Virginia Opens ACC Tournament With Louisville Wednesday

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 25 Virginia softball team (36-16) opens play at the ACC Tournament on Wednesday (May 7) when the Cavaliers face Louisville (26-24) in first-round action at the Harrington Athletics Village. First pitch is set for 5 p.m. in the event hosted by Boston College.

Virginia is the seven seed in the tournament, while Louisville is the No. 10 seed. The winner of Wednesday’s game advances to face second-seeded Clemson at 5 p.m. on Thursday.

HOW TO FOLLOW THE ACTION
The first three days of games at the ACC Championship will be broadcast on ACC Network and can be streamed at ESPN.com or through the ESPN app. Live stats are available at VirginiaSports.com. Fans can also get updates by following the program’s official account on X (@UVASoftball).

NOTING THE HOOS
• Virginia makes its 28th appearance in the ACC Championships and sixth under head coach Joanna Hardin when the Hoos face Louisville on day one of the event at Boston College on Wednesday
• The meeting with the Cardinals is the first in ACC Tournament action and it marks the third straight season in which Virginia has faced an opponent in ACC Tournament play for the first time (‘23 – Syracuse; ‘24 – Clemson)
• The Cavaliers sit at 26 in the RPI heading into the midweek contest and have faced 24 teams in the top 51 of the RPI with 12 coming on the road and five at a neutral site contest
• Bella Cabral and Jade Hylton have been stellar up the middle and on the left side for the Hoos as Cabral is second in the ACC in assists (103) and Hylton is fifth (101) entering the ACC Tournament
• The junior SS also needs one runs to take over the stop spot on the Virginia single-season list for runs scored as she enters the tournament tied with the mark set by Heather Field (60 in 2004)
• Kelly Ayer moved into the top 10 in single-season runs scored (T9th – 44) after game two at Stanford when she scored three runs on a 3-for-5 day with five RBI and her second career home run
• MC Eaton became the third UVA player to hit double digit home runs when she hit her 10th against Liberty
• Sophomore 1B Macee Eaton currently sits at 57 RBI and needs two more to take over the top spot on the Virginia single-season list for RBI – a mark (58) set by All-American Kristen Dennis in 2002
• As a team, the Virginia offense has been rewriting the record book and this season have hit the most RBI (289), home runs (63) and extra base hits (170) – the Hoos are 11 runs away from setting the single-season run mark
• The 14 wins is one off last season’s program record 15 ACC wins and is the third time in four seasons UVA has hit at least 13 wins in ACC play

THE SERIES WITH LOUISVILLE
• Virginia and Louisville have met 28 times with the Cardinals leading the overall series 21-7
• The teams met three weeks ago in Charlottesville with UVA taking the weekend series 2-1 by winning games two and three of the series
• It marked the first series win by the Hoos over the Cardinals in program history
• The teams have never met in the ACC Tournament

LAST TIME OUT AGAINST LOUISVILLE
• Virginia and Louisville played the ACC series in Charlottesville (4/17-4/19) just three weeks ago
• The Cardinals won the first game 6-5 in nine innings after the Hoos mounted a four-run rally in the seventh inning to force extra innings
• The Cavaliers evened the series with an 8-2 victory in game two before Eden Bigham threw a CG shutout for a 6-0 victory in game three