A couple days ago I thought writing this column was going to be an enjoyable experience, celebrating our victory and our first place status in the ACC. But instead I find myself dreading having to relive the experience.

Three other Tech students and I drove up for the game with tickets thanks to my wahoo father. And a couple of us had plans of celebrating the victory with my cousin and her “sisters” at uva’s ZTA sorority. It turned out it wasn’t so much a celebration, but a drowning of our sorrows. With so many wahoos in the family I was really looking forward to rubbing in the Hokies’ sweep of football and basketball over the hoos.

It didn’t happen and now the hoos sit atop the ACC standings with a 95-percent chance of going into the ACC Tourney as the top seed with only lowly wake forest standing in the way. The hoos in first is a pretty hard pill to swallow.

As far as the game goes, it was extremely frustrating. Tech had a ton of opportunities to get back in the game in the second half, but couldn’t cut far enough into the hoos’ lead. Both teams played great defense the entire game; the difference came from the teams’ three-point shooting. The wahoos were 10-15 from three-point range while the Hokies were just 2-15. The fact that Zabian Dowdell was the only Hokie in double-digit scoring didn’t help either.

A.D. Vassallo scored the first three points of the game for Tech and never scored again – something that exemplifies Tech’s woes from beyond the arc in this game. Dowdell can carry the Hokies, but he can only be relied upon so much, he needs someone else — A.D., Coleman Collins, Deron Washington or Jamon Gordon — to step up and contribute. Tech’s past few losses have all come because Zabes has been the only guy to show up offensively — that can’t happen anymore, or our season won’t be as long as we’re hoping for.

The loss to the hoos was painful and we may have missed our golden opportunity to capture the ACC regular season crown and the top seed in the tourney. The loss hurts badly, but, as they say, the Hokies have to put this one behind them. Hopefully the team comes out strong on a senior day that will celebrate the careers of some of the Hokies’ finest players ever. I’m going to be there, and having talked to numerous other Tech students, I don’t think attendance will be as bad as some originally feared. Although the student section won’t be full, I would expect it to be half full. A win against clemson on senior day would be a nice finish to a strong, rollercoaster of a season. And, although the uva loss hurts, the Hokies biggest games are yet to come.