Hokie Sports Round Up

Women’s Basketball: The No. 15 Hokies shook off the Christmas Holidays with a crushing, 88-48, victory over Delaware State. After the new year VPI opened their conference schedule by defeating the North Carolina Tar Heels, 76-68. Virginia Tech then extended their winning streak to 15 games after defeating the Clemson Tigers 78-69. This past Wednesday the women of VT suffered their first setback of the season when the No. 14 Miami Hurricanes won, 75-82. The women’s basketball team sits with an overall record of 15-1 and a conference record of 2-1. Today at 1 PM EST the Hokies look to get back to their winning ways when they host the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at Cassell Coliseum.

Wrestling: The Hokies started off the new year with a dominating, 30-11, performance against the Princeton Tigers. VT had a quick turn around and two days later opened their ACC schedule against North Carolina. VPI extended their winning streak, against UNC, to nine after a 28-8 victory. The highlight of the meeting was a top ten match up where we saw No. 2 Zach Epperly avenge last year’s defeat at the hands of UNC’s No. 7 Ethan Ramos. This year’s 174 match up ended with an 8-2 win for the VPI redshirt junior. Last weekend the No. 5 Hokies won the Virginia Duals. VT started the Duals off on Friday by devastating Kent State, 41-3, and then moved on to Lock Haven, whom they dispatched easily, 35-6. On Saturday, the Hokies faced North Dakota State, which featured a top five match up at 125. Virginia Tech’s, No. 2 Joey Dance defeated NDSU’s No. 4 Joshua Rodriguez, 5-3. It was certainly tighter than the Hokie’s matches to start the Virginia Duals, but VT pulled out the come from behind win, 22-15. The Hokies claimed victory, of the Virginia Duals, after defeating the No. 15 Oklahoma Sooners, 24-10. Friday the Hokies return to conference play when the Pittsburgh Panthers visit Blacksburg. After only a day off the Hokies will then host their bitter in-state rival, UVA.

Lacrosse: The start of the women’s lacrosse season is just around the corner! Last year the Hokies struggled. After starting the 2015 season 5-2 VPI suffered an 11-game losing streak which carried them to the end of the disappointing season. The Hokies overall record was 5-13, which included being shut out by the conference 0-7. This season the ladies of Virginia Tech look to improve, and will start the year off on February 8, when they host Gardner-Webb.

Softball: Not far behind lacrosse, the softball season starts on February 10, at the Sportco Tournament in Las Vegas, NV. The Hokies will first face Indiana State. The 2015 season saw the Hokies struggle out of the gate when they lost eight of their first ten. As the season progressed the Fighting Gobblers recovered, and pulled themselves out of their initial deficit. Virginia Tech finished 2015 with an overall record of 29-28 with 16-17 in conference.