This year's Virginia football team looks to me like a poker player who changed their entire philosophy from just a year or two ago. In the 1998 movie "Rounders," starring Edward Norton and Matt Damon, the conflicts between two divergent poker philosophies marked a central part of the movie.
Heading into the ACC Tournament this week, the Cavaliers are in a different position, but familiar territory. As the reigning ACC men's soccer champions with a 14-4 record, Virginia is a far cry from last year's young and struggling squad that had to capture the ACC championship to ensure a spot in the NCAA tournament.
Virginia boats capped a successful weekend on the water by finishing third in both the women's open eight and the women's open four races this past Sunday at the Princeton Chase on Lake Carnegie in New Jersey. The open eight race consisted of 45 boats and was won by Princeton's "A" boat with a time of 16:01.31.
It's smashmouth football, with a twist. Virginia's ground game, which ranks first in the ACC and sixth nationally, relies heavily on pulling linemen instead of more traditional straight-ahead blocking. At 254.8 rushing yards per game, the Cavaliers have improved their average by 124.6 ypg, which if it stands, will be the greatest single season improvement in ACC history.
Virginia men's soccer is ranked fourth heading into the ACC championships. The Cavaliers will face the No.
It was a year they said they had to believe, a year they would exorcise their ACC championship demons and finally beat North Carolina for the first time in 29 attempts.
How do you restore prominence to a storied program? That's the question the Virginia women's basketball team must answer this year.
Two Virginia players have earned ACC Player of the Week honors following No. 10 Virginia's 16-0 triumph over Maryland.
The Virginia men's rugby team, which first came together in the fall of 1999, recently completed its most successful season in team history.
Redskins head coach Joe Gibbs talks about having "character" guys on his football team -- players that will uphold the tradition of the storied franchise and represent the team off the field.
The first-time conference champion Virginia women's soccer team was given the third seed in the NCAA tournament.
Virginia swimmers won both the men's and women's ACC Swimming and Diving Performer of the Week awards.
With a 2-1 lead against Florida State Friday night, the Virginia volleyball team needed just one more win to put the Seminoles away for good. Unfortunately for the Cavaliers, FSU rallied late, capturing the next two games and winning the match, 3-2.
It was one of the finest moments in American film history. Trailing the Urbana Cowboys with time left for only one play, the Little Giants pulled out their secret weapon: "The Annexation of Puerto Rico." A complicated play involving several passes and laterals, the Annexation won the game for the underdogs in the timeless cinematic classic from 1994, "Little Giants." While the movie couldn't have ended without the good guys coming through in the clutch to win, the fact that Rick Moranis' character and his rag-tag bunch of players were able to emerge victorious over a bigger and more talented squad through creative play calling is consistent with a common belief among football experts: The more surprise plays you have in the vault, the better. Why?
CARY, N.C. -- All season long, Virginia coach Steve Swanson has said one of his goals is for the Cavaliers to "make history." Yesterday afternoon, that is just what they did. After two scoreless sudden death overtimes, Virginia defeated North Carolina in penalty kicks (5-4) to win the ACC tournament championship for the first time in school history.
Despite a strong defensive performance, the Cavalier field hockey team was unable to hold off a charging Demon Deacon squad, falling in the first round of the ACC tournament Thursday, 5-1. Virginia goalkeeper Logan Carr put forth a solid defensive effort between the posts, collecting 11 saves and holding the Deacons to only one marker in the first half. Down 2-0 in the second half, Cavalier midfielder Katie Phillips narrowed the gap to one with a reverse chip shot over the head of the Wake Forest keeper.
The Virginia men's swimming and diving team earned a second place finish at the Boilermaker Challenge on Saturday, posting a strong performance against three nationally ranked teams from across the country. The women's team also had a solid showing at the meet, finishing sixth in a field of eight ranked teams.
On the final day of the regular season, the Virginia men's soccer team had a lot at stake. With a win against Maryland, the Cavaliers would claim the ACC regular season championship; but with a loss, the team would drop its first game at Klöckner Stadium as well as suffer back-to-back defeats for the first time this year. In an extremely hard fought, back-and-forth contest, the Cavaliers fell to the Terrapins 1-0 on a goal by Jason Arnold with just over four minutes remaining in the game.
It used to be that when the Virginia men's basketball team scored 90 points or more at home, Taco Bell would offer every fan in attendance a free taco.
Virginia's defense pitched its second shutout of the season, holding Maryland to just seven first downs and 51 rushing yards as the No.
