Despite losing its first ACC dual meet since 1998, the Virginia men's swimming and diving team is poised to take on Pittsburgh Sunday.
Indeed, the Panthers are likely to bear the brunt of the Cavaliers' lingering anger over their 2-point loss at the hands of the Tar Heels.
"Last weekend's result won't change a thing about how we approach Pittsburgh," Virginia coach Mark Bernardino said. "That was a great collegiate swim meet between two very good teams. I really can't imagine that our guys are going to be anything but mentally sharp and physically ready and excited to get back in and race again."
While the men go up against Pittsburgh with something to prove, the Cavalier women are coming off of their most outstanding performance of the season. Virginia defeated the 10th-ranked Tar Heels, the defending conference champions, 191-109 in UNC's own pool.
"It didn't surprise me that they won, but they did surprise me in how well they swam -- we did not have a bad swim the entire meet," Bernardino said. "Every single woman, no matter the event, no matter the distance, swam well. Every single athlete had a wonderful day, and that is rare that you have a day like that where you have [a] virtually perfect meet."
Pittsburgh is scheduled to take on Virginia Tech Saturday before heading to Charlottesville Sunday. After placing third overall in a quad meet against Maryland, Penn State, Missouri and Villanova, the Panther men begin their Virginia tour 6-3 on the season while the women are 7-1.
"Historically Pittsburgh has been the best program in the Big East -- they are a good, strong team," Bernardino said. "The pivotal matchups will come in the breaststroke races, the individual medley races and maybe the backstroke races."
This weekend's competition is Virginia's final home meet of the regular season. It will be an opportunity to recognize the seniors who have dedicated their time and energy for the past four years.
"This is going to be a good last home meet -- a chance for the seniors to swim fast in our pool one last time," senior Jess Lewis said.
Since this year's senior class is a particularly small and connected group, senior day may be even more emotional than in years past.
"The smaller group that we have -- we have all been together for such a long time that I am sure there will be some tears shed," Lewis said. "At least on the girls' side -- I know I can speak for all four of us."
Those four are Lewis, Stephanie Glover, Amber Bialas and Julie McLaughlin. The men's side will lose Mike Miller, Jake Shrum, Kenton Harris, PJ Sullivan, Bryan Stahl, Pat Mellors and Ryan Hurley next year.
All the seniors are well aware, however, that their season is hardly over. After competing in the Navy Invitational next weekend, Virginia will head to Atlanta in late February for the ACC Championships and then to the NCAA Championships in March.
"It's the final home meet for our fourth-years, and I hope we keep putting one foot in front of the other and progressing and learning from the mistakes we have made," Bernardino said. "We know there are bigger meets yet to come, specifically the ACCs and NCAAs, and we hope that we can carry the momentum and emotion and high level of teamwork we have had this season forward into those bigger meets"
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