Lacrosse Features 
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Lacrosse Features
The Virginia men's lacrosse team is off to another good start at 4-0 thanks to a thrilling overtime win against Syracuse over the weekend. Winning, of course, is nothing new when it comes to lacrosse in Charlottesville. Coach Dom Starsia's Cavalier teams have won 174 games and 3 NCAA Championships in his tenure. That's a team that UVa fans should be thrilled to support. But maybe, you're like me and many other Hoos. Lacrosse? It can be a confusing game in many ways. With that in mind, a sort of introductory user's guide to Virginia lacrosse from Sabre fans follows.
The Virginia men's lacrosse team ended last season ranked No. 3 in the nation by Inside Lacrosse and made it to the ACC Tournament title game. Though the Cavaliers would end their season on a disappointing note, losing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Virginia coach Dom Starsia hardly sees last year as a disappointment and he believes the program can continue its success this time around. TheSabre.com looks at four reasons why this year's team has a chance to not only repeat the regular season success of last year, but also to make another run at the NCAA Championship.
After the Virginia men's lacrosse team knocked off Drexel to open the season, all memories of the last-second 11-10 defeat to Drexel at the beginning of last season seemed to fade. After Stony Brook recovered from a 9-2 deficit on Saturday to knot the score at 12 late in the third period, however, one could not help but replay last season's upset once more. The Cavaliers, however, showed a resiliency late that may have finally put that upset to rest for good, as Virginia ultimately triumphed 15-13.
The Virginia women's lacrosse team opened its season with a 14-6 win over in-state rival Virginia Tech on Wednesday. Julie Myers' Cavaliers showed just how much depth and talent they have in the fold as nine different players posted points in the victory. Jenny Hauser and Ashley McCulloch led the way with 4 points each while Megan O'Malley and Brittany Kalkstein contributed 3 goals each.
"We want to win a national championship," says senior captain Megan O'Malley. "We came so close last year and that's not good enough for us. We want to fight and work that much harder to get back to where we were but actually finish it this year and win a title." And with that goal firmly in mind, the Virginia women's lacrosse team opens the 2007 season.
The Virginia men's lacrosse team is gearing up for a preseason scrimmage with Navy on Saturday at Klockner Stadium at 1 p.m. What should Hoo fans expect from the 2008 Cavaliers? UVa coach Dom Starsia joined Jay James on The Best Seat in the House this week to talk about his team, expectations, the goalie situation, the Brattons, and more.
Dom Starsia's 10-member freshman class certainly has its share of accolades. Nine participated in the Under Armour All-American game. Four were ranked in Rise Magazine's Top 10 overall recruits in the nation, including four of the top seven and all of the top three. Virginia's class is indeed loaded with talent with the highlight being the addition of twin brothers Rhamel and Shamel Bratton, stars out of Huntington High School (Huntington Station, New York).
PHILADELPHIA - Over the past month, the Virginia's women's lacrosse team has found numerous different ways to beat a formidable slate of opponents. On Sunday evening in the NCAA Championship game, however, the Cavaliers finally ran into a team whose talent was too much to overcome. Northwestern showed all the reasons that it is the top-ranked team in the nation as the Wildcats edged Virginia 15-13 in front of 6,075 at Franklin Field.
PHILADELPHIA - How does a team follow up an unprecedented nine-goal, second-half comeback? Virginia will have to answer that question on Sunday evening at 7 p.m. when the third-seeded Cavaliers face off against first-seeded Northwestern for the NCAA Championship. Blair Weymouth and UVa wasted little time in moving on from Friday's dramatics - the Hoos went back to work on Saturday afternoon at Franklin Field, practicing for two hours to tune up for Sunday's duel with the Wildcats.
PHILADELPHIA - It was all over. There was no way Virginia could come back from a nine-goal deficit with 20 minutes remaining in the second half. Fans began to file out of Franklin Field and members of the media started to write stories about a Duke blowout of the Cavaliers. They all jumped the gun. Virginia miraculously rallied with the biggest comeback in tourney history and Jess Wasilewski notched the game-winner with nine seconds remaining to win 14-13 and advance to Sunday's Championship Game against Northwestern.
Cavalier coach Julie Myers said earlier this week that she expected Saturday's match-up with North Carolina to be a closely contested affair with two or three goals separating the two teams in the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight. Myers was right. For about 15 minutes. After that? It was all Virginia. In the end, the Hoos turned a 7-1 halftime lead into a 14-8 victory as Kate Breslin scored five goals.
For much of the 2007 season, the Virginia men's lacrosse team has been playing with fire. On Sunday, the Cavaliers finally got burnt by one of the hottest teams in the country. Delaware, which has won six straight games and five straight on the road, shocked second-seeded UVa at Klockner Stadium, 14-8, in the NCAA Tournament's opening round.
Rock, paper, scissors. One, two, three - shoot! Rock hammers scissors. Scissors cut paper. Paper covers rock. One, two, three - shoot! Think ahead. Mix it up. Counter every move. One, two, three - shoot! Don't think so much. Rely on a go-to move. Don't react to every move.
Simple yet complicated. That's life in the men's lacrosse face-off X for guys like Adam Fassnacht. Think but don't think. Act and react. Rock, paper, scissors. One, two , three - shoot!
The Virginia men's lacrosse team split a pair of games in the ACC Tournament, defeating Maryland before falling to Duke in the title game. Danny Glading, who had a goal and two assists in the tourney, is one of the Cavaliers featured in this photo gallery, which also has images of Kip Turner, Dom Starsia, Ben Rubeor, and more. Check out 43 images from carolinawahoo, who took photos of the weekend action.
The Virginia men's lacrosse team begins its ACC Tournament title defense Friday in North Carolina. There's only one problem with that as far as defenseman Ricky Smith is concerned. These Cavaliers aren't defending. Smith, of course, is right. This year's Virginia team is not a fully intact version of 2006's undefeated National Championship squad. So what do the Hoos have to do to win - not defend - the ACC Tournament title?
The third-ranked Virginia men's lacrosse team needed late game heroics from Drew Thompson and Garrett Billings to stave off 10th-ranked North Carolina on Saturday evening as the Cavaliers notched a thrilling 10-9 overtime victory. "That was a really good win against a quality North Carolina team," said Virginia coach Dom Starsia.
Virginia coach Dom Starsia expected a close game against Maryland and that's exactly what he got during the first half of Saturday afternoon's showdown against the 10th-ranked Terrapins. But the third-ranked Cavaliers scored three goals in the first four minutes of the third quarter and built a comfortable lead en route to a 12-8 victory in front of a crowd of 5,048 on a breezy day at Klockner Stadium. As has become the norm, junior Ben Rubeor was Virginia's leading scorer on Saturday as the junior attacker notched five goals and one assist.
After dropping its season opener to Drexel, the third-ranked Virginia men's lacrosse team has rebounded by reeling off seven straight victories heading into Saturday afternoon's duel at Klockner against 10th-ranked Maryland. The Terrapins are also red hot at 7-2 with five straight wins of their own. That means Will Barrow and the Hoos have to be ready for another classic ACC showdown this weekend.
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