The Virginia women's rowing team will travel to Lake Hartwell, S.C. for the ACC Rowing Championship Saturday. The Cavaliers will race for their eighth straight ACC title against five other teams: Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Miami and North Carolina. Virginia's fiercest competition will likely come from either Clemson or Duke, which are seeded second and third respectively, in all four events.
"We can expect good competition," Virginia coach Kevin Sauer said. "I tell the kids to stay humble and hungry. We're going to have to be ready, because they're going to be coming after us."
Senior varsity-eight rower Anna Samaha also knows Virginia will be the most hunted team at the ACC Championship.
"In the past, we have always been the strongest team," Samaha said. "Every year, we always expect the best out of these teams. We always say they're going to give us their best shot. We're going into this very confident and ready to race."
The Cavaliers are seeded first in all four events: first and second varsity eight, novice eight and varsity four. The events are similar to collegiate men's rowing events, in which "eight" or "four" signifies the number of rowers. In contrast to men's collegiate rowing, however, there is no separate squad for freshmen. The novice eight serves as an opportunity for younger rowers to gain experience in competition.
The first varsity eight is the most competitive boat the team can field, followed by the second varsity eight and the varsity four. All four squads include a coxswain, who guides the rhythm of the boat by telling rowers where the other boats are and where their boat is on the course. This is especially important for the last push towards the finish.
If this past weekend is any indicator, the Cavaliers are in top form. Unlike Clemson and Duke, Virginia raced last weekend, finishing a perfect 11-0 at the Windermere Real Estate Classic against four of the top teams in the country: Washington, California, UCLA and Washington State.
Virginia is the first school to ever win all the races in which it competed at the Windermere Classic. The newest Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association Poll has the Cavaliers' varsity-eight squad ranked fifth, up from 13th. In addition to this recognition, the ACC has named the Virginia varsity-eight squad Crew of the Week for its performance last weekend.
Despite their recent sweep, the Cavaliers understand the difficulty in transferring success from one week to another.
"Basically, we start at square one," Samaha said. "We went into last weekend with 11-0 as our goal and we're going to do the same exact thing this weekend. Our goal is to win every single race. You take what you did last weekend and you learn from it. You learn how good it feels to do that and take it into this weekend."
For the coming championship, the weather is expected to be sunny with a high in the mid-70s, which is a positive change for the Cavaliers. Virginia battled bad weather earlier this week and could not practice until Wednesday. They spent Monday traveling home from California and windy weather conditions kept the Cavaliers off the water Tuesday.
"We have to be cognizant of the fact that the kids are recovering [from last weekend]," Sauer said. "They've got to hold on to the speed they had last weekend and improve on it."
Read More
Buchanan jolts arena with season-best performance
By Michael Liebermann | YesterdayRon Sanchez challenged his players to rebound better, and Buchanan answered resoundingly.
Third-quarter surge pushes women’s basketball ahead of Virginia Tech
By Lauren Halak | YesterdayVirginia conquered its rival, earning an ever-important ACC victory.
With last-second three-pointer, SMU silences men’s basketball
By Michael Liebermann and Thomas Baxter | 2 days agoThe late shot crushed a bouncing arena.
