Nation’s top men’s tennis recruit signs with UVA

COLLEGE TENNIS

Roy Horovitz, who is ranked the No. 1 recruit in the country by TennisRecruiting.net, has signed a letter of intent to play for the University of Virginia this fall.

He has been ranked as high as 17th in the ITF Junior world rankings and has played in all four of the Junior Grand Slams. He reached the round of 16 at the Junior Australian Open this year and made the semifinals at Junior Wimbledon last year.

Horovitz will join Rafael Jodar (Madrid, Spain), Keegan Rice (Regina, Canada) and Stiles Brockett (Fairfax) in UVA’s incoming freshman class, which was already ranked No. 1 in the nation by TennisRecruiting.net prior to Horovitz’s announcement.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

South County DL/TE picks ODU

South County High defensive lineman/tight end Hunter Malecki has committed to Old Dominion, he announced on social media.

Malecki (6-3, 250) made the All-Occoquan Region 6C first team last season after collecting 100 tackles, including 20 for losses, and nine sacks.

TRACK AND FIELD

NSU’s Wynn makes U20 Worlds

Norfolk State track and field athlete Premier Wynn has qualified for the World Athletics U20 Championships by finishing second in the 400-meter hurdles at the USATF U20 Championships earlier this month in Eugene, Oregon.

The freshman from Pennsauken, New Jersey, posted a personal-record time of 50.58 seconds.
The World Athletics U20 Championships will be held Aug. 26-31 in Lima, Peru.

HIGH SCHOOLS

Kellam has 7 lacrosse all-staters

Kellam’s Evan Djunaedi has made the VHSL Class 5 all-state boys lacrosse first team.

Six Knights players are on the second team: Colt Goodwin, Elijah Lamb, Kieran Auld, Matt Rogers, Jake Lyons and Gavin Sinram.

Cox’s Liam Waldron and Jeff Mitchell also made the second team.

• Jamestown’s Maddie Leach has made the VHSL Class 4 all-state girls soccer first team. Warhill’s Camryn Robinson, Sarah Kuttkuhn and Alex Scott and Smithfield’s Brianna Curro are on the second team.

GOLF

Two Hokies reach VSGA Am quarters

Virginia Tech’s David Stanford and former Hokie Drew Brockwell each advanced to match play quarterfinals at the VSGA Amateur Championship on Wednesday at Belle Haven Country Club in Alexandria.

Stanford edged James Madison’s Garrett Kuhla 1-up in 19 holes and then Christopher Newport’s Michael Thomas 2 and 1 on Wednesday. Brockwell topped former Virginia Tech player Joey Jordan 3 and 2 and Williamsburg’s Bobby Dudeck III 1-up in 21 holes.

Stanford will face Centreville’s Rylan Shim in a quarterfinal Thursday, while Brockwell will take on Roanoke’s Jason Spaar.

WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Hokies to play in Fort Myers

Virginia Tech will be part of an eight-team field in the 2024 Women’s Fort Myers Tip-Off on Nov. 29-30 in Fort Myers, Florida.

The field includes defending national champion South Carolina.

The tournament will have two divisions. The Hokies will be in the Shell Division along with Michigan, Belmont and Davidson. Iowa State, Purdue and Middle Tennessee will join South Carolina in the Island Division.

The Hokies will open play against Davidson on Nov. 29.

MORE COLLEGES

UVA finishes 5th in Learfield Cup

The University of Virginia finished fifth in the final 2023-24 Learfield Directors’ Cup competition, marking its second straight top-five finish.

Points are awarded for a school’s NCAA postseason finish in 19 sports. Four sports — men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and volleyball — must be included.

The Cavaliers won their fourth straight NCAA title in women’s swimming and diving, went to the Final Four in men’s lacrosse and field hockey and advanced to the College World Series in baseball. The men’s golf team also finished fifth at the NCAA Championships.

Texas won the competition, followed by Stanford, Tennessee and Florida. Virginia Tech finished 50th.

• Old Dominion placed nine athletes on the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District At-Large Teams: Jolene Ulichney and Rina Tsioles (field hockey), Jakob Chicoyne, Jacob Gunther and Kazuki Yamauchi (men’s golf), Carley Rudolf (women’s golf), Callie Culhane and Lilly Siskind (women’s lacrosse) and Lucy Brennan (women’s rowing).
• Christopher Newport pitcher Dylan Weber has been named the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Male Athlete of the Year. He was an ABCA and D3baseball.com All-American after going 9-2 with a 1.66 ERA and a Division III-leading 140 strikeouts in 2024.
• Norfolk State Assistant Athletic Director for Marketing and External Engagement Christina Ruffin has received the N4A Kenneth O. Miles Professional Promise & Professional Excellence Award. Recipients of the award have displayed active involvement in the National Association of Academic and Student-Athlete Development Professionals at the regional and/or national level and have shown commitment to improving their department. Ruffin is entering her 14th year in the Norfolk State athletics department.
• William & Mary field hockey players Maddie George, Pyper Friedman, Emme Schwartz and Josie Mae Gruendel have been selected to compete in the Senior Nexus Championship, which will be held July 14-16 at the Virginia Beach Regional Training Center. They will be among 144 elite collegiate and post-collegiate athletes to take part in the event.
• Former UVA women’s soccer star Emily Sonnett has been named to the 18-player roster of the U.S. Women’s National Team that will compete in the Olympic Games in Paris. She was also on the 2020 U.S. team that competed in Tokyo.
• The University of Memphis is set to hire UVA deputy athletic director Ed Scott as its next athletic director, according to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger. Scott came to UVA in January of 2022 after serving as Morgan State’s athletic director the previous five years.

Briefly

• Henry Garcia drove in the go-ahead run on a fielder’s choice and Cole Koonce pitched four hitless innings of relief as the Peninsula Pilots opened the second half of the Coastal Plain League season with a 3-2 victory over the Wilmington Sharks on Tuesday night.