Virginia Jumps Back Into ACC Play With Series At Notre Dame

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia softball team (24-10, 7-5 ACC) jumps back into ACC play this weekend with a three-game set at Notre Dame (21-12, 6-6 ACC) that begins on Friday with a 5 p.m. contest at Melissa Cook Stadium.

HOW TO FOLLOW THE ACTION
All three games of the weekend series will be streamed on ACCNX through the ESPN app and at WatchESPN.com. Live stats are also available for all three games. Links to the ACCNX broadcasts and live stats are available at VirginiaSports.com. Updates are also available on the program’s official account (@UVASoftball) on X.

QUICK HITS

• Virginia closes out a seven-game road stretch this weekend with a three-game set at Notre Dame after four road games last week at Liberty, JMU and Villanova.
• The Cavaliers enters the weekend on a five-game winning streak and have won nine of the last 10 games dating back to game two of the weekend series against Syracuse.
• Eden Bigham struck out nine batters in relief at Liberty to secure the win and added seven strikeouts in the start at Villanova for 16 strikeouts through 11.2 innings of work last week.
• Bigham’s 123 strikeouts is second in the ACC and 16th nationally entering the weekend
• She also ranks top 10 nationally in strikeouts per 7.0 innings (7th – 10.1) and in fewest hits allowed per 7.0 innings (8th – 3.76)
• Madi Harris sits atop the ACC in earned run average (0.67) and that puts her third nationally behind Nijaree Canady (Stanford) and Maddia Groff (So. Illinois).
• Jade Hylton continues to lead the UVA offense in batting average (.350), runs scored (23), home runs (7) and stolen bases (11). She is second on the team in RBI (20).
• Hylton helps pace an offense that ranks third in the ACC in stolen bases (58) and stolen bases per game (1.71) which is among the top 30 nationally.
• The Hoos’ fielding percentage of .973 is fourth in the ACC and top 32 nationally.
• Virginia enters the weekend with an RPI of 29 and a strength of schedule of 21.
• Heading down the stretch, every game left on the UVA schedule is against a team in the top 70 in RPI and seven of those come on the road.

THE SERIES WITH NOTRE DAME

• Virginia and Notre Dame have faced each other 27 times with the Irish leading the all-time series 22-5
• The teams last met in the 2022 season as UVA won the three-game series 2-1 by taking both games of a doubleheader to open the series
• In that last series with Notre Dame, Abby Weaver hit a three-run home run to complete a five-run rally in the seventh inning for the 7-5 win in game one
• Ally Rayle then threw a complete game in game two of the doubleheader – a game the Hoos won 6-1 to claim the series
• This is only the third meeting between the teams in South Bend with the 2017 and 2021 series played there

ON DECK FOR THE HOOS

• Virginia kicks off a five game homestand next week to close out the home portion of the schedule.
• The Hoos will host Liberty on Tuesday (April 29) before hosting NC State on the weekend.
• Virginia will then close out the homestand against Virginia Tech (April 16).