Cavaliers Looking to Make History This Spring

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The Atlantic Coast Conference tournament is coming to Palmer Park in early May, and those dates have been circled on the University of Virginia softball team’s calendar for months. The Cavaliers don’t want that to be the last time they play at home this season.

In the program’s first 46 seasons, UVA made three trips to the NCAA tournament: in 2010, 2024 and 2025. Never, however, have the Wahoos hosted an NCAA regional, and they’re looking to make history this spring.

“That is the next step for us,” said Joanna Hardin, who’s in her 10^th season as Virginia’s head coach. “Just going to the NCAA tournament, that's not the goal anymore. It's like, what's the next level?”

From a team that finished 38-19 last season, UVA returned a strong core of players, among them Jade Hylton, Macee Eaton, Bella Cabral, Kamyria Woody-Giggetts, Kelsey Hackett and Kassidy Hudson and pitchers Eden Bigham, Courtney Layne, Ava Hodges and Julia Cuozzo. Newcomers include first-years Jaiden Griffith, Taylor Smith and Hannah Weismer, plus Reagan Hickey, who redshirted as a freshman last season.

The early returns from this group have been impressive. Heading into their game against Longwood (2-11) at 2 p.m. Tuesday in Farmville, the Hoos are 12-1 and ranked No. 21 nationally. They’re off to the best start in program history.

“I feel like we gel really well,” said Eaton, who starts at first base. “We know what makes us get fiery, we know what makes us get competitive, and everyone knows we have each other's back.”

Hardin said her roster is filled with “super competitive, really tough fighters. The less experienced, newer players are still learning the system. It’s one thing to learn our approach, offensively and defensively, when we're at practice. It’s another thing to do it against someone else in games. And so now it's about the application of all the things that we've learned, and they're doing great. They're doing really well. They’re learning, they're growing, and our upperclassmen and our more experienced players have done a great job of teaching and showing them the way.”

Macee Eaton sends one out of this world 🚀

📺 ACCNX#GoHoos | #4for40 | #PeopleMakeThePlace pic.twitter.com/84R6CzgGmZ

— Virginia Softball (@UVASoftball) February 21, 2026

Starting last Thursday, Virginia hosted the Mizuno Classic at Palmer Park. Inclement weather washed out Sunday’s schedule, but UVA played five games in the tournament and won each one, defeating Maryland and Ohio State twice each and Delaware once.

In all, Virginia outscored its opponents 40-9 in those five games. Its rematch with Maryland, however, was anything but a blowout. With the bases loaded in the top of the fifth, Bigham hit a batter with a pitch, putting the Terrapins up 2-1, and then walked in two more runs.

That was out of character for a pitcher who holds the program record for career saves, but the Hoos didn’t panic. In the bottom half of the inning, Hudson singled in a run to make it 4-2, and then Eaton tied the game with a two-run single. Maryland changed pitchers, to no avail. Cabral’s RBI-single gave the Cavaliers a lead that they didn’t relinquish.

Bigham, a senior who like her classmate Hylton was a first-team All-ACC selection last season, held the Terps scoreless in the sixth and seventh innings, and UVA overcame what Hardin called “self-inflicted wounds” to secure a 5-4 victory.

Not every game goes perfectly, and there’s value in finding a way to win when “your back’s against the wall,” Hardin said.

“We talk about competitive greatness, and that's being your best when your best is required, and you cannot be at your best and give your best if you are feeling sorry for yourself or think that the circumstances are unfair, whether that's weather or the strike zone or a play where someone's out of position or we make a mistake," Hardin said. "And so I think one thing we've talked about as a team is that we're never going to feel sorry for ourselves. If something doesn't go our way, the ball doesn't bounce our way, so what? What are we going to do about it, and how are we going to move forward?”

Virginia’s season started on an inauspicious note. In its opener, UVA lost 17-1 to then-No. 9 Arkansas on Feb. 6 at the Kickin’ Chicken Classic in Conway, S.C. By the time the Cavaliers came to bat in the bottom of the first, they trailed 10-0.

Hardin compared that game to “a fever dream. To be totally honest, if you talk to the team, that game almost feels like it didn't happen. It was so outside of us, and we knew that. The world might not have known that, but day one, we knew that. It was almost comical to us how that all went down and what happened. We were not just turning the page and moving on, but we just put it exactly where it belonged. That was a game that wasn't our best, and it was great for us. It was a very big character test.”

The Cavaliers passed that test with high grades. They came back on Feb. 6 to defeat Coastal Carolina 5-1 and then beat Arkansas 4-2 the next day. Eaton had a two-run home run against the Razorbacks, and Layne, a senior left-hander, pitched a complete game, striking out seven and walking none.

“Courtney threw exceptionally well,” Hardin said. “I think the game too was like, OK, that's us. I don't think we had any doubts of our capabilities to go against anybody in the country. And it felt very rewarding and gratifying to do what we were capable of in the second game [against Arkansas].”

Eaton said: “Beating a top-10 team was great. We loved it.”

A junior from Wheelersburg, Ohio, Eaton hit .331 and drove in a program-record 63 runs last season, when she was named to the All-ACC second team. Two-and-a-half weeks into the new season, she’s hitting .550 and leads UVA in home runs (five) and RBI (22).

“I’m focusing a lot more on the mental aspect of the game and how to calm my heart rate,” Eaton said. “I know I can hit the ball. I know I’m capable.”

Hardin said Eaton is “just on a different level right now. She’s so calm. She’s so composed. She's so clear about her at-bats. She knows what she's looking for, and she's hunting what she's looking for. She's simplified and she's able to turn the page. She's just grown. She's really, really matured offensively, and I also think we have a tough top four [in the batting order], and so she's just taking advantage of all of her opportunities.”

Hylton, who holds the program record for career home runs, leads off for Virginia, and she’s hitting .421. Hudson, a senior, bats second and has a .303 batting average. Eaton bats third, and Cabral, also a junior, bats cleanup. She’s hitting .344.

In the circle, Layne and Bigham are each 5-0, with earned-run averages of 0.92 and 1.97, respectively.

The Cavaliers are hosting another tournament this weekend, the Party at Palmer Invitational, in which they’ll Michigan, Bucknell and Villanova. ACC play begins March 6 for Virginia, which visits North Carolina for a three-game series.

The team isn’t shying away from publicly stating its goals for the season. “We want to win an ACC championship and we want to host a regional,” Eaton said.

On a wall near the locker room inside Palmer Park is a “winner’s board” on which is depicted a mountain that represents the heights the Hoos hope to reach this season. The path to the top includes “a bunch of switchbacks,” Hardin said, “and switchbacks are slow and methodical. They're not sexy. They're difficult. There's not a straight climb. It's really challenging.”

Hardin is confident the Cavaliers will overcome the challenges that lie ahead. So is Eaton.

“The chemistry is really strong this year,” she said. “I feel like we're going to go really far.”

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