The Virginia wrestling team will look to open their 2006 ACC schedule with a win Friday night when it hosts visiting North Carolina at 7 p.m. in Memorial Gymnasium. Saturday night. The Cavaliers will take on in-state rival Virginia Tech, also at 7 p.m.
The Cavaliers currently sport a 5-4 record.
"ACC matches against North Carolina and Virginia Tech, back-to-back -- it doesn't get much better than that, two of our biggest rivals," Virginia coach Lenny Bernstein said.
Virginia faced the Tar Heels (12-5-1) two weeks ago at the Virginia Duals meet in Hampton, Va. Jan. 14, losing 20-18. In that meet, the Cavaliers won four of the first five matches, their only loss coming in the 125 lbs. class, before the Tar Heels won the final five matches to propel them to victory. Heavyweight Spencer Nadolsky's 6-4 decision over sophomore Nick Smith sealed the win. As the loss to UNC came in a dual tournament, the match didn't count as an ACC contest.
"We need to come out and wrestle a lot better than we did [against Ohio State]," Bernstein said, after last Sunday's 28-10 home loss to the Buckeyes. "We wrestled North Carolina in the Virginia Duals and lost 20-18, and there's going to be a lot of different matchups [Friday], because some of the injuries from [the Virginia Duals], so it will be a different match all together. I think we'll see a lot of fur fly. There's not a lot of love lost between our two schools in the wrestling realm, so it's going to come out on the mat on Friday night."
This past weekend the Heels went 0-2-1 at home, losing meets to No. 25 Pennsylvania, 33-8, The Citadel, 33-9, and tying North Carolina State on Friday.
"It's going to be a real tough ACC matchup," freshman Brent Jones (197 lbs. class) said. "We feel confident, because we went into last week's match and we just came up shy by two points, and they're favored to win the division. They're highly ranked so we're not going to let anything go back."
Jones, who has had tremendous success since arriving at Virginia in the fall, recording seven falls, only one short of the freshman pin record, has had limited success against UNC. Despite sporting a 16-7 record, he's lost twice to Tar Heel wrestlers. At the Southern Scuffle Dec. 29 he lost 7-6 to Dennis Drury, and at the Virginia Duals he lost by a more decisive 13-6 margin to David Dashiell.
Virginia Tech, on the other hand, doesn't present such a formidable challenge. The Hokies haven't won a match all season (0-11) and on Sunday, lost to Ohio State 38-10 in Blacksburg. Tech's closest loss all season came 30-15 at the hands of Old Dominion University. Three of those losses came at the Virginia Duals, although the Hokies faced neither the Tar Heels nor the Cavaliers.
But despite Tech's dismal record, Jones is still fired up to face the Hokies.
"The same with Tech, you know, it's Tech, enough said," he said. "It's our rival, and its home, so we just have to get things done."
Virginia Tech opens their ACC schedule with a meet at Maryland on Friday.
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