As senior point guard Sharneé Zoll approaches an ACC record for career assists, the Virginia women's basketball team returns home tonight for a conference matchup with Clemson at 7.
The Cavaliers (19-7, 7-3 ACC) enter the contest standing fourth place in the league after their 62-53 triumph at Virginia Tech Sunday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the Tigers (10-15, 3-7 ACC) come to Charlottesville on a two-game losing skid after dropping games at North Carolina and against Duke at home, which Clemson lost by an average of 30.5 points.
However, the game itself somewhat takes a backseat to Zoll, the team's captain. Sunday afternoon in Blacksburg, Zoll notched her first career double-double, netting 12 points and dishing out 11 assists. Those 11 helpers brought her to 724 career assists, leaving her only five behind the ACC all-time career assist leader and Virginia legend Dawn Staley.
Even though Zoll is likely to break a record that has stood since 1992, she continues to maintain a team-first attitude and refuses to let making history become her focus, even with the added distractions this week.
"A lot of friends and family have been calling me up, talking about it," Zoll said. "I have to look at Clemson and prepare myself like it's any other game. If it happens against Clemson then it happens."
Zoll added that she wants her teammates to think about the game and not about when she will break Staley's record.
"A couple of them have been joking around about who wants to be the sixth [assist]," Zoll said, "But I'm just going to try and make it fun and keep it out of my head so I don't think about it and mess up or try and force anything."
One of Zoll's primary targets is sophomore guard Monica Wright. Wright had a tough game last Friday against North Carolina, shooting only 5 for 19 from the field. However, the reigning ACC Freshman of the Year got back on track against the Hokies, scoring a game-high 21 points on 8 of 13 shooting. More importantly, Wright was 3 of 4 beyond the arc, an area she had been struggling with in recent games.
"I kept telling her to let the game come to her and try to get herself in the paint a couple times and get her feet underneath her," Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said. "Then her three would start going again."
Aiding Zoll and Wright on the offensive end are junior forward Lyndra Littles and junior center Aisha Mohammed. Littles averages 16.0 points per game while Mohammed posts 12.3 points and a team-best 9.2 rebounds per game.
The Tigers are led by a balanced offensive attack. Senior forward D'Lesha Lloyd averages a team-high 9.3 points per contest, but has shown she can score in bunches. Lloyd registered a 31-point performance in an 84-73 victory at Virginia Tech earlier in the year. Sophomore forward Lele Hardy averages 7.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per game.
Although Clemson is struggling, with all of the attention around Zoll and two tough road games looming, one would think it could be easy for Virginia to overlook this matchup. This year, under Zoll's leadership, it does not seem likely.
"I think the difference between us this year and the past couple years is we're a mature team," Zoll said. "We know how important each game is to us, and we're going to be ready for every game. Our coaches aren't going to let us overlook anyone"
Read More
Virginia annihilated 41-14 in a must-win contest versus North Carolina
By Peter Kriebel | 23 hours agoJust about everything that could have gone wrong for Virginia football went wrong.
No. 24 women’s soccer not to be denied in late win over Clemson
By Sam Chun | YesterdayThe Cavaliers topped Clemson 1-0 in front of a packed out Klöckner Stadium.
Men’s soccer, totally discombobulated, capitulates early to No. 5 Pittsburgh
By Michael Liebermann | YesterdayPittsburgh set a program record for the quickest cluster of three goals.
