Virginia Kicks Off Road Swing At No. 3 Duke Friday

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia softball team (28-14, 11-7 ACC) heads out on the road this weekend for a three-game series at No. 3 Duke (38-4, 16-2 ACC). The series begins with Friday’s opener at 6 p.m.

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

QUICK HITS

• The Cavaliers kick off a seven-game road swing to close out the regular season with this weekend’s three-game series at No. 3 Duke.
• Eden Bigham pitched a pair of complete games last weekend against NC State to earn ACC Pitcher of the Week honors for the second time this season.
• Bigham leads the ACC in strikeouts (147) and ranks 20th nationally after striking out 15 over the weekend series against NC State.
• The UVA pitching staff ranks third in the ACC in ERA (2.30) and ranks 21st nationally.
• Bigham and Madi Harris rank in the top 20 nationally in strikeouts per seven with Bigham coming in 15th (9.4/7) and Harris at 18th (9.3/7). Bigham is also ninth nationally in fewest hits allowed per 7.0 innings pitched (3.84).
• Jade Hylton hit two home runs against NC State to extend her team-leading total to nine home runs on the season and she took the team lead in RBI with 29.
• Hylton upped her season average to .373 in ACC play as she, Leah Boggs and Bella Cabral have caught fire at the plate during conference play. Boggs is hitting at a .347 clip, while Cabral is hitting .321 against ACC teams.
• The Cavaliers hold steady in the RPI this week, coming in at 32 with a strength of schedule of 34 following the Tuesday night matchup with Virginia Tech.
• The Hoos have a tough road – literally – in the final sven games with Duke (RPI 5), Va. Tech (RPI 20) and Ga. Tech (RPI 56) holding a combined 99-22 record entering the weekend.

THE SERIES WITH DUKE

• Virginia and Duke have faced off 13 times with the Blue Devils holding a 12-1 lead in the all-time series
• The lone win for the Hoos came in the 2019 season in the middle game of a three-game series in Charlottesville
• The teams last met in the 2022 season in Charlottesville and this is the third meeting in Durham

ON DECK FOR THE HOOS

• Virginia and Duke continue the series with game two at 1 p.m. on Saturday
• The series is set to conclude with game three at noon on Sunday