Tonight the Virginia women's basketball team looks to add another tally to Virginia's lead in the Commonwealth Challenge when it faces Virginia Tech at 7 p.m. at University Hall.
A new concept this year, the Commonwealth Challenge keeps track of game results between Virginia and Virginia Tech in all sports. Thus far, the Cavaliers lead the Hokies 9-3. Tonight, Virginia faces Virginia Tech in what will be their second matchup of the season. The Cavaliers are still looking for their first ACC home win and hope to get it tonight. With tough games against Maryland, Duke and North Carolina -- all of whom are ranked in the top six nationally -- coming up, the Cavaliers will look to defeat the Hokies to get some momentum going.
Virginia beat Virginia Tech 78-59 in the teams' first meeting, which was in Blacksburg. Freshman Lyndra Littles scored 19 points and sophomore Takisha Granberry added 16 points off the bench to lead the team to an easy victory.
The Cavaliers are confident they'll be able to put up points. However, they will look to set the tone of the game with defense first.
"We are going to be able to exploit with our transition offense," said junior forward Siedah Williams. "Everyone has the potential to score. We just have to come out with our defense first."
Virginia coach Debbie Ryan and the rest of the team are also eager to put past defeats behind them and move on.
"All year long, when we have lost, we have to leave it," said Ryan. "When we have won, we have to leave it and move on. You can't get too high and too low, because you have the toughest part of your schedule coming up right now. You are going to play two or three top-ten teams after Virginia Tech."
Recently, Virginia's offense has been suffering due to the team's poor shooting.
"Shooting is always one of the things in the game that you can't control," assistant coach Jeff House said. "We do shooting drills every day -- some days its goes, and some days it doesn't. Everybody in the ACC knows the teams and their personnel very well; the point production for everyone drops by 10 points once you get into ACC play. We need to play better defense so that when we're not scoring we can hold opponents to a low field goal shooting percentage and a low point total."
Although Virginia easily defeated Virginia Tech in their first meeting, they are wary of what the Hokies bring to the table.
"Virginia Tech is very well coached, and they're a very well prepared team," said House. "We're good when we can really get up into people defensively and cause some problems and, that way, that leads to some easy shots in transition. So, if we can do that that would be a big plus for us."
Virginia players are taking the coaches' message and the game against Virginia Tech seriously.
"We can't keep dwelling on that fact that we beat them before," said Williams. "They can come in and completely take over the game. Coming into a game like this, we have to come in with a clean slate. We have to be ready for anything. They are not going to come and lay down. From now on, it is going to be an all out dog fight. We have to come in prepared and focused."
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