The Virginia softball team will travel to Chestnut Hill, Mass. to take on Boston College this weekend in the final ACC series of the season. A doubleheader Saturday afternoon will kick off the series with games at 1 and 3, and the series concludes Sunday with a third game at 1.
Boston College (27-26, 3-12 ACC) currently sits in last place in the ACC standings, behind only the Cavaliers (14-35, 5-13 ACC), even though the Eagles have the sixth-best overall record in the conference.
Given the teams' records, the series is particularly important because it will determine the lower seeds in the ACC Tournament, which begins May 8. Currently, the bottom four teams are separated by just three conference wins. Maryland is in fifth place in the conference with a 6-9 ACC record, followed by Georgia Tech at 6-11, then Virginia and Boston College.
The Boston College series is "another good opportunity, just like Maryland was, to move up in the standings," Virginia coach Eileen Schmidt said, "and to get ourselves into a position where you're not a lower seed and you don't have to face [Virginia Tech senior Angela] Tincher or North Carolina right off the bat."
The importance of this series to the ACC Tournament was also at the forefront of senior Whitney Holstun's mind.
"I think it's going to be really big," Holstun said. "We should be able to sweep them, and I think we need to. It will give us that confidence boost going into ACCs -- three solid games. Scoring runs and making every play as our last game pre-playoffs would be a really good thing."
Even with all the talk about the tournament, Schmidt said she is not worried about her team underestimating Boston College.
"I don't think this team has a history of underestimating anybody," she said. "I think sometimes we underestimate ourselves on what we can do. So we need to come out and stay positive and stay focused and just come out and play hard."
Junior Karla Wilburn also said she believed the team could win if it plays up to its potential.
"I think it's going to be really important for all aspects of the team to show up -- to play well defensively, offensively and have our pitching staff come out and be really strong," Wilburn said. "Because once we get all the gears moving in the right way, we're tough."
Sophomore Kelly Haller echoed Wilburn's statement about the necessity of the team playing well on all levels.
"Our defense has really come along, where we haven't been making many errors in any of the game," Haller said. "But our pitching is kind of hit or miss, and the same thing with our hitting. Some days our pitching will be on and our hitting will be sub-par and vice versa, so we need to have consistency in both those parts to be able to pull out games."
No matter what the Cavaliers are expecting out of the series against the Eagles this weekend, it is clear the main focus is on gearing up for the ACC Tournament.
"We definitely want to leave the conference with a bang and take that momentum into the tournament, because there's no pressure on us," Wilburn said. "No one's really looking at us to do anything, so we can be the underdogs and sneak up on everyone in the tournament"
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