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Wake Forest's Marshall Williams (8) beats the coverage by Duke's Chris Rwabukamba (16) for a reception.
Bruce Chapman/ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Cavaliers, Deacons aim to keep pace

Virginia visits Wake Forest

Date published: 11/8/2008

BY TAFT COGHILL JR.

CHARLOTTESVILLE--

Five of the six teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference's Coastal Division have two league losses.

That's why despite Virginia's 24-17 overtime loss to Miami last Saturday, the Cavaliers are still very much alive in the race for the division title and a trip to the conference championship game Dec. 6 in Tampa, Fla.

The Cavaliers (5-4, 3-2 ACC) could help themselves in a big way today when they visit Atlantic Division foe Wake Forest (5-3, 3-2). Virginia has just two games remaining after today.

"There's a lot of teams in the same situation we're in," Virginia senior linebacker Clint Sintim said. "A lot of teams are in the hunt and trying to win their next game. We have an opportunity to win this game against Wake, and after that we'll see where it goes."

Sintim and his teammates are dialed in to the division race.

On Tuesday, he said he would actively root for Maryland against Coastal rival Virginia Tech, but the Hokies held on for a 23-13 victory on Thursday to improve to 3-2 in the ACC.

Cavaliers head coach Al Groh prefers not to watch the standings. He said he hasn't mentioned the race to his players since the preseason.

Groh said the Cavaliers need to "keep a lot of the focus on the process and not the outcome."

"Then we'll see what it all adds up to," the coach added.

So far the Cavaliers' season has added up to one wild roller-coaster ride.

They started out 1-3 before winning four straight and briefly gaining first place in the Coastal standings. That was lost in last week's setback to the Hurricanes.

Virginia players admitted the loss hasn't been an easy one to forget, The Cavaliers held a 17-10 lead from the second quarter until there were 55 seconds left in regulation.

They failed to make a key play to seal the win.

"Obviously that was a very disappointing result, very frustrating," Virginia sophomore quarterback Marc Verica said. "But that's the way it happens sometimes. We've won plenty of games here over the past couple of years the way [Miami] did."

One such game was the Cavaliers' 17-16 victory over Wake Forest last season.

The contest ended when Wake's all-ACC kicker, Sam Swank, missed a 47-yard field goal attempt as time expired.


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VIRGINIA (5-4) at WAKE FOREST (5-3)

WHEN: Today, 3:30 p.m. WHERE: BB&T Field, Winston-Salem, N.C. TV: ESPNU RADIO: WRVA-AM 1140



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Date published: 11/8/2008


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