Virginia Closes Home Slate This Weekend
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 23 Virginia field hockey team (5-8, 1-4 ACC) plays its final two home games of the 2018 season, hosting No. 14 Wake Forest (8-6, 2-3 ACC) on Friday, Oct. 19 at 5 p.m., and No. 2 Maryland (15-1, 6-1 Big Ten) on Sunday, Oct. 21 at 2 p.m., at Turf Field in Charlottesville, Va.
Admission is free for all of Virginia’s regular-season home field hockey games. Parking is free and will be available first-come, first-served in the University Hall Lot, McCue Lot, and JPJ Surface Lot.
Both games will stream on ACC Network Extra, which is available to authenticated subscribers of ESPN3 through WatchESPN and the ESPN app. Fans can also keep up with the action through live stats on VirginiaSports.com.
Heading into this weekend, the Cavaliers have already played nine games against teams ranked in the top-25 and six against teams in the top-10. The Cavaliers are ranked No. 23 in this week’s Penn Monto/NFHCA poll. Wake Forest is ranked No. 14 and Maryland remains the No. 2 team. Virginia has been ranked in the top-25 every single week since the 2012 preseason poll.
Sunday’s game is Virginia’s senior game. Four fourth-years will be honored in a pregame ceremony: Brooke Castleberry (Virginia Beach, Va.), Greta Ell (Plains, Pa.), Nikki Freeman (Downington, Pa.) and Izzy McDonough (Kennett Square, Pa.). Fifth-year Carrera Lucas (Brooklandville, Md.) will also be recognized. In the last four years, the Cavaliers have been ranked in the top-25 ever single week and have risen as high as the No. 3 team in the nation. This group of seniors helped win the first ACC tournament championship in program history in 2016 and followed that up by winning the 2017 ACC regular-season crown. Lucas was also a member of the 2014 ACC regular-season champion squad.
Wake Forest has won its last two matches, including downing Syracuse 4-1 in Winston-Salem last Sunday. Jule Grashof is tied for the conference lead with 13 goals this season. Megan Anderson leads the ACC with 18 assists. Virginia leads the all-time series, 24-18, and has won the last four match-ups against the Demon Deacons.
Maryland is 15-1 this season with their only loss a 3-1 setback at Penn State on Oct. 7. Linnea Gonzales leads the team with 12 goals and 27 points. Madison Maguire has a team-high 10 assists this season. Maryland leads the all-time series 41-20-2 and has won the last four meetings. Virginia’s last win over the Terps came in Charlottesville in 2012 when Maryland was still a conference foe.
Virginia will be back on the road next week, playing the regular-season finale at William & Mary on Friday, Oct. 26 at 6 p.m. in Williamsburg, Va. The postseason begins at the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship, being held Nov. 1-4 in Chapel Hill, N.C.