The Hokies (18-26, 4-20) fell further into the ACC’s basement.

Ellis, listed at 6-foot-4 and 267 pounds, is a lanky but quick pass-rushing specialist who registered 22 sacks in 52 career games, including 35 starts over a four-year career with the Hokies.

For the last couple of seasons, the Virginia men’s lacrosse team’s hallmark has been its run-and-gun, up-tempo offense. This afternoon, in the ACC Tournament finals at Klockner Stadium, UVa will be facing top-seeded Duke - a team that employs the same kind of style and is probably a little better at it.

She first came to Charlottesville as a fragile teenager forced to grow up by seeking her fortune as a budding international tennis player. At 14, Varvara Lepchenko and her father came to the U.S. to seek political asylum and to make a living playing tennis. They left behind their country, war-strifed Uzbekistan, which was plagued by civil conflict. They also left behind Lepchenko’s mother.

Virginia’s women’s lacrosse team has three losses in 2008, and they’re only guaranteed a chance to redeem one of those defeats.

In a way, Virginia’s football program will celebrate its 25th anniversary today. Every year since 1984, the Cavaliers have had at least one player selected in the NFL draft.

One nightmarish memory erased. One more to go. On Friday night at Klockner Stadium, Virginia — behind four goals apiece from Ben Rubeor and Garrett Billings — atoned for a dreadful loss to Maryland earlier this season with an 11-8 victory over the Terrapins.

Virginia’s players claimed they blocked any thoughts about Duke from their minds all week leading up to this weekend’s ACC Men’s Lacrosse Tournament. First, the Cavaliers had to deal with Maryland, a team that had beaten them soundly a month ago at College Park.

Duke won the draw, Duke held possession and Duke poured it on against Virginia Saturday in the ACC tournament semifinals at Scott Stadium — during the first half.

But facing the fifth-seeded Tar Heels, the Terrapins just about let the game slip away before holding on to win 6-4 at Scott Stadium on Friday.

In only its second year in existence as a varsity program, Covenant softball is on the rise thanks to a cornerstone group of seniors and an upstart bunch of young players who are learning and growing — and most importantly improving with each inning.

Louisa County, coming off a win over William Monroe on Thursday, rode the arm of Gunnar Carroll and timely hits from the middle of its order to cruise past Western Albemarle Friday night.

An inning after Long had reached his pitch count and was removed from the mound, STAB won a battle of the bullpens and the game, edging Notre Dame 3-2 on a walk-off double by Michael Spinosa.

Monticello traveled to Orange County Friday night for a showdown of two of the Jefferson District’s top pitchers. Orange freshman phenom Micalah Sacre won the battle of the K, but Monticello’s Victoria Scott took home the W.

What the azalea-lined fairways of Augusta National are to golf and the steeples of Churchill Downs are to horse racing, the brick bleachers of Franklin Field at Philadelphia’s Penn Relays are to track and field. 

Box scores from Thursday night’s prep action

It was Albert’s escape from a different nickname that sums up the ever-improving storybook progression that will include a new chapter when his name is called Saturday in the first round of the NFL draft.

On Thursday afternoon, Chris Long was touring Manhattan on a bus with several of the projected top choices in this weekend’s NFL Draft. Come Saturday, the pride of Charlottesville could buy the entire fleet of buses.

It doesn’t look like Bo Carrington will ever experience the thrill of returning to his hometown to play college lacrosse in front of family and friends.

It’s been a while since a Virginia men’s lacrosse team headed into the ACC Tournament as an underdog.

Virginia had to wait until Thursday’s quarterfinals to find out, but the Cavs will take on Duke in the ACC semifinals today at 3 p.m at Scott Stadium.

The shad have come home.

Fluvanna County faced an early deficit, but fought back and pulled away with a 6-5 Jefferson District win over visiting Orange County on Thursday.

Charlottesville High School is one step closer to finding a replacement for longtime football coach Garwin DeBerry.

It took all of four days for Luke Bowanko to determine his own fate. After being offered a scholarship on Monday, the offensive tackle from Centreville High in Clifton jumped at the chance to play football at Virginia.

Play after play. Minute by minute. Tom Santi would not be denied.

Behind a display of timely hitting and a dominant dose of pitching in the final frame, William & Mary upended Virginia, 6-5, at Davenport Field to win for the first time in the series since 2001.

“That was always the stereotype, put the bigger kid in goal and I was never the bigger kid,” said Virginia’s Kendall McBrearty. “I’ve always been pretty athletic and I haven’t ever really been able to stay put.”

A veteran lineup combined with a strong pitcher proved to be the one-two punch that Colonial Forge needed to get past Albemarle in a Commonwealth District matchup Wednesday night.

Buoyed by a narrow defeat in a previous meeting, the Western Albemarle baseball team was full of confidence heading into Wednesday night’s matchup with defending Group AA champion Turner Ashby. It took all of five batters for that optimism to evaporate.