No. 6 UVa Claims ACC Championship

UVa Athletic Media Relations Official Release

The No. 6 Virginia rowing team swept all four races en route to its fourth consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference Championship on Sunday morning on Lake Hartwell in Clemson, S.C. It is the 13th conference crown in 14 years for the Cavaliers, who have automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships, to be held May 31-June 2 in Indianapolis, Ind.

UVa head coach Kevin Sauer was named ACC Coach of the Year for the ninth time and fourth year in a row. Virginia's top boat, the Varsity Eight, was named ACC Crew of the Year, the 11th Cavalier crew to earn the honor. The V8 consisted of junior coxswain Sarah Jordan, junior Constanze Duell, sophomore Chandler Lally, senior Kristine O'Brien, graduate student Sarah Cowburn, junior Fiona Schlesinger, senior Susanne Grainger, junior Elle Murray and sophomore Lizzy Youngling.

Cowburn, Grainger, Jordan, O'Brien and Schlesinger were all named to the All-ACC squad. O'Brien was honored for the third consecutive year, while Cowburn was recognized for the second season in a row.

"It was a great day for UVa rowing," Sauer said. "We are very happy that we earned the automatic qualifying spot to the NCAA Championships from the ACC. Many thanks to Robbie Tenenbaum, Melanie Onufrieff and all the Clemson staff that did such a great job hosting the championship"

To read the full news release click here.

This Week In Recruiting With Chris Horne

Just more than two weeks remain until the end of the Spring Evaluation Period, but certainly recruiting season is in full swing. New targets continue to pop up on the radar, with one of the most recent Virginia targets being Western Branch (Chesapeake, VA) rising senior cornerback DaiQuan Lawrence.

Lawrence scored an offer from the Hoos last week, and he was supposed to make an unofficial visit to Charlottesville over the weekend. We'll check back with DaiQuan this week for the latest, but in the meantime be sure to check out last week's profile of him on the EDGE (linked below).

As the Spring Evaluation Period comes to an end, spring and summer camp season starts to heat up. These camps are important not only for identifying top prospects for future classes, but for current class of 2014 recruiting as well. In this week's football "Strategy Session," I'll discuss which key dates to remember this spring and summer.

Also in the "Strategy Session," I'll recap some of the recent roster changes, take a look at which positions the staff is/should be targeting in the class of 2014, and give you my current top 10 overall targets remaining on the board.

I'll have a basketball recruiting "Strategy Session" up this week as well, with a look at potential needs in the class of 2014 and a list of some of those confirmed offers the staff has given out thus far. Virginia men's basketball has one commitment in the class already, from wing guard B.J. Stith, son of former Virginia star Bryant Stith.

Virginia women's basketball made a big splash last week too with a commitment from 5-star forward Aliyah Huland El, a rising senior out of Randolph High School in New Jersey. The 6'1" wing chose the Hoos over Maryland, Penn State, Princeton, and Syracuse.

The New Jersey Star Ledger has more on Huland El here.

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.

More recent Sabre recruiting updates ...

Clarke Names Top 6
TC Williams (Alexandria, VA) defensive lineman/offensive lineman Jeremiah Clarke admitted previously that Penn State and Virginia were high on his list of schools, but until this week he had yet to name a clear set of favorites. Clarke's recruitment may be coming into sharper focus, as the 6'5", 270-pound rising senior revealed his top six schools via Twitter on Tuesday night.

Devin Robinson's Stock On The Rise
It has been quite a year for Devin Robinson. The 6'8", 175-pound forward helped Christchurch (VA) to a 24-7 overall record and a state championship crown, totaling 21 points and 11 rebounds in the VIS Division II final against Virginia Episcopal. Robinson's stellar play has continued for the Richmond Squires AAU squad, and as a result he has seen his stock rise in the recruiting ranks.

More recent recruiting updates on The Sabre ...

