No. 3 Virginia Plays Saturday at No. 7 Louisville

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Oct. 20, 2017

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 3 Virginia field hockey team (12-3, 4-1 ACC) plays two road games this weekend, beginning with a game on Saturday, Oct. 21 at 12 p.m. at No. 7 Louisville (11-4, 4-1 ACC). The Cavaliers close out the weekend by playing at Miami (Ohio) on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Live stats for both games will be available with links posted on VirginiaSports.com. Saturday’s game at Louisville will be an ACC Network Extra contest and will stream live online on ESPN3/ Watch ESPN.

Virginia and Louisville come into the final conference game of the season with identical 4-1 ACC records. The winner of Saturday’s game will claim the ACC regular-season title and the top seed in the ACC Championship along with a first-round bye. For Virginia, it would be its first regular-season title since 2014. The Cardinals have already clinched their best finish since joining the ACC three years ago, topping their fourth-place finish in 2016. The bracket for the ACC Championship will be announced following the game. Virginia, the reigning ACC Champions, was the No. 6 seed in the tournament last season.

This will be Virginia’s sixth top-10 match-up of the season. The Cavaliers have picked up victories over then-No. 1 Duke, No. 7 Syracuse and No. 8 Boston College but fell to then-No. 7 Penn State and No. 6 North Carolina.

The game will pit the current ACC Offensive Player of the Week against the current ACC Defensive Player of the Week. Freshman midfielder Pien Dicke (Den Haag, Netherlands) was named the ACC Offensive Player of the Week for the second time this season for her efforts in the win at Syracuse last weekend. Dicke currently ranks third in the nation and second in the ACC in points (2.87) and goals per game (1.27).

Louisville’s Taylor Stone, who is both the ACC and NFHCA National Defensive Player of the Week, helped the Cardinals extend their win streak to seven games with her defensive efforts and by scoring the game-winning goal in the 3-2 win at No. 5 North Carolina last Saturday.

The Cavaliers are coming off a 5-4 loss on Tuesday to No. 12 Maryland. The Terrapins held a 5-1 lead, but the Cavaliers rallied in the final 12 minutes of the game, including scoring two goals in the final two minutes, to make it a 5-4 game. Virginia was on attack in the final 30 seconds of the game, but the Terrapin defense held tight and preserved the victory.

Senior midfielder Tara Vittese (Cherry Hill, N.J.) has scored a goal in each of the last two games and needs nine points to become the eighth player in ACC history to reach the 200-point threshold. Vittese, who was named to the Victory Sports Tours NFHCA Senior Game roster this week, leads the nation in points per game (3.93) and is second in the nation and leads the ACC in goals per game (1.47).

Louisville’s last loss came on September 19 at Northwestern. Minout Mink leads the team with 19 points on eight goals and three assists. Goalkeeper Ayeisha McFerran is averaging 3.67 saves per game and has a .710 save percentage.

Miami (7-7, 4-0 MAC) will play Central Michigan on Friday night before hosting the Cavaliers on Sunday. The RedHawks are coming off a 1-1 week after losing to No. 2 Duke 2-0 and beating Davidson 4-1. Virginia has all 10 victories in the all-time series against Miami. In 2016, the No. 5 Cavaliers beat the RedHawks 5-1. Miami goalkeeper Alysa Xavier registered 11 saves and Brie Stahl scored the lone RedHawks goal.

Virginia concludes the regular-season next Sunday, Oct. 29 at 1 p.m. at Old Dominion. The 2017 Atlantic Coast Conference Championship will be held Nov. 2-5 in Louisville.