Lacrosse Features 
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Lacrosse Features
For the men's lacrosse team, Virginia's defense has become like a highly trained security force at a museum. The task? Protect the diamond at all costs. Allow no one near it, keep dangerous threats on the outside, and preserve the area as a group. The diamond in this case, while literal on the practice field, is not a high-priced gem of course. It's the territory surrounding the cage. And Virginia's defense doesn't want anyone near it.
On an unseasonably warm and sunny March afternoon, the Virginia men's lacrosse team dropped rival and No. 1 Syracuse in an 11-10, physical shootout. Junior midfielder Rhamel Bratton, stepping up in place of his injured brother Shamel, led the Cavaliers with four goals. Virginia overcame a 5-2 deficit in the early moments of the contest and then held off a fourth quarter rally to notch the victory.
While talking to coach Julie Myers and some members of the Virginia women's lacrosse team, I felt a curious sense of deja vu. Last week I was consumed by men's lacrosse, so covering the women's squad this week required a slight gearshift on my part. However, the similarities between the two 2010 lacrosse teams are striking.
The winter weather in Charlottesville makes it kind of hard to believe, but the Virginia men's lacrosse team is hard at work preparing for its season opener at Drexel on Feb. 20. The Cavaliers are ranked a preseason No. 3 in the Nike/Inside Lacrosse and Lacrosse Magazine polls. This time last year, Virginia was ranked No. 1, and a heavy favorite to capture a national title. With several key departures, coach Dom Starsia's team has some big shoes to fill across the field, and a whole host of young talent is ready to uphold Virginia's fine lacrosse tradition.
Virginia suits up in the Final Four this weekend for the 11th time in Dom Starsia's 17 seasons at the helm. While the final weekend of NCAA men's lacrosse could be considered a figurative home for the Cavaliers, only one player can truly call the trip to Foxborough a literal homecoming. Chad Gaudet, the Hoos' face-off specialist, grew up in Massachusetts before playing football and lacrosse at Dartmouth as an undergraduate.
Goalies in sports have to be a little bit fearless. How else can you explain throwing yourself in front of a moving object in the name of the team? Even more so in lacrosse. College men routinely fire the ball in excess of 70 or 80 miles per hour while the keep wears very limited protection. So, yes you have to be bold, something UVa goalkeeper Adam Ghitelman knows. Check out why in this Q&A with TheSabre.com.
For most of April, Virginia had been lumbering through a T.S. Eliot style funk. A shaky start before rallying against North Carolina preceded a pair of Duke losses, which sandwiched a lackluster outing against Dartmouth. Apparently, the Cavaliers just needed May and the energy of the NCAA Tournament to snap them out of the fog. After all, UVa destroyed Villanova 18-6 in first round men's lacrosse action on Sunday at Klockner Stadium.
It took Dom Starsia five minutes to form an opinion on Matt Kelly. As snap decisions go, it was an incredibly good one. Starsia slipped into an All-Star Game at the end of Kelly's junior year, saw five minutes of lacrosse, and called the Chicago recruit the next day. In the nearly five years since that fateful day, Kelly has become the first Virginia lacrosse player from Illinois and a key piece of the puzzle on this year's 12-1 squad.
The Virginia men's lacrosse team is preparing for game in the Meadowlands this weekend as the Cavaliers try to knock off the Tar Heels to improve to 2-0 in the ACC. Before the Cavaliers suit up for the showdown, however, let's take a look back at the 7OT thriller against Maryland last week. Here are some of the postgame thoughts from the Hoos.
Due to a scheduling quirk for the North Carolina game, the Virginia men's lacrosse team plays its only ACC home game of the 2009 season Saturday when Maryland comes to town. The Cavaliers and Terrapins square off at Klockner Stadium at noon. The Sabre caught up with senior Matt Kelly for a Quick Take about the challenges presented by the Terps.
It's hard to ignore the resemblance. With a 10-0 record, having beaten Syracuse and Johns Hopkins by just a goal each, the Cavaliers find themselves in a remarkably similar situation to last season, before Maryland upended them 13-7 in College Park.
Garrett Billings and the Virginia men's lacrosse team have jumped out to a 9-0 start this season, marking the third time in the last four years the Cavaliers have started 6-0 or better. Among the early season wins was a solid 14-10 victory against Cornell in a battle of top 5 teams. Check out some of the action with 58 images in this photo gallery.
