Senior nights are starting to approach as the college season is starting to come to a close. This final weekend in January will be a busy ones for the teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference with eight of the twelve teams in action.
The biggest meet of the weekend would be the clash between Virginia and NC State in Raleigh on Saturday. This will be especially huge on the women’s side with the Cavaliers ranked fifth in the latest CSCAA Division I poll and the Wolfpack ranked sixth.
Head coaches Todd DeSorbo (Virginia) and Braden Holloway (NC State) know a lot about each other as both were on staff together for the Wolfpack for six seasons before DeSorbo took the Virginia job in the fall of 2017.
Virginia’s women are the reigning ACC champions after NC State dethroned them in 2017. Virginia had won nine ACC team crowns in a row from 2008-2016 before the Wolfpack won its first since 1980. Essentially, the winner between these two schools have won the ACC women’s swimming and diving crown every year since 2008. North Carolina was the last school to win ACCs prior to Virginia’s reign in 2007.
Speaking of the Tar Heels, Virginia will see them first on Friday afternoon in Chapel Hill as North Carolina was not ranked in either the men’s or women’s polls by the CSCAA. Before NC State and Louisville started dominating the ACC like today, Virginia and North Carolina were getting first and second at women’s ACCs nearly every year.
From 2007-2016, Virginia and UNC finished first and second every year except 2013 and 2016 when Virginia Tech snuck in for second in ’13 and NC State finished runner-up in ’16.
This year, it should be fairly one-sided for the men and the women as the Tar Heels are not ranked on either side, and Virginia is ranked fifth on the women’s side and 14th on the men’s side.
Virginia will have a lot of travel on their hands this weekend as they will complete the long road trip by starting three hours on the road from Charlottesville to Chapel Hill, and then turn around and drive about 30 minutes across the state to Raleigh.
It is one of the biggest meets of the year for both teams so don’t expect either team to come out flat. However, NC State will have the home pool advantage on their side.
The meet will be streamed live on the ACC Network Extra beginning at 11 a.m.
Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
Elsewhere in the conference, (#8/16) Louisville will be hosting non-conference Northwestern on Friday and then getting on a bus and traveling a little over an hour to swim in-state rival (NR/10) Kentucky. The meet will be a heavyweight battle on the women’s side with two of the biggest names in the NCAA squaring off on either side. Senior Mallory Comerford leads the Cardinals in to Lexington to take on junior Asia Seidt.
Comerford and Seidt swim different events but are the faces of these two programs. The big matchup of the meet should be between Mariia Astashkina of the Cardinals and Bailey Bonnett of the Wildcats in the breaststroke events.
Bonnett is currently tenth in Division I in the 200 breast (2:08.31) while Astashkina is 21st (2:09.81). Both of them scored at NCAAs last year in this event with Bonnett finishing fifth and Astashkina getting 12th.
Notre Dame will be hosting its Shamrock Invitational that will feature Ohio State, Missouri State, Iowa and Akron. That meet will take place Friday and Saturday.
Florida State will be hosting Florida Atlantic on Saturday as the Seminoles will honor their 15 seniors. Boston College will be on the road at Boston University and Georgia Tech will host Denver on Friday and Saturday. The Yellow Jackets will also host their senior day and will honor ten seniors including NCAA qualifiers Iris Wang and Rodrigo Correia.
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