A pair of Virginia teams helped clinch this year’s Smithfield Commonwealth Clash competition with Virginia Tech this past week. The Cavaliers lead 11-8 with only the two track and field points remaining next month.
The UVA women’s lacrosse team topped the Hokies 15-10 on Thursday, which set up the chance to take the clash for the men’s golf team. At the ACC Championships, the Hoos tied for third place during the stroke play portion of the event to advance to the match play semifinals while Virginia Tech placed 12th overall. That point gave Virginia the Commonwealth Clash crown.
In the women’s lacrosse game, three Wahoos put on a scoring show. Sophomore Rachel Clark tallied 5 goals with 2 assists, while junior Mackenzie Hoeg and senior Jaime Biskup each posted a hat trick. In the ACC Championships for men’s golf, Bryan James finished 3rd in stroke play at 7-under 209.
The Cavaliers’ 11 points so far this season came from men’s soccer, women’s soccer (0.5), men’s cross country, women’s cross country, volleyball, men’s basketball (0.5), women’s swimming and diving, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, women’s golf, women’s lacrosse, and men’s golf. The outdoor track and field points will be decided May 11-13.
Virginia has won 6 of 9 Commonwealth Challenge/Clash competitions between the two schools. There has been one tie and the 2019-2020 competition was undecided due the pandemic cancellation of spring sports that year.
Another ACC Title For Virginia
The UVA men’s tennis team picked up its third straight ACC Championship on Sunday when it toppled Duke 4-1 in the final. It also marked the 15th overall ACC title for the program.
Virginia took the doubles point to open the match with Chris Rodesch and Jeffrey von der Schulenburg sealing the deal with a 6-4 win on court two. In singles, von der Schulenburg gave his team a 2-0 lead with a 6-4, 6-2 victory at No. 3. Mans Dahlberg made it 3-1 with a three-set victory of 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 at No. 6. Ryan Goetz closed out the match with a 6-2, 6-7 (3-7), 6-2 win at No. 4.
Junior Chris Rodesch was named the tournament MVP. He won at No. 1 in both the ACC Tournament Quarterfinals and Semifinals. He also won at doubles in the semis and title match.
“Credit to Duke for a great college tennis match,” Virginia coach Andres Pedroso said in a news release. “That program is playing some really good tennis and competing really hard. They’ll be a dangerous team at the NCAA Tournament. So credit to that team credit to their coaches. They’re doing a great job. Our team battled hard. We knew there were going to be some ups and downs. We knew there were going to be some momentum swings and we just hung in there and stayed composed and believed in ourselves. So really proud of these guys for the effort all weekend. These championships are really special. And we’re going to take a lot of confidence from this weekend into the NCAA Tournament.”
School Records
Virginia women’s track and field standouts Margot Appleton and Alix Still etched their names in the school record book on Friday.
Appleton cruised to the 5,000-meter win at UVA’s Lannigan Field in a time of 15:36.28. That broke the 43-year old record set by Margaret Groos in 1980. Appleton’s time ranked second in the ACC and ninth in NCAA Division I this season entering the weekend.
Still, meanwhile, posted a point total of 5,662 points to set the heptathlon record at UVA. She moved past Rebecca Grube’s 5,512 points that set the record in 1994. Still is the school record holder in both the indoor and outdoor heptathlon. On the way to the outdoor record, Still set a personal-best time in the 100-meter hurdles (13.68 seconds) and personal-best throw in the the javelin (123’11”).
Good News For Virginia Women’s Swimming
Another UVA women’s team got some good news recently too. According to SwimSwam.com, seniors Ella Nelson and Maddie Donohoe have elected to use their additional year of eligibility offered to all swimmers who competed during the 2020-21 NCAA season. The two All-Americans have helped the Cavaliers win three straight National Championships.
Nelson had previously received a graduate scholarship for a program in biotechnology at Virginia. She claimed top 4 finishes in the 400 IM (2nd, 3:59.54), 200 IM (4th, 1:53.13), and 200 breaststroke (3rd, 2:04.33) at the NCAA Championships this year. That chipped in 48 points, the 8th highest individual total at the meet, to the title cause. Donohoe added 13 points to the winning total with a 10th place swim in the 500 free (3:39.46) and an 11th swim in the 1650 free (15:56.83).
The return of this proven duo strengthens the chances of a four-peat for the Virginia women’s swimming and diving team.
