Virginia Rowing Wins 2011 ACC Championship

UVa Athletics Media Relations, Official Release

The fifth-ranked Virginia rowing team won every race en route to capturing the team title at the 2011 ACC Championship Saturday (April 23) on Clemson's Lake Hartwell. For Virginia rowing, it was the 11th conference title in the 12-year history of the rowing championship and the Cavaliers swept all four races for the second-consecutive year.

"It is awesome to win the ACC Championship again," UVa head coach Kevin Sauer said. "We were humble but hungry, coming into this thing prepared and ready to go. We are very glad we were able to win all four races and the [exhibition] Second Varsity Four as well. The Varsity Eight race was a barnburner all the way down the course, Clemson did a great job, and we were glad to get our bow in front."

Virginia finished first in the Varsity Eight (24 points), Second Varsity Eight (18 points), Varsity Four (12 points) and Novice Eight (six points) to claim the team title with 60 points in front of an ACC-record crowd of 1,022. No. 14 Clemson was second with 49 points, followed by Duke with 41 points, Miami with 23 points, Boston College with 22 points and North Carolina with 14 points.

Following the regatta, the conference announced its postseason awards and UVa's Sauer was named the ACC Coach of the Year for the seventh time in his career and second-consecutive year. Virginia rowers Claudia Blandford, Christine Roper, Martha Kuzzy, Kristine O'Brien and coxswain Sidney Thorsten were named to the All-ACC team. Kuzzy and O'Brien added the All-ACC nods to their ACC Freshman of the Year awards (Kuzzy in 2009 and O'Brien in 2010). Thorsten, a junior, was a repeat selection to the all-conference team.

"We have a lot of kids that contribute to this program and a few of them are always going to be named All-ACC but in my book every one of them is an All-ACC selection," Sauer said. "We have great depth and great camaraderie that is really cool to see."

Read the full release here.

This Week In Recruiting
By Chris Horne

As we reported last week, UVa is in pursuit of North Crowley (Fort Worth, TX) senior point guard Kyan Anderson, who was released from the letter of intent he signed with Providence College last November. The 5-11, 165-pound prospect, a 4-year starter at North Crowley, is also considering Texas Christian and Texas Tech.

TheSabre.com plans to have more on this situation early this week, so stay tuned for the latest scoop on Anderson's visit plans.

While the men's basketball program is in pursuit of a fourth recruit in its 2011 class, the football program has secured its second verbal commitment of the 2012 class. Victory Christian Academy (Lakeland, FL) outside linebacker recruit Demeitre Brim verbally committed to UVa last Friday over offers from Buffalo and Western Kentucky and interest from Arizona State, Florida, Kansas, Miami and South Florida.

Brim stands at 6-3 and weighs 200 pounds. He started at quarterback and free safety this past season as a junior, but Virginia likes him as a potential outside linebacker. EDGE subscribers can read more on Brim in this past Saturday's update, and we'll have more on the new commit this week.

The news isn't all good on the football recruiting front, though. Oscar Smith (Chesapeake, VA) running back J.C. Coleman and Wilson (Portsmouth, VA) athlete Der'Woun Greene, two players offered by the Cavaliers, pledged to Virginia Tech on Saturday. Greene grew up a Tech fan, so his decision wasn't a surprise, but Virginia was right there with Coleman, a dynamic speedster and one of the top overall juniors in the state.

"It was real close," Coleman said of his decision, which ultimately came down to Maryland, Virginia and Virginia Tech. "UVa came at me very hard. The coaches made me feel special. They are real honest. I love the coaches at Virginia a whole lot. It almost hurt me to tell them I committed, but I had to do what I had to do."

This week, we plan to check in with another top in-state target, Bayside (Virginia Beach, VA) wide receiver/safety Anthony Cooper, and a top in-state place-kicker in Colby Cooke. Virginia has offered the former, while the latter is getting very serious interest.

Chris Horne, our resident recruiting expert, provides updates throughout the week for Edge subscribers about UVa's commitments and recruiting targets in football and men's basketball. To sign up for an Edge subscription, please check out the Sabre Edge Sign Up and Information Page. If you're already on board as an Edge subscriber, click the links below to catch up on recruiting.

Sabre Edge recruiting updates from the past week ...

L.C. Bird Notes: The Latest On Deon Clarke

UVa Heads To Florida For Latest Recruit

More recent recruiting updates on The Sabre ...

