UVA wrestling head coach Steve Garland announced an exciting and challenging 2015-16 schedule for his program on Tuesday. The schedule includes seven nationally-ranked teams from last season and a road contest against the defending NCAA champions.
In addition to the competitive regular-season schedule, the Cavaliers will also host the ACC Championships at John Paul Jones Arena on Sunday, March 6. Virginia will defend its 2015 ACC Championship at home after claiming the fifth conference title in program history and second conference championship under the direction of Garland.
“We were very ambitious again with our schedule this year,” Garland said. “We kicked it up a notch last season and feel like we took it another step further this year. I promise the guys we bring in to our program that they will have an opportunity to compete against the best in the nation here at the University of Virginia. My hope is that it is clear to everyone involved with our program that this schedule is in line that promise.”
The Cavaliers will hit the road to face a pair of top-five programs from a year ago, including a quad meet at Minnesota and a dual meet at defending NCAA champion Ohio State early in the season.
The quad meet at Minnesota will be held on Nov. 7 and will feature the Golden Gophers, South Dakota State and Grand Canyon. The Cavaliers will continue to compete on the road, traveling to face Ohio State on Nov. 13.
Virginia will host Old Dominion (Nov. 15) in the first of five dual meets at Memorial Gymnasium. The Cavaliers will also host Duke (Jan. 22), Virginia Tech (Jan. 31), North Carolina (Feb. 6) and UT-Chattanooga (Feb. 14).
ACC competition will also take Virginia on the road to face NC State (Jan. 17) and Pittsburgh (Jan. 24).
In non-conference action, Virginia will also compete in a dual meet on the road at North Dakota State (Nov. 6) and in a neutral-site meet against VMI to be held at the St. Christopher’s School in Richmond, Va. (Jan. 8).
In addition to the dual meets, the Cavaliers travel to four national meets, opening the season at the Clarion Open in Clarion, Pa. (Nov. 1). Virginia will compete at the Mat Town Open in Lock Haven, Pa. (Nov. 22), the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas (Dec. 4-5) and the Southern Scuffle in Chattanooga, Tenn. (Jan. 1-2).
Virginia is slated to return to the National Duals (Feb. 19-21) before hosting the ACC Championships on Sunday, March 6. The NCAA Championships will take place at Madison Square Garden in New York City from March 17-19.
Virginia returns 16 letterwinners from last season, including two-time ACC Champion George DiCamillo.
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