For a breakdown of the UVa-VT matchup, here's an article by Greg Waters.

No road woes for Wahoos in Atlanta

There were plenty of reasons to be concerned about the Cavaliers going into last Saturday's game at Georgia Tech. They were coming off a dispiriting loss to Miami. Their receiving corps and punting game seemed to be unraveling. And they hadn't won at Bobby Dodd Stadium in 10 years.

As it turned out, there was no need to worry. Virginia played well in every phase of the game and handed Georgia Tech a 30-10 defeat. The defense recorded six sacks, three by Darryl Blackstock. Michael McGrew carried a depleted receiving corps with a career-high eight catches. The running game produced over 200 yards for the ninth time in 10 games. And freshman Chris Gould, seeing his first action, averaged nearly 44 yards on seven punts, perhaps solving the team's biggest weakness.

All of those were good signs going into the Virginia Tech game. Of course, as we've seen this season, a good performance one week doesn't necessarily carry over into the next game. Nor does a poor performance. But a strong showing on the road has to calm the nerves of Cavalier fans - at least a little bit - as the team heads for Lane Stadium, a place where it hasn't prevailed since 1998.

For a recap of the Georgia Tech win, please check out the link below.

Singletary off to scintillating start for men's hoops

Sean Singletary

Sean Singletary came to UVa with more hype than any Cavalier recruit in years. Fortunately, he's living up to it -- and then some.

The freshman point guard has been outstanding in the early stages of his collegiate career in helping Virginia to a 3-0 start. He is averaging 9.7 points, 6.3 assists, 3.3 steals and 3.3 rebounds. Beyond the stats, he has given the Wahoos the kind of floor leadership, playmaking ability and confidence that they have long lacked at the point-guard position.

Singletary also has demonstrated an ability to rise to the occasion. In his second game, he delivered 15 points, eight assists, six rebounds and six steals in a 78-60 rout of No. 10 Arizona at University Hall. The crowd oohed and aahed at many of his plays as he dominated his matchup with Arizona point guard and fellow Philly phenom Mustafa Shakur, one of the nation's top freshmen a year ago.

Looks like Singletary will make a major impact on the program in his first season. He was named ACC rookie of the week for his play in the first two games and Coach Gillen said he expects Singletary to keep improving. The next game for Singletary and the rest of the Cavaliers is Sunday at 1 p.m. against Richmond at U-Hall.

For more information on UVa men's basketball, please see the link below.

For a recap of Virginia's win over Arizona, click on this link.

Women's basketball lands good recruiting class

Five players signed letters-of-intent with the UVa women's basketball program during the early signing period. Blue Star Index, a recruiting service, rated it the 16th-best class in the country.

One thing's for sure: The class doesn't lack size. Among the recruits is 6-9 center Lindsay Hayward of Rocklin, Calif., who is tied with nine others as the tallest woman in the world. While Hayward is an intriguing prospect, the marquee member of the class is probably 6-1 forward Lyndra Littles (Washington, D.C.), who is rated the No. 25 recruit in the country by All-Game Sports.

The other three recruits are also highly regarded. They include 6-3 center Abby Robertson (Springfield, Va.), 5-11 wing player Enonge Stovall (Philadelphia, Pa.) and 5-10 guard Britnee Milner (Martinsville, Va.).

The current Cavaliers are 3-1 heading into Saturday's home game against Richmond. They easily defeated Cleveland State and Delaware State this week and are led by senior forward Brandi Teamer, who is averaging 16.5 points and 9.0 rebounds.

For more information about UVa women's basketball, please see the link below.

Men's soccer facing No. 1 Lobos in NCAA third-round game

It's not often that the No. 4 team in the country hosts the No. 1 team in a third-round NCAA tournament game, but that's what will happen Saturday night in the NCAA men's soccer tourney.

The fourth-ranked Cavaliers (18-4) will face top-ranked New Mexico (17-1-1) at 7 p.m. at Klockner Stadium, with the winner advancing to the quarterfinals. Why are these teams meeting so early in the tournament? Because the Lobos, despite their national ranking, were given a No. 13 seed by the tournament selection committee, which knocked them down for a weak strength of schedule. Virginia's seed matched its ranking.

That means New Mexico will come to Charlottesville seeking to validate its ranking, while the Cavs will try to continue their quest for their first national championship since 1994. They had to rally from a one-goal deficit to defeat American, 2-1, in Tuesday's second-round game at Klockner. Hunter Freeman and WIll Hall scored second-half goals for the Wahoos.

For more information about UVa men's soccer, please see the link below.