• UVa Joins Kyan Anderson Race
• Recruiting Diary: New Offers For Prosise
• Clover Hill Notes: 2013 Standout Emerges
• Taylor Set To Camp At UVa

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Men's Tennis Wins ACC Tournament ... Again

Last week, SabreMail led with the fact that the men's tennis team had completed its fifth straight undefeated regular season in ACC play. This past weekend, the Hoos made it five straight - and seven of the last eight - ACC Championships in the ACC Tournamnet. The official UVa Athletics Media Relations release is below.

The top-ranked Virginia men's tennis team captured its fifth consecutive ACC Championship, the program's seventh title in the past eight years, with a 4-0 victory over No. 13 Duke in Sunday's tournament final at the Cary Tennis Park. The Cavaliers (29-0) extended their ACC-record win streak to 77 consecutive victories over conference competition, while Blue Devils (20-9) lost in the ACC final for the second consecutive year.

The Cavaliers opened the match by winning the doubles point. Jarmere Jenkins and Julen Uriguen got a break at 6-all and served out an 8-6 win at No. 2 over David Holland and Chris Mengel. Almost simultaneously, Virginia clinched the point at No. 3 as Sanam Singh and Alex Domijan closed out an 8-4 win over Fred Saba and Jared Pinsky.

In singles, the opening sets were close throughout, but the Cavaliers won two crucial tiebreakers to give them four of the six first sets and momentum in the match. Co-Tournament MVP Singh made the score 2-0 with his 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 3 over Mengel. It was Singh's third singles win of the tournament. Michael Shabaz, also Co-Tournament MVP, extended the lead to 3-0 with his 7-5, 6-1 win at the top position over Henrique Cunha. Domijan closed out the match as he downed Reid Carleton at No. 2 by a 7-6 (7), 6-0 score.

Virginia won this year's tournament by defeating all three opponents by 4-0 scores, becoming just the second team in ACC history to accomplish the feat. The Cavaliers also posted three shutouts en route to the 2009 title. Virginia also becomes the first team in the dual match era of the ACC Tournament (since 1986) to win five consecutive titles.

The Cavaliers will receive the ACC's automatic bid to next month's NCAA Tournament. The field of 64 will be announced on May 3.

Read more from Jeff White at VirginiaSports.com.

Blog Banter: The Sabre … Your Local Barber Shop

Hayes Permar over at the ACC Sports Journal (ACCSports.com) posted an around the ACC style article on Thursday. The lead topic? A few 'would you rather' scenarios for ACC fans. For Virginia, Permar had the following question:

Virginia: If you could only retain one, whom would you keep: Tony Bennett or Mike London?

So have at it Wahoo fans on our men's basketball, football, and EDGE message boards. After all, as Permar correctly points out in the article, message boards are the virtual barber shops of the internet:

"And that's what the message board is: on its good days, on its bad, whether it's sharing opinion, serving as a source of information, or a safe-zone for ranting or over-praising as you see fit, the message board community is like the small collection of connected locals getting together in the barber shop, where everyone feels his voice can and should be heard."

At least that's how we hope you feel here at TheSabre.com. Everyone's a local and everyone's got a voice. Pull up a chair and chat for a while!

Follow the Hoos on The Good Ol Blog.

Charity Poker

The UVaClub of Charlottesville invites you to attend the inaugural "Cavaliers Against Cancer" Texas Hold'em Tournament with proceeds benefitting the Rebecca Clary Harris, M.D. Memorial Fellowship at the University of Virginia Cancer Center. The tournament is being held beginning at noon on May 7 at the John Paul Jones Arena. Card players of all abilities are encouraged to register for the event which supports the Rebecca Clary Harris, M.D. Memorial Fellowship at the University of Virginia Cancer Center. This event is strictly a non-cash charity game with a chance to win non-cash prizes. Here is a printable marketing flyer. The deadline for registration is April 30 and there are a limited number of spots available. A Player Sponsorship ($75 donation) entitles the donor to entry into the JPJ, a seat in the Texas Hold'em Tournament, a behind-scenes-tour of the John Paul Jones Arena, a buffet, free non-alcoholic beverages (alcohol beverages will be available), and a chance to win great tournament and door prizes. Members of the UVaClub of Charlottesville in good standing receive a 20% discount ($60 donation).