Prior to the 2008 season, many believed the Virginia men's lacrosse team was "a year away" from another trip to the Final Four. Well Dom Starsia and his Cavaliers didn't want to wait that long. Their date with destiny came a year earlier than expected but Virginia wasn’t about to turn down a trip to the Final Four to take on Syracuse.
Did you know that The Sabre has started putting additional quotes on The Good Ol' Blog? Frequently all of the answers during media interviews or story preparation don't make it to the final articles on the site. Those "leftovers" used to get dumped, deleted, or erased never to be seen again. Now, The Sabre posts the leftovers on the blog so you can read even more about your Hoos! Check out these tidbits from the men's lacrosse team in this leftovers edition of Blog Banter.
When it comes to collegiate men's lacrosse, the names Virginia and Syracuse have produced some classic battles over the years. The games typically are fast-paced and filled with excitement with either team having a chance to win in the end.
The numbers tell that story.
UVa leads the series 12 to 11, both teams have scored 310 goals in those 23 games, and 11 of the last 17 meetings have been decided by one or two goals. In the most recent meeting nearly three months ago, the Cavs survived with a thrilling 14-13 overtime win with 19,165 fans watching in Baltimore. So what should one expect in the Final Four rematch on Saturday at noon in Boston? Likely more of the same.
Virginia senior Bud Petit did not open the season as the starting goalkeeper for the men's lacrosse team. In fact, he didn't start until the 11th game of the year when the Cavs took an early April trip to Chapel Hill where they prevailed 12-11 in overtime. Now, Petit is returning to the Final Four for the third time in his five years, but the graduate student says in this Sabre "Quick Take" that it's definitely different this time around.
When senior Will Barrow scoops up a groundball or receives an outlet pass for the Virginia men's lacrosse team, the next several seconds are among the most exciting moments of the afternoon. He accelerates and runs by opponents attacking with their sticks. He jukes, cuts, bursts, and slips through seams to start the Cavaliers preferred transition game. It really resembles the return game on the football field, which is convenient since Barrow excelled in and was recruited for both lacrosse and football.
The billowing storm clouds that covered the Charlottesville area on Sunday had nothing on Virginia's Ken Clausen and the Cavalier defense. After all, the defense blanketed UMBC in similar fashion all afternoon and the UVa men's lacrosse team rode that performance into the next round of the NCAA Tournament with a tightly contested 10-9 victory at Klockner Stadium.
Garrett Billings jumpstarted the offense twice on Friday night and the Virginia men's lacrosse team never trailed as a result. Billings scored four of his team's first five goals and the Hoos eventually pulled away to defeat Maryland 11-8, setting up a rematch with Duke in the ACC Championship Game on Sunday. Billings' fast start helped erase a recent personal slump and boosted the Cavaliers' collective confidence at the same time.
The Virginia men's lacrosse team is gearing up for an ACC showdown with Duke on Saturday night at Klockner Stadium. Jay James caught up with Ben Rubeor and Bud Petit to talk about the match-up with the Blue Devils, the most recent win at North Carolina, close games, season goals, and more. As always, select Best Seat audio is free on The Sabre!
When the Virginia men's lacrosse team picked up a thrilling 13-12 overtime win last week against Johns Hopkins, there was an unmistakable buzz in Klockner Stadium from start to finish. The lacrosse stadium record crowd of 7,579 seemed to have a little extra sizzle at times, though. Namely almost anytime Shamel or Rhamel Bratton ended up with the ball in their sticks in a position to make a play. In the end, the words on many observers' lips: coming out party.
Overtime. 10 ties and 4 lead changes. Two storied rivals – and the last two National Champions – meeting for the 80th time. A back-and-forth battle for the Doyle Smith Cup. A Klockner Stadium lacrosse attendance record of 7,579. No, lacrosse fans couldn’t have asked for a much better Saturday in March.
And Virginia made sure its fans didn’t leave disappointed with Johns Hopkins in town. Dom Starsia’s team captured a thrilling 13-12 overtime victory when Brian Carroll delivered the eruption-inducing goal with just 8 seconds remaining.
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