• Virginia Offers Western Branch DB
• Kamara Updates Finalists, Timetable

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Barber, Sintim Retire

A pair of Virginia football players announced their NFL retirement this past week. Former cornerback Ronde Barber wrapped up what could be a Hall of Fame career with Tampa Bay, while former linebacker Clint Sintim stepped aside after knee problems.

Read more about Barber's decision here. You also can read the Bucs' reaction here and about Barber's HOF potential here, here, and here.

Read more about Sintim's decision here.

License Plate section is up in Wahoowa!

In recent months, SabreMail made a request for anyone who had license plates that reflected your status as a Hoo fan. The responses have started to trickle in and the Plates Photos are up and running the Wahoowa! section of the site. The Wahoowa! section of the Sabre is dedicated to all things associated with UVa Fan-dom. There are various fan-related areas including desktop wallpaper, Fan of the Week photos, V-Sabres Worldwide, and more. If you have suggestions for new and interesting things in the Wahoowa! section, please email us at [email protected] with the header: Wahoowa! suggestion.

We'd like to keep adding photos to the section so if your license plate shows that you're a Hoo fan, let us know so we can include you in our gallery. All you need to do is snap a picture of your license plate and email a jpeg version of the photo to [email protected] with the email header: License Plate Photo.

Around the World of Wahoo Sports ...

• No. 7 Cavaliers Finish Off Series Sweep of Duke, 14-6: The seventh-ranked Virginia baseball team completed a three-game series sweep of Duke with a 14-6 victory Sunday afternoon in front of a Mothers' Day crowd of 4,646 at Davenport Field. Virginia (42-8, 20-7 ACC) finished off its fourth ACC series sweep of the year and has won seven of its nine conference series, including all five at home, where UVa is 32-3 overall this season.
• Virginia Upsets Georgetown to Advance to NCAA Quarterfinals: The Virginia women's lacrosse team (11-9) upset six-seed Georgetown (13-6), 10-8, in the second round of the 2013 NCAA Division I Women's Lacrosse Championship. Virginia went on an 8-1 run that spanned both halves and held off a late rally by the sixth-seed Hoyas en route to the win Sunday.
• Virginia Downs Minnesota 4-0 to Reach NCAA Round of 16: The Virginia men's tennis team reached the round of 16 of the NCAA Tournament for the 10th consecutive year with a 4-0 second round victory over Minnesota Saturday at the Snyder Tennis Center. The Cavaliers (26-0) will travel to Illinois next week as the University of Illinois hosts this year's NCAA Championships.
• Virginia Gains Third Straight NCAA Sweet 16 Berth: Junior Li Xi saved two match points during her match-clinching victory at No. 4 singles as No. 14 Virginia rallied for a dramatic 4-3 win over No. 18 Texas in the second of the NCAA Women's Tournament on Sunday. The Cavaliers improve to 19-9 and advance to the NCAA Round of 16 for the third straight season.
• Cavaliers Conclude Strong Showing at Virginia Challenge: The Virginia men's and women's track and field teams concluded their final home meet of the season as the Virginia Challenge concluded Saturday at Lannigan Field. The event, in its second year, featured an elite field of collegiate and professional athletes, including 10 Olympians. The Virginia distance runners had several impressive results on Saturday evening. Thomas Porter won the men's 10,000m in a time of 29:34.15, the sixth best time in school history. Vicky Fouhy shined in the women's 1500m, running the second fastest time in school history at 4:14.96. It topped her previous PR by over four seconds. In the afternoon sprints, the Cavaliers went 1-2-3 in the women's 100m with Jordan Lavender, Peyton Chaney and Danielle Williams the first three across the line.
• Cavaliers Finish 11th at NCAA Women's Golf Regional: The 13th-ranked Virginia women's golf team finished 11th at the NCAA East Regional that wrapped up Saturday at the Auburn University Club. The Cavaliers were not one of the eight teams from the site to advance to the NCAA Championships. UVa's finish marks the first time in six years it will not participate in the NCAA Championships. Virginia senior Brittany Altomare turned in the team's top performance, shooting 1-under 215. She shot even par 72 during her final collegiate round.

