ACC Nation

ACC WEEKLY WRAP-UP AND COMMENTARY BY THE EVIL Q
jim@accnation.com

I love warm weather. So it completely boggles my mind that I’m still sitting here while the weather is perfect. The severe side of this moment of whining is that I’m in an office that is meat-locker cold because of all the electronics in the immediate area. Frostbite is imminent.

In case you haven’t listened to our podcast, we’re moving to a new office/studio complex in the coming weeks. I can’t vouche for the golfhounds in the building still being around on a beautiful afternoon going into a weekend, however, chances are I’ll be camped out at the cafe across the street trying very hard not to be distracted by the many lovely co-eds from one of the institutions of higher learning in the area. At least it will be warm.

This Friday Fish Fry will include a look back at the ACC Golf Tournament, the ACC Lacrosse Tournament, the ACC and NFL’s draft, how much baseball is left in the season before the tournament in May, softball, track and field, the Arthur Ashe award and of course the weekly Bits & Pieces segment which contains some absolute nuggets.

ACC MEN’S AND WOMEN’S GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP

The Florida State men’s golf team took home their first-ever ACC Golf Championship last weekend with a decisive three-stroke win over Duke.

In an extremely competitive field, Duke was either the leader or co-leader for the first two days on the links.

Florida State’s Jonas Blixt and Matthew Savage led the Seminoles with an overall third-place finish shooting an 8-under 208 over three days on the course.

Wake Forest’s Webb Simpson shot a 6-under 66 on the final day of play to set a championship record 202.

After Florida State and Duke three next three teams were all seperated by one-shot apiece. North Carolina, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest shot 18, 17 and 16-under to finish the tournament.

 

The Virginia Cavaliers made a solid run at the ACC Women’s Golf Tournament Championship, however No. 2 ranked Duke would not hear of it on their way to a 13th consecutive championship.

Virginia did not go away quietly though as it took a valiant effort by the Blue Devils to seal the deal with a one-stroke advantage.

Duke and Virginia were tied walking on to the 18th green after 53 holes.

Duke’s Amanda Blumenherst took a par away from the hole and Virginia’s Calle Nielson bogeyed.

Virginia was looking for their first championship and tied their previous high mark in second while FSU finished in third which is their highest finish in the tournament to date.

THE ACC AND THE NFL

And now for your entertainment, some interesting tidbits concerning the ACC and NFL.

 ACC MEN’S AND WOMEN’S LACROSSE TOURNAMENT

I’m spitting nails as a superb opportunity to cover the ACC Lacrosse Tournament being held at the University of Virginia was superceded by previous commitments. I will make sure to mark my calendar a bit more selectively next year.

On the men’s side, number one Duke and number four Carolina get down on it in the first semifinal. Any time these two teams meet you can expect fireworks, so this game should be no different. The deciding factor is quite simply that Duke is stacked to the gills with talent.

Unless the earth moves in Charlottesville, I’ll go with the Blue Devils to mop up everyone on their way to an ACC Lacrosse Tournament Championship title.

The next semifinal game will see number two Maryland facing off against number three Virginia. This is another one of those matchups pitting two teams that don’t particularly have a lot of love for one another. There is no clear cut choice among these two teams from my perspective.

I will go with a hungry Maryland Terps team that seems intent on proving a point to their brothers to the south, but it certainly won’t be without one heck of a fight.

The championship game will be held Sunday at 3:30 p.m. and will be carried by Raycom. Check your local listings.

The All-ACC Men’s Lacrosse Team has been announced by the conference.

On the women’s side the early matchups on Thursday saw a dominant Duke team blow out Virginia Tech 19-6 and Carolina bumped off Boston College 12-8.

Friday’s semifinal’s featured Virginia and Duke squaring off in the afternoon game. Duke took an unbelievable five-shot lead in the first period before the Cavaliers could find their mark. The score at half would have led you to believe the game was already over as Duke was ahead 8-3.

Virginia rallied in the second period, firing off six unanswered points to take a 9-8 lead. Duke’s Sarah Bullard tied it up at 9 apiece at 9:46 in the second.

With a five-minute dry period for both teams, Virginia’s Megan O’Malley scored her third goal of the second period to put the Cavaliers in the lead and clinch the victory.

The other semifinal will see top-seeded Maryland taking on North Carolina. Maryland has a solid attack and is likely to come out on top.

The championship game will be held Sunday at 1 p.m. and will again be carried by Raycom, so check your local listings.

The All-ACC Women’s Lacrosse Team has been announced by the conference.

BASEBALL

Yes, he’s heard just about all of the jokes imaginable that a person with the first name of Yonder can hear. But he’s learned how to quiet the jokes by a simple crack of his bat and putting the ball……well, way out yonder.

Yonder Alonso picks up his second Player of the Week honors from the ACC in part by hitting .556, hitting ten runs, including two homers and prompting nine RBI with his bat against Florida State in their recent series.

Sophomore southpaw Chris Manno of Duke has been named the ACC Pitcher of the Week.

Is the ACC Baseball Tournament here yet? Not yet my friend and there are an enormous amount of games, both conference and non-conference, left. The juice was flowing very early in the season and even though the recent Miami-FSU series was exciting there is much, much more to come.  Even though it may appear that the division leaders are in place, possibly until the tournament one shouldn’t put all the eggs in one basket.

SOFTBALL

North Carolina and Virginia Tech continue to lead the ACC softball race with continued strong performances.

This week two Georgia Tech players take the spotlight as ACC Pitcher and Player of the Week.

For the second week in a row Whitney Humphreys is honored as the top pitcher in the ACC. Humphreys appeared in all five of Georgia Tech’s games, won four and had an ERA of 1.40.

Teammate Whitney Haller has been honored as the player of the week. Haller went 10-for-15 at the plate over the week (.667). Junior Haller has 46 ACC career home runs which is just 3 short of matching the ACC record.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

The Arthur Ashe, Jr. Sports Scholar of the Year Award that recognizes high standards of scholarship, athleticism and humanitarism has added Clemson’s Cliff Hammonds to their short-list of male finalists.

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine is the sponsor of the recognition and selects a male and female recipient.

Over 600 student-athletes were nominated this year.

TRACK AND FIELD

Clemson’s Travis Padgett and Miami’s Kristy Whyte have been tabbed as the ACC’s 2008 Most Valuable Track and Field Performers. Padgett was also the conference’s MVP during the indoor season.

Freshman of the Year honors go to Florida State’s Kim Williams and North Carolina’s Charles Cox. Williams was also the conference’s Freshman of the Year during the indoor season.

ACC Coach of the Year honors go to Virginia Tech’s Dave Cianelli for the women and Clemson’s Bob Pollock for the men. Cianelli picks up the honor for the fourth year in a row.

 

BITS & PIECES

Miami’s Campbell in the soup.

‘Cane Able?

Ryan’s the one.

Challenger Stamp-ed.

Coach & Player Depart Terps.

Spring Soccer.

Terp’s Water Polo Invite.

We Love Heather Dinich - Oh yeah, some Clemson football.

Someone’s always mad at Duke.

Coach of Year denies wrongdoing.

16, 6′6″, 260.

Legacies are not easy.

It could be Fowl-er.

Wolf-packs in Blosser.

Parting is such sweet sorrow.

Friend of the Nation Andrew Carter’s Chopping Block.

If you can’t be on time, be early.

Grobe has firepower.

Cutcliffe the fat.

BBall fans grumble.

Football takes on new look.

Ups and downs of life.

Hope afterall.

Tar Heel field hockey.

Macho moved the mountain.

Draft will be good to Hokies.