Cavaliers keep rolling at NCAAs

In Cherry Hill, N.J., if the Virginia women’s rowing team can perform today the way it has in their first two days of competition at the NCAA championships, the Cavaliers could be looking at their first-ever team title.

On Saturday, a day after impressive performances in heats, UVa kept things rolling on the Cooper River.

Virginia’s fourth-ranked Varsity Eight won its semifinal with a victory over No. 1 Stanford, while the Second Varsity Eight and the Varsity Four also qualified for today’s grand finals.

UVa is one of four teams (California, Stanford and Yale are the others) to have a boat in each of today’s grand finals.

“It feels great to be one of [the] four schools,” said Virginia head coach Kevin Sauer. “We’ve got to keep it going one more day and give it our best shot.”

The Varsity Eight will be raced at 11:45 a.m. with UVa competing against No. 1 Stanford, No. 2 California, No. 3 Yale, No. 8 Princeton and No. 10 Brown.

In Virginia’s semifinal, Stanford led at the 500-, 1,000- and 1,500-meter marks, but the Cavaliers kept it close. In the final 500 meters, UVa overcame the top-ranked Cardinal to claim the narrow victory. Virginia’s winning time was 6:15.53, compared with Stanford’s time of 6:15.59 and Brown’s time of 6:23.20.

In the Second Varsity Eight semifinal, UVa was in fourth place at the 500-meter mark, but came back at the midway point to trail just the leader Brown. In the final 1,000 meters, Virginia continued to push but finished a second behind the Bears. Brown’s winning time was 6:28.55, compared to the Cavaliers’ 6:29.75.

Virginia will compete in the grand final of the Second Varsity Eight at 11 a.m., against Washington, Brown, Stanford, California and Yale.

Meanwhile, the Varsity Four also had an exciting finish to qualify for its grand final. After 500 meters, Virginia was in fifth place, but battled to fourth position by the final 500 meters. The Cavaliers managed to edge Washington for the third and final qualifying spot in the final meters of the race.

Clemson was first (7:16.17), followed by Yale (7:17.50) and UVa (7:18.28). Joining those teams in the grand final is Wisconsin, California and Stanford from the other semifinal.

The Varsity Four grand final will be at 10:15 a.m.