The Cavalier field hockey team will hit the turf Saturday for a game against No. 4 Duke that has huge consequences for both the ACC and NCAA tournaments. A win in Durham would end the No. 13 Cavaliers’ season on a high note and keep their dreams of their third consecutive NCAA Tournament alive, especially after their crushing loss to Wake Forest at home last weekend.
“We still have a chance to get into the NCAA,” senior back Inge Kaars Sijpesteijn said. “[Last weekend’s game was] probably a pretty big loss but it’s over now, and we gotta look at the next game.”
The problem is that Virginia does not play its best on the road. The team is 10-2 at home on the season, while going 1-5 on the road. The Cavaliers dropped their last road contest, a 3-0 heartbreaker to then-No. 7 North Carolina. This is the team’s final chance to win one on the road, and the game couldn’t come at a more crucial time.
“I take one game at a time and I am confident that the team will come to play,” coach Michele Madison said. “That is what they have always done. It’s been a challenge to go on the road. They have to learn to play on the road. They have one more chance to do it.”
On a side note, Cavalier freshman midfield/back Rachel Jennings is going to be facing her sister, Tara, on the field Saturday. The girls are two of a set of triplets; their other sister, Erin, plays field hockey at Princeton.
“I definitely have the best team — it’s obvious,” Rachel Jennings said. “I think we have the potential to be the best in the ACC and the NCAA. Every practice we see it more and more. So if we just play to our potential, I think we have the best team in the NCAA.”
The Cavaliers, however, have been suffering for the past few weeks because of a bout of injuries that has decimated the team. Only now, at the end of the season, is the team adjusting to a new rotation and learning to adapt to the new team dynamic.
“I think overall injuries affected our team. The weekend we went to Penn State we had five to six people hurt, people didn’t practice that week, and that’s when we kind of lost it,” junior midfielder/forward Traci Ragukas said. “Throwing people in that weren’t in there it gets hectic when you get used to playing with the same people. It kind of messes up the flow of the game, but I think we are adjusting well now.”
Virginia’s stiffest competition this season has come against ACC teams such as Maryland, Wake Forest and UNC. All of those teams, along with Duke, await the Cavaliers in the ACC and the NCAA tournaments. The Cavaliers have a chance this Saturday to send a message to those teams as well as to the other NCAA-bound teams.
This weekend the Cavaliers have a chance to win on the road and to down an ACC and national power. It would be the beginning of a strong case for a bid to the NCAA Tournament and it would give the Cavaliers some momentum heading into next week’s ACC Tournament.
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