UVa controls Towson
By John Galinsky / Daily Progress staff writer
March 17, 2003

Dom Starsia said before Sunday’s game against No. 16 Towson that goalie Tillman Johnson had not needed to win a game yet for No. 1 Virginia. “But I think that time is coming,” UVa’s coach said. As it turned out, Johnson didn’t defeat the Tigers by himself, but he sure made things easy for the undefeated Cavalers. The junior stopped 11 shots before Towson scored its initial goal in a 10-2 rout at Klockner Stadium. Johnson finished with 15 saves in living up to his billing as a preseason All-American. He helped hold the Tigers (1-3) to their fewest goals in 11 years and finally met his own expectations. “I’ve kind of been disappointed with the way I’ve been playing so far. I know we’ve been winning, but I’ve wanted to play better than I have so far,” Johnson said. “I wanted to play my best. I came out relaxed and just enjoyed it out here.” Johnson had been good — but not great — in Virginia’s first four games, making 38 saves while allowing 37 goals. But he was on top of his game from the start Sunday. He made seven saves in the first quarter, including several acrobatic stops of close-range shots, and helped compensate for a slow start by the Cavalier offense. Senior midfielder Billy Glading scored the game’s only goal in the first 20 minutes, but UVa (5-0) produced five more goals in a six-minute span of the second quarter to seize a 6-0 lead. In the meantime, Johnson kept stopping everything until Neil Adams snuck in a goal with 1:52 left in the half. “Tillman really set the tone. He really had it going,” said Glading, who finished with three goals. “He caught fire. It was just a matter of time before he played like that.” Said Starsia: “Tillman played the way we expect him to play all the time, and the way he expects to play all the time. It’s not possible to do this every single time out. But on a day when there wasn’t a lot of magic on the offensive end of things, you need your goalie and your defense to step up. That’s what happened. Hopefully that’s the sign of a quality team.” Virginia’s attackmen combined for just two goals as the Cavaliers matched their season low on offense. Besides Glading, A.J. Shannon was the only UVa player to score more than once. But that was more than enough, thanks to Johnson and the defenders in front of him. Virginia allowed its fewest goals since a 7-2 victory over Maryland on March 31, 2001. “The defense played great all game,” Johnson said. “They kept the shots mostly outside. If the defense does that, I feel like I should save everything. If the defense does that and I play on top of my game, I feel like we can be a dominant defense.” Virginia’s offense started clicking midway through the second quarter. Matt Poskay, who set the national high school record with 362 goals, scored his first as a collegian off a feed from fellow freshman midfielder Foster Gilbert. Shannon and Chris Rotelli followed with goals in the next two minutes. John Christmas and Shannon then scored 33 seconds apart to make it 6-0. “We just needed to settle down a little bit,” Glading said. “They were aggressive with their slides and we were rushing things a little. We moved the ball around better and got some good shots.” Glading scored two of Virginia’s four goals in the second half. The Cavaliers maintained possession most of the way, meaning Johnson had to make just four saves after the break. He allowed a third-quarter goal on a defensive lapse, then shut out the Tigers for the final 19 minutes. “Tillman Johnson,” said Towson coach Tony Seaman, “should be shot.”

NIT gives Spiders, Cavs bids
UR faces Providence; U.Va. draws Brown
BY JOHN O'CONNOR AND JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITERS Mar 17, 2003

The two Division I basketball teams based in Providence, R.I., might want to share a ride.

In the National Invitation Tournament first round Wednesday night, Brown plays at Virginia. Also Wednesday night, Providence College plays at the University of Richmond. Both games will tip off at 7:30.

The Cavaliers (15-15) entertain a Brown team that matched the school record for wins. The Bears (17-11) finished second in the Ivy League, to Pennsylvania.

UR (15-13) and Providence (16-13), of the Big East Conference, already met this season, and are scheduled to play at the Robins Center next season. On Dec. 19 at Providence, the Spiders were hammered 84-55. Richmond had played two nights earlier at Stanford.

"This is an interesting scenario for us. They beat us up pretty good physically up there," said UR coach Jerry Wainwright. The Spiders were outrebounded 48-26 by the Friars, whose coach, Tim Welsh, played football for a season at UR during the early '80s.

