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UVA Sports Notebook: Field hockey, tennis, golf news

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uva-logo-new2No. 9 Virginia hosts No. 11 Louisville on Friday: The No. 6 UVA field hockey team (3-2) opens up ACC action on Friday, Sept. 12, hosting No. 11 Louisville (4-0) at 6 p.m. at University Hall Turf Field. Admission is free for all of Virginia’s regular-season home field hockey games.

Virginia is 4-1 all-time against Louisville including a 3-2 victory in the 2013 season-opening game in Charlottesville. This will be the first-ever meeting between the two as conference opponents.

Louisville moved up to No. 11 in the week one NFHCA poll after starting the season 4-0, including logging a 1-0 road win at No. 14 Northwestern last Sunday (Sept. 7). Shannon Sloss leads the Cardinals with eight points, scoring four goals on nine shots.

The Cavaliers fell from a preseason No. 6 ranking to No. 9 in the first regular-season NFHCA coaches poll after starting with a 3-2 record. Louisville will be the fourth ranked opponent the Cavaliers have faced this season.

Virginia comes into the game looking for its third-straight victory after downing then-ranked No. 7 Princeton, 6-4, last Sunday (Sept. 7), followed by a 3-0 midweek shutout victory over Miami (Ohio) on Tuesday (Sept. 9).

UVa is third in the NCAA with 4.50 goals per game, 13.0 points per game and a 4.50 scoring average and fourth at 4.0 assists per game.

Sophomore striker Riley Tata (Virginia Beach, Va.) leads the Cavaliers with 12 points, scoring five goals (including two game-winners) with two assists, ranking second in the ACC in points per game. Sophomore midfielder Lucy Hyams (Whitstable, England) has 10 points with four goals and two assists. Hyams leads the ACC, averaging 5.40 shots per game.

Senior goalkeeper Jenny Johnstone (Paisley, Scotland) was credited with her 10th career shutout in Tuesday’svictory over the RedHawks. Johnstone is averaging 3.40 saves per game and has a .708 save percentage.

Both of Virginia’s losses this season have come against Big Ten teams, falling 3-0 at No. 6 Penn State and 4-3 at No. 7 Iowa. Virginia will play its third Big Ten opponent of the season, Rutgers, on Sunday (Sept. 14) at noon to close out the current home stand. Virginia returns to conference action next Friday, Sept. 19, with a 6 p.m. game at No. 4 Duke.

 

>Cavaliers Open Fall Season at Duke Invitational: The Virginia women’s tennis team opens the 2014 fall season at the Duke Invitational in Cary, N.C., on Friday-Sunday, Sept. 12-14.

The Cavaliers will compete in singles and doubles against players from Alabama, Florida, Furman, Miami (Fla.), North Carolina, Oklahoma State, San Jose State, Ole Miss and host Duke.

The action will take place at Cary Tennis Center, site of the annual ACC Championships, and begin each day at 10 a.m. Three singles flights and three doubles flights are planned for the invite.

Competing in singles for Virginia will be juniors Stephanie Nauta (Galveston, Texas), Maci Epstein (Winter Park, Fla.) and Skylar Morton (Bethesda, Md.), sophomore Marie Faure (Toulouse, France) and freshman Cassie Mercer (Huntington, W.Va.). Nauta is ranked a career-best No. 32 in the ITA preseason singles rankings, while Epstein is ranked for the first time at No. 122.

Virginia’s doubles tandems will be Nauta and Epstein and Morton and Mercer. Faure will play doubles with Duke’s Rachel Kahan.

 

McCarthy shoots 68 for second consecutive day at Amateur Team Championship: For the second consecutive round, Virginia senior men’s golfer Denny McCarthy (Rockville, Md.) shot 4-under 68 at the World Amateur Team Championships in Karuizawa, japan. McCarthy’s round was the high score for the three-man US team and did not count toward the squad’s second-round score.

Texas sophomore Beau Hossler led the US with a 6-under 66 while SMU junior Bryson DeChambeau shot 67. McCarthy’s score (68) ties the record for lowest non-counting score.

After two rounds, team USA’s score stands at 17-under 269. Argentina leads the 69-team field while Sweden and Switzerland are tied for second with the American squad. The Swiss team includes 2014 UVa graduate Ben Rusch, who shot 66 during the second round.

In each round, the total of the two lowest scores from each team constitutes the team score for the round. The four-day (72-hole) total is the team’s score for the championship.

“The guys played really well today,” said USA captain Jim Hyler. “We’ve had six rounds all in the 60s. We left some shots out there but still made lots of good shots and I’m really pleased with the way they hung in there today. We’re trending very well.”

Play was suspended at 12:08 p.m., for dangerous weather, and resumed at 1 p.m.

Thirty-five teams have posted sub-par totals after 36 holes and 63 sub-par scores counted in the second round, breaking the record of 45 in 2006.

The World Amateur Team Championship is a biennial international amateur competition conducted by the International Golf Federation (IGF), which comprises 137 national governing bodies in 131 countries. The competition, which is being held for the 26th time, is rotated among three geographic zones: Asia-Pacific, Americas and Europe-Africa.

This year’s event is hosted by the japan GolfAssociation. The teams play for the Eisenhower Trophy. The IGF is the international federation for golf for the International Olympic Committee and will conduct the Olympic golf competition in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. In each round, the total of the two lowest scores from each team constitutes the team score for the round. The four-day (72-hole) total is the team’s score for the championship.

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