and Virginia came out on the wrong end of the mat.
"That's the thing that is really hard," Bernstein said. "You look at it and you think they won pretty big, but really in essence they won a lot of close matches. We needed to win those matches. Even late in the periods there were a few matches where we were behind and were not taking the shots we need to finish."
Freshman Eric Albright (133 lbs.), who entered with a 20-6 record and had been on a tear as of late, going 4-0 at last weekend's Virginia Duals, lost 5-1 to Reece Humphrey in the next match.
After two losses in the 141 lbs. and 149 lbs. classes, both of which came by four points or more, the Cavaliers lost four straight contests by a combined six points, putting them behind 22-4 with two contests to go.
"It was disappointing to see us come out a little flat on our feet," Bernstein said. "I thought that we hustled -- I think there is a difference between hustling and being aggressive, and we weren't aggressive."
Mike Sewell fell 5-3 in the 157 lbs. class, Damien Johnson (165 lbs.) went down 2-0 to Nathaniel Auguston, Mike Grogan (174 lbs.) lost 4-3 to Blake Maurer and Kyle Narkiewicz (184 lbs.) dropped 3-2 to Alex Picazo.
But in the ninth contest of the afternoon, between Virginia's Brent Jones (197 lbs.) and Ohio State's Corey Morrison, Jones pinned Morrison with 1:57 remaining in the first period to win by fall. Jones' pin cut the deficit to 22-10.
"I hit him with one of my moves I was known for in high school, a head lock," Jones said. "Once I got him in the position, I just knew it was going to be the right move and that I would have him after that."
In the 10th and final match, the heavyweight division, Virginia forfeited, giving OSU's Kirk Nail a win and tacking six points onto the final tally.
"It felt real good," Jones said of getting a pin in his first home match. "It's just a good way to start off my career here at U.Va. -- that and I'm one pin away from the freshman [pin] record so that also helps."
Up next for the Cavaliers is back-to-back home ACC matches against North Carolina on Friday at 7 p.m. and versus in-state rival Virginia Tech on Saturday, also at 7 p.m. Virginia and UNC faced off Jan. 14 at the Virginia Duals, and the Tar Heels beat the Cavaliers 20-18. Friday's meet with UNC will count as Virginia's ACC opener.
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