How Eddie Ventresca Upset Vince Robinson | Virginia Tech Vs NC State 2025

#5 Eddie Ventresca upset #3 Vince Robinson at the Virginia Tech NC State dual tonight, with a very impressive takedown at the end to finish off the match.

It’s the third period, 45 seconds left, the score is one one, Ventresca on the right has a collar tie with his right hand and a wrist with his left. Robinson has an overhook on the left, but not much with his right hand. It looks like Robinson relaxes a bit too much as Ventresca drops his collar tie and pops up that right elbow and goes for a super slick double. I keep trying to highlight this pop-up because it has the dual threat of being incredibly simple while also incredibly effective against top tier opponents. We see this a lot at this level and beyond. As he shoots, his left hand wraps the far knee as he disappears underneath, which isn’t easy to reach for by the way, pops his head out to the right as he circles around for the easy takedown.

This works insanely well for a few reasons: 1 - Robinson leaning on the over-tie and applying forward pressure allows the shot to happen super quickly, allows Ventresca to disappear underneath as Robinson falls forward a bit after losing track of the tie-up. 2 - The angle and severity of the shot, when you have a double like this and you immediately wrap both legs and drive to the side it makes it damn near impossible to initiate a scramble. If there’s no sprawl to be had and your legs are tied up tight, you fall to your hip damn near instantly. So, even if Robinson had all the knowledge in the world on how to defend a double, once your opponent gets this deep on a double and is able to turn the corner, there’s not much you can do.

The only thing he could have done would have been before the shot, like better head position and level change as Ventresca started letting go of the collar tie. This is of course assuming his positioning never makes any mistakes. You could have perfect head position and level changes all match, but it only takes one misstep to whiff like this. But you can use that simple motion, the idea of your opponent letting go of a tie-up, to trigger a reaction of your own. Let’s say you’re in a collar tie hand-fight and your opponent lets go of his collar tie, there’s a good chance he’s going to use that hand to shoot, so you telegraph that. They drop their hand you drop yours, and the downblock is easier to get, and also this pop-up is impossible to get because your elbow isn’t exposed anymore. I know, I know, hindsight is 20-20, but this is pretty important to understand.

Ventresca proceeded to ride out Robinson to pick up the 4-1 victory and upset.