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

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Issue No. 396 - June 1, 2009

O'Connor Shares Thoughts

Shortly before taking a flight back to Charlottesville, Virginia baseball coach Brian O'Connor joined reporters for a teleconference Monday afternoon. O'Connor answered questions about his team's Irvine Regional win, which allowed the Hoos' program to advance to a Super Regional for the first time in program history. The Cavaliers take on the Ole Miss-Western Kentucky winner in a best two-out-of-three series in the Super Regional round. Some of O'Connor's thoughts follow:

On returning to Charlottesville vs. waiting to see where the next round will be played ...

"Had we not won the game and played again today, then we would have waited to see what happened before we made our flight reservations. When we could back to Charlottesville late tonight and not leave again until Wednesday, I just thought it was the best thing for us to get back home for a day. We've been on the road for a week. I want to get back home today; it's my daughter's ninth birthday today so I want to try to get back home for it."

On Franco Valdes being named the regional's Most Oustanding Player ...

"He's very deserving of that award. Not only did he get some of the big hits in the tournament, he was also a real leader for us behind the plate. Obviously only giving up two runs in the three games in the regional, you not only have to have great pitching, you have to have a catcher behind the plate handling those pitchers and doing a great job. He was fantastic all weekend."

On the pitching rotation for the Super Regional ...

"It's more based on the match-ups. We're still obviously coming down off of a high from winning this thing. We'll take a couple of days to think about it. Our rotation this weekend in the regional was very thought out. We really didn't make that decision until Thursday on what the best thing to do is. So we'll take a couple of days and think about it, but it's nice to know we have some really great options."

On anticipating Keith Werman's impact this season ...

"I didn't. I wasn't planning on him being a factor. But just like Robert Morey, sometimes you give a kid an opportunity and they make the most of it and make a difference in your team, Keith Werman was the same. It was just about four weeks ago that up until that point he had only had about five starts on the year. So I plugged him in there and he did a great job and swung the bat well and then we continued to give him opportunties and I really feel like he makes a difference in our team. He plays great defense. Phil Gosselin has played wonderful defense all year - I think he only has two errors - but Werman has added a dimension for us defesively and offensively. He's a tough out. He's gotten some really big key hits for us or drawn some key walks. He's a scrappy little fighter and I think our team has fed off of that emotion a little bit."

On Kevin Arico and the bullpen ...

"I thought all along, all year, that Kevin Arico has good stuff and felt like it was a matter of time before he started showing some consistency and giving him enough opportunities to show it. I felt all year long that we had a really good ball club and I just thought it was a matter of time before I got that bullpen figured out and that bullpen got confidence in itself. I just felt like once we did that, we could really, really have a special club and I feel fortunate that's proven to be true.."

Read SabreMail No. 396 here.

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:

• Spring Football: The Hoos played their annual Spring Game this month. Stay tuned for more articles about UVa's spring practice period and what the 2013 season may hold.
• Spring Postseason: The postseason has arrived for several UVa teams. Stay tuned to The Sabre message boards for the latest.
• FanWatch: Another edition of FanWatch appears this month!

In Case You Missed It

Recent Sabre articles ...

Spring Superlatives - Most Likely To Surprise
When Mike London took over as head coach of the Virginia football program, recruiting became one of the key areas of focus. In order to turn around the Cavaliers, the coaching staff needed to bring in more talent to create depth and competition. Now after stringing together multiple solid recruiting classes in a row, some of those early recruits are entering their second and third season on the field. That experience could start to shine through this season. With that in mind, let's look at the next superlative-style breakdown with "Most Likely To Surprise" for the Hoos.

Spring Superlatives - Most Depth
With spring football practice in the rearview mirror and fall football practice still a summer away, there's plenty of time to dissect, discuss, examine, and evaluate the Cavaliers. One way to do that is with some superlative-style breakdowns. Let's get started with the recognition for "Most Depth" for the Hoos, a competition that has grown more fierce thanks to the recruiting efforts of recent years. What position holds the honors?

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