Cavalier Corner is the publication just for UVa sports fans!
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cavalier sports DECEMBER 2017 9 13 Straight years the women's soccer team has reached the NCAA round of 16. ALL PHOTOS COURTESY UVA Both of these young men bring a lot of skill, competitiveness and great character to our pro- gram. Kihei [Clark] and Kody [Stattmann] understand the value of a degree from UVA, and we are looking forward to them joining our program next fall." — Head coach Tony Bennett on the signing of guards Kihei Clark and Kody Stattmann in November; the 5-9 Clark hails from Woodland Hills, Calif., while the 6-7 Stattmann is a native of Australia "Frances finished up an impressive season with a strong run today. She arrived and immediately became a great leader and teammate for us. She is really at the point of taking her running to another level, and we are excited to help her get there." — Head women's cross country coach Todd Morgan on fourth-year FRANCES SCHMIEDE, a Yale transfer who finished seventh at the NCAA Southeast Regional Championships Nov. 10 to earn an indi- vidual bid to the NCAA Championships, where she placed 42nd quotable home sweet home Locker Room Renovations Are Part Of The First Facelift At John Paul Jones Arena V irginia has played its home games at the venerable John Paul Jones Arena since the facility opened in 2006. When JPJ opened, everything in- side was current and as cutting edge as possible — but much has changed over the last decade plus. In order to keep pace with its ri- vals, some of whom boast newer fa- cilities, the men's basketball team areas at the arena have been updated. The $3-million renovation project is the first change to the facility and in- cludes updates to and better utilization of the space for player and coach locker rooms, team film room and team lounge. A kitchen, computer workstation, sleep recovery room and nutrition stations were added, as well as new graphics highlighting the team's most recent accomplishments, including ACC regular-season and tourna- ment championships, and an Elite Eight appearance. While most of the work done was behind- the-scenes enhancements to benefit student- athletes, fans at games this winter will also notice a new videoboard/scoreboard over a new court with new baskets. The new goals are designed to provide more space on the baseline for players to land and improve sightlines for fans sitting behind them. The old video screens were approximately nine feet tall and 16 feet wide; each panel for the new videoboard is about 14 feet tall and 25 feet wide, and will display true high defini- tion, a significant upgrade in viewing quality. The pixel pitch — the distance between LED pixels; the lower the number the higher the resolution — of the new boards is four millimeters, believed to be the first on a college campus with such a measure. The pixel pitch of the old videoboards was 10 millimeters. The most important changes are the upgrades that benefit the stu- dent-athletes directly. Head coach Tony Bennett noted the locker room "hadn't been touched" since the arena opened, so it was a necessary move for the Cavaliers to stay as competi- tive off the court as they are on it. "We felt like it was important, for our players and for recruiting, to really revamp the locker room and put an emphasis on the nutrition piece and a rest-and-recovery space," Bennett said. "We have some unique things in there that we think will be helpful for our current and future players. "It's going to be beautiful. We've got the arena, which is incredible, and updating the locker room will make it really special for our guys. It's a recruiting tool as well." 2 Top-10 recruits signed with the men's tennis team Nov. 15 — Gianni Ross, the No. 2 senior nationally who will enroll in January 2018, and Ryan Goetz, who is listed No. 10 in the class of 2018 by TennisRecruiting.net. The two are joined in the signing class by Wil- liam Woodall, who has been ranked as high as No. 31 in the national recruit- ing rankings. 8-1 Was the final score of the first women's squash match in program history Nov. 4, when the No. 13 Cavaliers topped No. 23 Dickinson.