All net proceeds of the event will be donated to the Rebecca Clary Harris, M.D. Memorial Fellowship at the University of Virginia Cancer Center. This fellowship celebrates the life of Rebecca Clary Harris M.D., a talented physician and researcher who excelled in the study and treatment of melanoma. The fund provides clinical and translational research fellowships to graduate students or fellows in the Human Immune Therapy Center at the University of Virginia Cancer Center.

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Around the World of Wahoo Sports ...

• No. 1 Virginia Baseball Downs N.C. State to Win Series: The top-ranked Virginia baseball team picked up a 7-6 victory over North Carolina State on Sunday afternoon to clinch a series win in front of 3,452 spectators at Davenport Field. With the win the Cavaliers earned their 13th straight ACC series victory, dating to a series loss at NC State April 2-4, 2010. Virginia (40-4, 18-3 ACC) reached the 40-win plateau for the seventh time in the last eight seasons. UVa is the first team to reach 40 wins this year in Division I baseball.
• No. 6 Duke Eliminates No. 10 UVa in the ACC Tournament: The No. 6 Duke Blue Devils used a 7-1 second quarter run to eliminate the No. 10 Virginia Cavaliers (8-5) from the ACC Tournament on Saturday night, 19-10, inside Koskinen Stadium.
• No. 4 UNC Earns Lopsided Victory over No. 10 Virginia in ACC Quarterfinals, 16-5: The third-seeded and fourth-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels earned its most lopsided victory in series history over the sixth-seeded and 10th-ranked Virginia women's lacrosse team Thursday night, 16-5, in the first round of the 2011 ACC Tournament.
• Virginia Suffers 4-3 Loss to Florida State in ACC Quarterfinals: The No. 11 Virginia women's tennis team suffered a 4-3 loss to No. 18 Florida State in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament on Friday afternoon. Virginia will now await a bid to the NCAA Tournament. The field of 64 will be announced on May 2.
• Kostelac Becomes Second Cavalier to Ever Sweep 800m Titles at ACC Championships: Freshman Anthony Kostelac led the Virginia track and field team on the final day of the 2011 Atlantic Coast Conference Championships at Duke; Kostelac, the indoor 800m conference champion, edged his junior All-American teammate - Lance Roller - down the homestretch to capture his first 800m outdoor conference title in a personal-best time of 1:49.02. Roller finished runner-up in 1:49.44. With the win, the Cavaliers have swept the indoor and outdoor 800m titles the past two years. Sophomore All-American Robby Andrews won the 2010 indoor title, while Roller won the outdoor crown last year. Kostelac swept both titles this year to become the seventh person in ACC history to win both events in the same year and the second in UVa history - Paul Ereng won both in 1989.
• Garcia Wins ACC Title in Steeplechase in Record-Breaking Fashion: Redshirt senior All-American Stephanie Garcia claimed her second ACC title in the 3000m steeplechase Friday night. Finishing with a personal-best time of 9:55.10, Garcia bettered her already school record (9:56.96 - 2011), shattered Duke's Wallace Wade Stadium record (10:02.85 - Mollie DeFrancesco, JMU, 2002) and broke the all-time ACC Championship meet record (9:56.29 - Barbara Parker, FSU, 2007). Her time also leads the NCAA this season and ranks No. 2 in the world. Garcia, the 2008 ACC Champion in the steeplechase, becomes the first Cavalier in program history to earn dual titles in the event and the third person in ACC history to do so. NC State's Katie Sabino won the 2001 and 2002 crowns, while Florida State's Parker was victorious in 2006 and 2007.
• Karin Earns All-ACC Honors in Javelin: Led by junior Tara Karin, six Cavaliers scored on the opening day of the 2011 Atlantic Coast Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Duke's Wallace Wade Stadium. Karin earned her second All-ACC honor in the javelin, finishing third with a throw of 148' 10".
• Virginia Finished Fourth at ACC Men's Golf Championships: The No. 22 Virginia men's golf team shot 1-over 289 Sunday during the final round of the ACC Championships to finish fourth in the 11-team field. It marked the first time since the 1996 & 1997 seasons UVa posted back-to-back top-four finishes at the league championship. The Cavaliers were the runners up last season. Junior Ben Kohles led all UVa golfers with an eighth-place finish. Kohles shot 4-under 68 Sunday to move into the top 10 after starting the final round in 22nd place.

To read the full stories or gather more information on Virginia athletics, check out Virginiasports.com.