First, let me thank all of you for your patience while we've made some major programming changes at TheSabre.com. I know that many of you needed assistance with log-in problems over the last few weeks and I hope that we've done a good job of handling these requests and getting you up to speed. While the changes have created some temporary problems for some of you, the good news is that each of you now has one place to go to manage everything in your account. (Click the link above for more...)

Sabre Edge articles and columns from the past week

OK, so I was wrong. A few weeks ago, I tried to convince myself, and the rest of you, that a certain college football program from Southwestern Virginia wasn't quite as ... obnoxious, as ... revolting, or as ... frustrating as they once were. In fact, I may have gone so far as to begin to say that I bordered on non-hatred of this football program. Not any kind of affection, mind you, but perhaps a decided ambivalence. Well, guys, to put it simply - I take it all back.

Normally we list five things Virginia must do (the absolutes) and five things the Cavs would like to do (the desirables) in each game. But this is such a big game, we'll go with 10 absolutes. To win, the Wahoos absolutely must play smashmouth football, limit Tech's big plays, win the field-position battle, play well on special teams and contain Bryan Randall. Marques Hagans, who has thrown just five interceptions, also must avoid turnovers and D'Brickashaw Ferguson must win his matchup with Darryl Tapp.

Wouldn't you know it? In Virginia Tech's first season in the ACC, the Cavaliers and Hokies will be playing for the conference championship. (At least a piece of it, anyway.) Because of that, for the first time since the schools were members of the Southern Conference from 1922-35, more than state bragging rights will be at stake when the old rivals play for the 86th time Saturday at Lane Stadium. But does that change the nature of the rivalry?

In his Monday press conference, Virginia coach Al Groh talked about the upcoming game against Virginia Tech and offered his thoughts on the rivalry. He also discussed the Hokies' offense, defense and special teams as well as the play of Chris Gould, Darryl Blackstock, Andrew Hoffman and Kai Parham, his relationship with Coach Beamer, and much more. Also included in this audio feature is John Galinsky's interview with punter Chris Gould.

One test Virginia had rarely passed in recent years was the ACC road test. Before Saturday, you could argue that the Cavs had not defeated a quality conference opponent away from Scott Stadium since winning at Clemson in 2001. But the Wahoos waltzed into Bobby Dodd Stadium - a place where they had not won in 10 years - and spanked the Yellow Jackets by 20 points. As a result, they earned A's and B's in every phase of the game. Many players, like Marques Hagans, bounced back from poor performances the week before against Miami.

OK, I'll try not to get carried away. It was just one game, one nonconference November home game against a team that looked tired. It's a long season and who knows if Virginia will play this well on the ACC road in February. But still. Any UVa fan who wasn't extremely encouraged by tonight's 78-60 thrashing of No. 10 Arizona has to be made of stone. This wasn't a night for negativity. Why was it so encouraging? It wasn't just that the Cavaliers beat a top-10 team by 18 points. It was the way they won - with great defense, aggressive rebounding and superior point-guard play.

Virginia's coaching staff caught a lot of grief around here following last week's loss to Miami. If you were on the message boards, you know what I mean. Among the complaints: An unimaginative offense. A timid defense. Poor special teams strategy. Inadequate mental preparation. No halftime adjustments. Some of that criticism was justified, some was just message-board venting. Regardless of the validity, the coaches would probably accept their share of blame for the team's performance against the Hurricanes. Just as players bounce back from bad outings, however, so do coaches.

Virginia's opening game of the 2004-05 basketball season wasn't so much about competition - little Robert Morris couldn't provide much of that - as it was about first impressions. Collectively, the Cavaliers made a good first impression with their defense, cohesion and chemistry. Individually, no one made a better first impression on the fans at University Hall than Sean Singletary. Playing (and starting) in his first college game, the freshman finished with seven assists, six points, three steals and two turnovers.

UVa now has 24 commitments for the 2005 recruiting class. Though there is technically only one spot remaining, the recruiting front remains very interesting and very active. Over the past month, Derrick Williams and Marques Slocum have begun looking elsewhere and have eliminated the Cavaliers, but Virginia remains solidly in the mix for top targets such as Victor "Macho" Harris, Toney Baker and Brian Cushing. A few other tailbacks and receiver Todd Nolen also are high on UVa's list.

Sabre Edge recruiting updates from the past week

Our resident recruiting expert, Chris Horne, provides updates for Edge subscribers about UVa's commitments and recruiting targets in football and men's basketball. To sign up for an Edge subscription, please see the sign-up promotion below. If you're already on board as an Edge subscriber, click the links below to catch up on recruiting.

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