While most of the Virginia student body will spend Saturday searching for the elusive horses at the Foxfield Races, the Virginia golf team will be playing the first 36 holes of the 19th annual Cavalier Classic.
Tee-off is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. at Birdwood Golf Course. This year, the Cavaliers will host Belmont, Boston College, James Madison, Maryland, UNC Greensboro, N.C. State, Princeton, Towson State and Virginia Commonwealth. Virginia will be dividing into two teams this weekend, orange and blue, to give every team member a chance to play, though only one team's score will count towards the team competition.
N.C. State will only be competing as individuals. They will be unable to field a complete team to enter the team competition due to the school's exam schedule.
"North Carolina [State] may have been the team to beat," freshman Conrad Von Borsig said. "But now that they are only competing individually, I would say it's Maryland because they did well in the ACCs and they've got at least three or four solid players."
Virginia, on the other hand, did not do as well as hoped at last weekend's ACC Championships. Finishing 10th in an 11-team field, the Cavaliers failed to make up much ground on the final day of the tournament. Overall, seniors Carter Henderson and Brad Tilley finished in 28th and 32nd place, respectively.
Regardless of last weekend's disappointing finish, however, the Cavaliers are optimistic about this weekend, especially because they are competing in Charlottesville.
"The home advantage in golf is even more significant than in other sports," Tilley said. "We won't have a huge crowd out here so it doesn't help in that respect, but we practice here everyday and we know every shot, every putt and how everything plays out here."
The Cavalier Classic marks the last regular season competition, and given Virginia's tenth place finish at ACCs, may be the last match the team plays this year. For the senior members of the team, this weekend may be their last chance to accomplish any un-met goals.
"As an individual, I would like to win," Tilley said. "I haven't won a college event yet, and I wanted to win at least one, if not multiple. Things don't always go as planned, but maybe I have got one more shot here to win."
Ideally, Tilley would like to go out on a high-note with an individual and a team title. If the past is any indication of the future, though, pulling out the team win or the individual win will be quite difficult.
Since the Cavalier Classic's inception, Virginia has only won four times, the last title coming in 1997, and only one Virginia student has won the individual title, Simon Cooke in 1994. Current Virginia student, junior Andrea Signor, won the Classic in 2004 but he did so not as a Cavalier but rather as a member of the visiting Italian National Team.
Despite the odds, Virginia coach Bowen Sargent has been keeping team morale high and offering words of wisdom as the season comes to a close.
"He said that even though we haven't had a great year, we could still pick up another win and have our best winning record ever," Von Borsig said. "Something good can definitely come out of this weekend."
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