Virginia Baseball Perfect Game T-Shirt

$10.00

The Virginia Baseball Perfect Game T-Shirt commemorates an historic event in college baseball, the throwing of a perfect game! This was the first ever for the UVA baseball program. The shirt features The Perfect Game above the silhouette of a UVA Baseball pitcher and the V-Sabre logo. The game scoreboard is printed above March 29th, 2011 - Davenport Field - University of Virginia.

Issue No. 107 - October 3, 2003

Cavaliers win on Hughes' and Winborne's late-game heroics

Connor Hughes kicks the winning FG with less than 10 seconds remaining.

Wake Forest gave Virginia quite a fight last Saturday, but the Hoos dug down deep and were able to pull out the win. While there were many heroes on the day, no one shined more than sophomore placekicker Connor Hughes. With the game under two minutes, Hughes connected on a booming 53-yarder field goal to tie the game. After a remarkable interception by Jamaine Winborne to get the Hoos into field goal range, Hughes nailed another one with less than 10 seconds remaining to win the game.

As mentioned above, there were quite a few heroes on the day for the Hoos. Matt Schaub returned to action for the first time since the opening drive against Duke over a month ago. Schaub came out hot, completing 30 of his 45 pass attempts for 326 yards and two touchdowns. Schaub also showed some guts, breaking free from an apparent sack and diving into the end zone for a crucial two-point conversation to tie the game at the start of the fourth quarter.

Virginia's defense should get some credit as well. While they did give up 47-yard touchdown pass to Wake in the third quarter, they dug down deep when the team needed it the most. When Virginia was coming back, Schaub threw two interceptions late in the game. Wake was unable to capitalize on either turnover. On a game-deciding 4th and 2 on UVa's 8-yard line, the Cavalier defense stopped Wake Forest to give Schaub a chance to move the team down the field for the tying score. And let's not forget Winborne's interception that put Virginia in field goal range to win the game, rather than going to overtime.

This was a character-building win for the Hoos over an improving Wake Forest team. The win puts UVa at 2-0 in the conference and 3-1 overall, which puts them off to a better start than last year's 9-5 bowl-winning team (the 2002 team started 2-2).

Check Out SabreMail #107.

Coming Soon

The Sabre has you covered when it comes to Hoo news. Here are a few of the articles to expect on the site soon:

• Shabaz Shines: TheSabre.com will feature men's tennis star Michael Shabaz in a feature in the coming days.
• Catching Up With Kevin Coffey: Kevin Coffey, Hoo receiver from the 1990's, checks in with The Sabre to talk about what he's doing these days.

In Case You Missed It ...

Sabre articles since the last SabreMail

Blair's Top 10 Student Sports Moments
There's nothing quite like Charlottesville in the springtime. As silly as it sounds, I never wanted to go abroad during the school year because I didn't want to miss out on anything. Fall is football season, of course, but spring has its own special appeal. Some of my favorite Cavalier sports moments have happened during the spring, but fall and winter have had their share of memorable times as well. Here are my top 10 sports moments from my four years as a Virginia student, so far.

Hicks Happy At Home
When talking about Virginia baseball's stellar 2011 season, it's easy to focus on the depth and skill level in the bullpen. The Cavalier pitchers have led the team to six straight series victories in a tough ACC conference, which bodes well for postseason play. Despite the standout play from the men on the mound, there's another player who deserves just as much of the credit. Junior John Hicks has been consistent all season long in his new, primary role at catcher, and, like many of head coach Brian O'Connor's players, he has proven to be indispensable on both offense and defense.

JHoo's 10 Things I Learned 2011 ... Spring Practice
Spring practices are in the book ... but I think a lot of Hoo fans are left wondering what actually was accomplished. The answer? A lot ... though perhaps not as much as one might have wished. (Isn't that always the case?) So let's get into what we don't know, what we know now that we didn't know before, and what we hope we know by the time the season arrives.

Photo Gallery: Spring Football Game
In early April Virginia fans got a chance to see a spring football game in a real game format rather than a glorified practice as we've seen many years prior. The Blue Team defeated the Orange Team 17-7. It allowed for many freshmen players to participate and have an impact in the game, including receiver Brendan Morgan (shown here scoring a touchdown). Also highlighted in the game were the four quarterbacks battling for the starting spot for 2011. TheSabre.com captured much of the action in this gallery of 90 photos.

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