Hoos Going to Finish First?

After my earlier post about UVA spring sports, I felt it was a good opportunity to catch up on the winning teams headed into their NCAA championship stretches. Let’s all hope that these teams do not meet the same fates as my favorite professional spring teams and my playoff beards.

The #1 Cavaliers lacrosse team is 15-1 and is already in the second round of the NCAA playoffs. Their only loss was to Duke a month ago, which they avenged a week later in route to an ACC title. The Hoos take on Stony Brook this Sunday at 2:30 on ESPNU. Even if they get past #8 Stony Brook (for some reason the game was chosen to be in Stony Brook, NY before the season started), Virginia will have to face either #5 Duke for the third time this year or #4 UNC for the second time. #2 seeded Syracuse already fell to Army leaving the door open for #3 Maryland and a possible third matchup against the Terrapins in the title game; as if a possible three ACC team final four on Memorial Day wasn’t enough.

Meanwhile #1 UVA baseball is cruising along at 43-9, with a 14 game winning streak and three straight ACC series sweeps. Who even needs Ryan Zimmerman or Mark Reynolds? The Hoos head south to face Miami this weekend to wrap up the regular season before the ACC tournament begins during Memorial Day weekend on FoxSports/Comcast. They will most certainly host a regional June 4^th- 7^th and hopefully a super regional June 11^th-14^thon ESPN/ESPNU.

The red headed step child of the group is the #1 tennis team, which is 37-1 and has not lost since February 6^th, 33 straight games ago. They already dispatched Navy and Wake Forest in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament to make the round of 16 this weekend. In fact, the entire rest of the tournament is played between Friday and next Tuesday and UVa starts off by facing Duke for the third time this year. The finals will be on ESPNU on Tuesday.

Hopefully, if the Caps and Cleveland Cavs have taught me anything, it is to not get my hopes up for the top team in the league come playoff time, and maybe I’ll keep it to a playoff goatee this time around. At least UVA’s football team didn’t lose the spring game.