UVa baseball, men's lacrosse, men's tennis, men's basketball updates; NBA finals set

BASEBALL
The Cavs were swept in their final weekend series at UNC. It was UVA's first series loss of the season. Even though they lost all three games, the Hoos still secured the No. 1 overall seed in the ACC tournament because Virginia Tech beat Georgia Tech in one game during their series, and Georgia Tech ended up tying Virginia's ACC record at 22-8. Virginia won the head-to-head series though, so it got the No. 1 seed. On Wednesday in the ACC tournament in Durham, N.C., Virginia cruised by Wake Forest 13-1. The Hoos were off yesterday and today they are playing Miami. The game is currently in a rain/lightning delay. Miami is up 2-0 in the bottom of the 2nd inning. Tomorrow, Virginia faces North Carolina at 7 p.m. If Virginia can advance out of their group (UVa, Miami, UNC, Wake) with less than two losses, they will play in the championship round Sunday against a winner from the other group (Georgia Tech, Clemson, N.C. State, Florida State).
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LACROSSE
The lacrosse team looked strong in a 13-9 win last Saturday against No. 2 seed Cornell in the NCAA tournament. Virginia is the tourney's No. 7 seed. The Cavs had a nine-goal burst during the late part of the first quarter and throughout the secon last week to take a commanding 10-4 lead at halftime. From there, Virginia held on to beat the Big Red. Tomorrow, Virginia faces Denver in the Final Four in Baltimore at 4 p.m. In the other semifinal, Duke faces Maryland at 6:30 p.m. The winners of the semifinals meet for the championship on Memorial Day, also in Baltimore.
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MEN'S TENNIS
The men's tennis team made it to its first ever NCAA final Tuesday in Stanford. The Cavs were also the first ACC team to ever appear in the final. Virginia faced back-to-back defending champion USC and fell 4-3 in a hard-fought match. It was the third year in a row that the Trojans have defeated the Hoos in the NCAA tournament. USC raced out to a 3-0 lead before Virginia rallied to tie the match at 3 points apiece. UVa's Sanam Singh was down 5-2 in the deciding set to USC's Daniel Nguyen in the match that would determine which team won the championship. Singh mounted a rally of his own and cut Nguyen's lead to 5-4 before Nguyen finally closed out Singh and the Hoos. It was a disappointing finish to another great season for the Cavs. They got closer than they ever have to a title, so hopefully it is just around the corner.
Virginia lost in the team NCAA finals, but the singles and doubles championships are ongoing. Michael Shabaz, the No. 3 seed in the singles tournament, plays in the round of 16 today, while the doubles team of Shabaz and Drew Courtney look to defend their NCAA doubles title. They also play today in the round of 16.
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BASKETBALL
The men's hoops program picked up a big 2012 commitment yesterday from 6-foot-4 five-star small forward Justin Anderson from Maryland. Anderson previously had committed to Maryland but backed out once Gary Williams retired. Virginia had been on his radar ever since. The pick up is a big one for the Hoos and is the first five-star to commit to the Hoos under Tony Bennett. Many analysts and writers are saying Anderson is UVa's biggest men's basketball commitment in a decade or more. Anderson should provide plenty of versatility in the Hoos' lineup and is certainly capable of playing right way. We'll have to see what happens, but things are starting to heat up for the Hoos basketball team. Next season could be special with Mike Scott and Bennett's first class coming back as sophomores. Then the next year, in 2012-13, Anderson's class will begin its career at UVa and hopefully have plenty to build on.
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NBA FINALS
The Mavericks travel to face the Heat in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Tuesday at 9 p.m. I correctly picked both the Heat and Mavs to move on in the East and West finals. Hopefully on Monday I'll write more about this series and pick a winner.

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