The Atlantic Coast Conference released the basketball schedules for its constituent teams Tuesday night, and Virginia women’s basketball’s slate certainly packs a punch.
After 10 non-conference games to begin the season in November, the Cavaliers will kick off ACC play Dec. 8 with a home matchup against Boston College, followed by a road contest versus Notre Dame four days after Christmas. The Fighting Irish went 13-5 in the ACC and 28-7 overall last year, so that will likely be the Cavaliers’ first substantial test coming off a winnable game against the Eagles.
Then comes a series of Carolina teams, with Wake Forest coming to Charlottesville Jan. 2 and Duke making the trip up for a Jan. 12 contest. Those two games come on either side of a Jan. 9 road game against Clemson.
Virginia then has to pick up the gauntlet in the rest of January, with consecutive road matchups against rival Virginia Tech and NC State, the two conference-topping programs last season. The following games are not necessarily a calming reprieve, either, with a tough Louisville squad coming to town to separate what should be close contests against Georgia Tech at John Paul Jones Arena and Miami on the road.
The schedule shows no signs of lightening up in February, with the Cavaliers making the trek north on Groundhog Day to take on last season’s third-place team, Syracuse. That contest directly precedes a home meeting with Florida State, who will be looking for revenge over Virginia after the Cavaliers upset the Seminoles on the road last season.
One particularly glaring element of this year’s schedule is that the Cavaliers will take on just one conference opponent multiple times, and fate holds that it must be the maroon-clad warriors from Blacksburg. Virginia will host the Hokies Feb. 9 — the last time Virginia Tech visited JPJ, it was the No. 5 team in the country and was stunningly sent home with an 80-75 loss.
The Cavaliers round out their regular season against two familiar faces and three entirely new opponents. They head to Pittsburgh for a Feb. 16 clash with the Panthers, followed by consecutive home games against ACC newcomers California and Stanford. This is where the JPJ faithful will bid their squad adieu, as the Cavaliers will finish with road trips to Dallas, Texas and Chapel Hill, N.C. to take on Southern Methodist and North Carolina, respectively.
The top 15 teams in the conference will advance to the ACC Tournament in Greensboro, N.C. The Cavaliers should not have a problem qualifying for the tournament, but the daunting slate of conference games will not make that an easy task. The 2024-25 season tips off Nov. 4, when Virginia will host American at JPJ.
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