ROUNDTABLE: CD Sports Staff on Virginia women’s sports making a leap forward

Within the midst of the spring season, there are many causes for optimism about varied ladies’s sports activities. With the current dedication of high recruit Samantha Brunelle to the Virginia ladies’s basketball group together with a model new Coach, the Cavaliers are anticipated to make strides on the courtroom within the coming season. Moreover, the dominance of the Virginia ladies’s swim and dive group with nationwide and convention wins together with Olympic success has been noteworthy. Furthermore, the softball group has additionally proven a turn-of-pace with a current string of wins and improved participant efficiency throughout. 

What does the addition of Sam Brunelle imply for ladies’s basketball?

Aidan Baller, Affiliate Author: With the ladies’s basketball group having not made the NCAA match since 2018, the addition of Samantha Brunelle, Notre Dame switch junior ahead, supplies hope for a program that has struggled. Moreover, with new Coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton, a brand new chapter has begun for the Virginia ladies’s basketball group. Brunelle’s switch to Virginia will encourage others to affix her and can enable for Hamilton to start her tenure with a strong squad able to making a splash in subsequent 12 months’s NCAA match. 

Abby Nichols, Affiliate Author: Virginia males’s basketball has had its share of main successes over the previous few years whereas the ladies’s group beneath former Coach Tina Thompson has struggled to succeed on the courtroom. The followers and group alike are hoping to maneuver away from this disappointing previous and ought to be keen to begin the upcoming season with new Coach Agugua-Hamilton. This teaching change sparked different motion in this system together with the addition of Brunelle, a robust competitor who is predicted to offer the Cavaliers a leg up subsequent season. The previous No. 1 highschool recruit carried out effectively at Notre Dame, however the Virginia native is able to come compete as a Cavalier. Followers ought to get excited to seize a seat within the stands and welcome the distinctive expertise house.

Alexa Mosley, Affiliate Author: On the finish of the 2021-22 season, it was clear that modifications wanted to occur inside the ladies’s basketball group with the intention to keep away from one other underperforming season. The primary change got here within the type of a brand new Coach, Agugua-Hamilton was launched because the successor to Thompson. Lower than a month later, it’s introduced that this system is gaining yet one more new contributor in Brunelle. The Virginia native placed on a robust efficiency in her freshman 12 months, even being named to the All-ACC All-Freshman group. Nevertheless, her subsequent two seasons had been tremendously impacted by COVID-19 and a string of accidents. Brunelle is an ideal match for this ladies’s group, as they’re each seeking to have rebound seasons in 2022-23. Her nice scoring functionality appears to be simply what the Cavaliers must put collectively a successful effort.

Is the ladies’s swimming and diving group poised to turn into a dynasty?

AB: Virginia ladies’s swimming and diving has taken over faculty swimming after successful back-to-back Nationwide Championships and has constructed a basis able to turning into a dynasty. The troublesome a part of sustaining success in faculty is the fixed move of recent athletes right into a program, however with freshman swimmers comparable to Emma Weyant, Gretchen Walsh and Reilly Tiltman, there may be optimism this program can proceed to provide championships for years to come back. Continued success of this system will encourage recruits to bolster this system into a real dynasty. 

AN: A 3-peat is without doubt one of the coveted group accomplishments in sports activities and the Virginia ladies’s swimming and diving group is effectively on their manner with again to again NCAA championship wins. Coach Todd DeSorbo has constructed this group to close perfection over the previous 5 years, however he makes certain to take a step again and let the opponents feed off of one another and push themselves to be their greatest. The Virginia group will proceed to make a reputation for themselves with two incoming top-five recruits Carly Novelline and Claire Tuggle. Everybody ought to be excited to see what the group has in retailer for the upcoming season and be looking out for the creation of a real dynasty: an NCAA Swimming and Diving three-peat.

AM: The ladies’s swimming and diving group has been nothing in need of distinctive the previous two seasons. For starters, they’ve gained three consecutive ACC Championships. If that’s not sufficient, they’re now back-to-back NCAA Champions. And much more, this system just lately produced 4 Olympians — former Cavalier Paige Madden, sophomore Alex Walsh, junior Kate Douglass and freshman Emma Weyant — who introduced house a mixed 4 medals from the 2021 Tokyo Video games. DeSorbo was additionally in Tokyo, serving as an assistant coach for Group USA. This robust basis, coupled with an abundance of younger swimmers and an inflow of robust incoming recruits, signifies this system is constructed to achieve success for years to come back. All indicators level in direction of a dynasty within the making.

Softball has proven indicators of progress — what’s the program’s potential?

AB: The Virginia softball group finds themselves in the course of the pack within the ACC, however there may be hope for the longer term. The Cavaliers have proven that they’ll compete after two big wins in opposition to ACC opponent then-No. 24 Notre Dame and a detailed 7-5 loss to No. 11 Tennessee. Softball is able to taking part in with the perfect, they only want to seek out consistency of their play with the intention to break into the top-25. With the addition of sophomore switch Savanah Henley and with returning gamers comparable to junior Katie Goldberg and sophomore Abby Weaver, the group is poised for a breakthrough. 

AN: The Cavaliers made historical past at first of this softball season and had an 8-1 document in ACC play to set a brand new program greatest. The group signed six of the nation’s greatest softball recruits in 2021 they usually confirmed it with their six-game ACC win streak at first of the 12 months. The group has proven batting success and doesn’t battle to hit homers with seven gamers having batting averages above the opponent common of 0.259. Nevertheless, the place the group has struggled just lately is in pitching and, particularly, permitting home-runs to the opposite group. Throughout their collection in opposition to Florida State, the Seminoles had 10 RBIs in three video games simply from house runs. The Cavaliers misplaced all three of those video games along with the following three ACC video games in opposition to Duke. Junior pitcher Molly Grube has a 0-2 document, and senior pitcher Aly Rayle has a 4-4 document after beginning the season 4-1. If the pitching recreation can discover extra consistency, softball ought to have the ability to break their six-game convention shedding streak and transfer up within the ACC standings.

AM: Consistency is the secret for the softball group. It swept the collection in opposition to NC State, however then misplaced to Liberty. They swept Boston School, however then misplaced to Longwood and acquired swept by Florida State. If the Cavaliers can discover consistency between collection, a climb to the highest of the ACC standings is actually not out of the query. The important thing to successful these video games will probably be scoring early — this season, the Cavaliers have gone 18-1 when main after the primary 4 innings. If extra gamers be a part of freshman catcher Sarah Coon — No. 3 in batting common — and senior outfielder Tori Gilbert — No. 1 in house runs — producing on the plate, there’s no purpose the softball group shouldn’t expertise a resurgence of kinds.