The Virginia women's rowing team, currently No. 3 in the nation, hosted a regatta for five other teams this past weekend at Lake Monticello, winning eight of the nine varsity races.
The regatta, which included races Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, was a triple duel, coach Kevin Sauer said, as the Cavaliers raced teams from Michigan State, Wisconsin and Oregon State.
While all boats factor into the success of the team, Sauer cited the performance in the varsity races as a good indicator of the team's ability.
"It is about what you do against the other schools' varsity boats," he said. "That is how you see how you did."
Of the nine varsity races, the Cavaliers only lost to Michigan State in the first varsity four race.
Senior co-captain Kelsie Chaudoin of the first varsity eight boat said the regatta was another step in the team-building process.
"I think that as a team, we're becoming more confident with our abilities," Chaudoin said. "With every race on the starting line, we know not that we will win a race, but that we can, that we have the ability to win. Having that confidence comes with racing experience."
Senior Mary Eddy, co-captain coxswain for the second varsity eight boat, said she was impressed with her team for pushing through what she called some of the worst weather conditions she had ever experienced during the Saturday afternoon races.
"The Monticello course in the middle of the race is very exposed, so there was this wind sweeping across the course," Eddy said, adding, "we constantly had to adjust to different gusts of wind."
Eddy said her team's persistence in adverse conditions is an excellent indicator for their performances during the upcoming championship season.
"All the rowers handled it very well and were able to go ahead and beat Wisconsin even though the conditions were horrible," Eddy said. "No matter what's going on outside the boat, we are focused on the goal and we keep pushing to win."
Eddy added that she believes the Cavaliers' strong performance bodes well for their performance at this coming weekend's ACC races in Clemson, S.C.
"We had some very fast schools come to us and it was our home course, so we really wanted to put up a good showing," Eddy said, adding, "the fact that we were able to remain consistent and even gain speed as the races progressed was very indicative of our speed for next weekend for the ACC Championships."
The upcoming ACC competition offers the Cavaliers the opportunity to extend their undefeated season and to gain their ninth ACC title.
"This weekend's racing was good, and it gives us confidence going into ACCs this coming weekend," Sauer said. "Confidence is the most important thing. It's going to be tough but we're confident we can go down there and be very competitive"
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