The No. 4 Virginia field hockey team begins ACC Tournament play Thursday in an 11 a.m. game against No. 8 Duke.
The Cavaliers (15-4, 3-3 ACC) finished the regular season in a three-way tie for third place in the conference with the Blue Devils (13-5, 3-3 ACC) and No. 3 North Carolina, but were awarded the fifth seed as a result of a tie-breaker determined by goal differential.
“The attitude of the team going into the tournament is a lot of excitement,” senior back Lane Smith said. “Everyone is really excited to get out there and actually play. We’ve worked really hard in these past two weeks getting ready, knowing that we would be going up against some really stiff competition, so we’re excited to prove that we’re a top team in the nation.”
Every team in the conference is ranked in the top 15 nationally, including the top four ranked teams in the country.
“The ACC is definitely the strongest conference this year,” coach Michele Madison said. “I’ve never been in a conference where the top four teams are the top four in the country. The level of the ACC makes you prepared for the tournament because you have to play at such a high level. It would be no surprise if the national champion came out of the ACC.”
Virginia has not played in a game since a 4-1 loss to Maryland (18-1, 6-0 ACC) nearly two weeks ago, having a bye last weekend while every other team in the conference still had games to play. Madison said the time off was very helpful for preparation.
“We worked on some areas of the game that we really wanted to address — on the attack and the defense,” she said. “The communication on the team has improved as have situations where they’re outnumbered defensively.”
The team used part of that time off to work on team bonding by participating in the Challenge Course — a high ropes course on Grounds.
“That was the first time we had done the Challenge Course,” Smith said. “It was a decision that the coaches made, knowing that we had so much time off. I think they made the right decision to do the ropes coach, where you are challenged and pushed as a team to overcome these situations using the same skills you use to overcome challenges on the field.”
Three Cavaliers were awarded All-ACC honors this week — senior forward Elly Buckley was awarded first team honors, while freshman Lucy Hyams and senior Carissa Vittese were named to the second-team. Buckley became just the 11th player in ACC history to capture All-ACC honors four times.
Buckley, whose 20 goals and 47 points both lead the ACC, spearheads a Virginia offense that has been mostly driven by freshmen. Hyams, second on the team in points with 20, ranks fifth in the conference in assists with 10. Freshman Riley Tata ranks second on the team in goals with 10, and classmate Caleigh Foust is right behind her with nine.
The Cavaliers defeated Duke at home 4-3 earlier this season, despite squandering a 4-1 lead in the second half. But after Duke brought the game within one score, the Cavalier defense clamped down, only allowing one more shot for the final 26 minutes of the game. Buckley scored a hat trick in the game, while Hyams contributed with three assists.
“It’s nice that you can play them once and can see things, but that game was really close,” Madison said. “[Winning] 4-3 is not something we can bank on happening again. We have to address our strengths and the ways we were able to beat their defense and their goal-keeping.”
Duke, like Virginia, enters the tournament on the heels of a blowout loss to the Terrapins. The Blue Devils are led on offense by senior Emmie Le Marchand, who ranks eighth in the ACC in points per game and seventh in goals per game. Though Duke has had mixed results against ranked opponents this season, they were able to knock off then-No. 1 North Carolina in penalty strokes in late September.
If Virginia emerges from Thursday’s game victorious, they will face top-seeded Maryland in the tournament semifinals on Friday. Maryland, who eliminated the Cavaliers from the 2012 ACC Tournament, has yet to drop a conference matchup this season. Looming on the other side of the bracket is defending ACC Champion North Carolina and defending Big East Champion Syracuse.
“Even though this is the ACC tournament and you’re going to come up against teams like that no matter what, we do have something to prove — it would be naïve to say we don’t,” Smith said. “We come up [against] these teams every year, and I think it’s time for us to prove that Virginia can take on teams with multiple national championships.”
The tournament will take place in Newton, Mass. on the home turf of No. 11 Boston College.
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