After a week of intense training and grueling practices, the Virginia men's and women's swimming and diving teams open the weekend with an ACC home meet against Georgia Tech at the Aquatic & Fitness Center Saturday afternoon.
In Virginia's last meeting with Georgia Tech, the men's and women's teams won 11 of 11 events. Last year, the men's team defeated Georgia Tech, 140-97, while the women's team came out on top, 134-100.
This weekend's dual meet is made more difficult by the lack of rest that the team will be experiencing coming into Saturday. With a heavy weight training schedule this past week in addition to increased yardage in the pool, this week stands as one of the hardest training weeks of the season.
"This is a beat-down week, to phrase it gently," Virginia coach Mark Bernardino said. "They are going to have to deal with that and respond to it, and when they step up on the block Saturday against Georgia Tech, physically and mentally, they are going to race and race well. This is the cycle. This is how it works for us."
With Bernardino beginning his 29th year of coaching, the men's team finishing last season on its eighth consecutive ACC Championship, and the women's team having two ACC championships since 2000, this cycle professedly works well. Senior John Millen does not believe the team will be hampered by the intense training.
It's "just another typical week of really hard training in anticipation of this Saturday's meet," Millen said. "We don't rest for dual meets in season, so just a normal week of training."
The Cavalier men will be led mainly by Millen. Earlier in the week, he was named ACC men's swimming and diving performer of the week. In last week's quad meet against Virginia Tech, Clemson and Penn State, Millen took home three individual wins in the 1000 free, 500 free and 200 free. His time in the 200 free (1:39.31) ranks at the top of the conference this season, and his times in the 1000 free (9:19.30) and 500 free (4:28.04) clock in at second in the conference for this season.
Bernardino expects Virginia junior Stephanie Glover to emerge as a leader for the women's team. After last season, Glover professed to not scoring as much for the team as she had hoped and feeling as if she had let the team down in that way. This season, in order to compensate, Glover has stepped up considerably, already garnering points for the team from only one meet. After last weekend's matches, she has an individual win and a relay win under her belt. In the 100 butterfly, Glover took the honors at 56.17, and her 400 free relay team also came out on top at 3:27.17.
This weekend marks the last time that fans will be able to see the men's and women's teams in action for nearly two months. The next home meet for the team is not until Jan. 19 when the teams face Duke. Fan support means a great deal to the team, and the more fans who pack the AFC, the better.
"This is a great facility," Bernardino said. "Our fan support for the first weekend was phenomenal. This is a loud building, and I think that if we can continue to have that type of fan support throughout the course of the year, it's going to mean a lot to the team and maybe help us in a close meet get over the hump and score some points in different events here and there that we need to win."
The men's and women's meets are slated to begin at 1 p.m. Saturday.
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