Three Brown players made the all-Ivy first team: senior guard Earl Hunt, senior forward Alai Nuualiitia, and sophomore guard Jason Forte, whose brother, Joseph, starred at North Carolina. Hunt is Brown's all-time leading scorer with 2,030 points, a three-time member of the all-Ivy first team and a three-time conference scoring champion.

The Cavaliers won the NIT in 1980 under Terry Holland and in '92 under Jeff Jones. They're 0-2 in the NIT under fifth-year coach Pete Gillen, having lost to Georgetown in 2001 and to South Carolina last season. Both games were at U-Hall.

The Spiders began Atlantic 10 Conference play 6-1 but dropped six of their last nine regular-season games, then fell to Temple 66-52 in the A-10 tournament quarterfinals last Thursday.

"I was Johnny Wooden when we were 6-1 and the wooden Indian when we lost five in a row," Wainwright said.

Though the Spiders are only two games over .500, they were projected as a probable choice for the 40-team NIT field due to two of the best regular-season road wins in program history. On Dec. 17, UR upset No. 17 Stanford 83-69 in the consolation of the Stanford Classic. To begin A-10 play, Richmond on Jan. 7 won 67-59 at Xavier, ranked No. 21 at the time.

This will be Richmond's seventh NIT, and third in three years. The Spiders won three NIT games last March and were a victory away from advancing to the tournament semifinals in New York. But Syracuse won at the sold-out Robins Center 62-46.

Tickets for the Providence-at-UR game cost $15 and $10, depending on seat location. UR students will be admitted free. For more information, call 1-877-SPIDER1.

Tickets for the U.Va.-Brown game cost $8 for adults and $4 for U.Va. students and youths 18 and under. Seating at University Hall will be general admission. Tickets go on sale at U.Va.'s Bryant Hall today at 9 a.m. They also may be ordered by phone 1-800-542-8821.

 

What can Brown do for U.Va.?
Cavaliers receive NIT berth, home date in first round
By Dave Johnson
Daily Press
Published March 17, 2003

It's the NIT, which, quite frankly, is never a quality program's goal. But it's better than nothing, which eight days ago was a distinct possibility.

Virginia received its second straight bid to the National Invitation Tournament on Sunday night and will open against Ivy League runner-up Brown at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at University Hall.

The Cavaliers enter with a 15-15 record, just meeting the .500 winning percentage needed to comply with the tournament's policy of not selecting teams with losing marks.

The oldest national tournament in the country, the NIT expanded to 40 teams last year and plays its early-round games at campus sites. The semifinals and final will be held in Madison Square Garden in New York City.

The school received official notice of the invitation late Sunday night and head coach Pete Gillen was unavailable for comment.

Virginia will play its NIT opener in University Hall for the third time in four years. The Cavaliers hosted Georgetown in 2000 and South Carolina last season. While Virginia's game against the Hoyas was a near sellout, its matchup with USC drew a season-low crowd of 4,983.

Brown (17-11) finished second to perennial Ivy power Penn and has three first-team all-conference players: senior guard Earl Hunt, senior forward Alai Nuualiitia and sophomore guard Jason Forte.

Hunt (19.4 ppg) led the Ivy in scoring three years in a row and is the Bears' career leading scorer with 2,030 points. Nuualiitia averages 12.8 points per game, and Forte was second in the Ivy in assists (5.3 apg).

The Cavaliers had hopes of making the NCAA's 65-team field after beating N.C. State on Feb. 9 to improve to 14-7. But a seven-game losing streak followed and Virginia needed an 80-78 upset of Maryland on March 9 just to clinch a .500 record.

"Our goal was to play in the NCAA tournament but we didn't reach that," Gillen said after Friday night's loss to Duke in the ACC quarterfinals. "But we'd love to play in the NIT, if they think we're worthy."

Virginia's NIT history is a mixed bag. The Cavaliers won the tournament in 1980, Ralph Sampson's freshman year, by beating Minnesota and Kevin McHale in the final.

Twelve years later, in Jeff Jones' second season as head coach, Virginia defeated Notre Dame in overtime to win the title.

But in Gillen's two appearances, the Cavaliers are 0-2, having lost 115-111 in triple overtime to Georgetown in 2000 and 74-67 last year to South Carolina.

The Cavaliers have dropped 12 consecutive postseason games since the end of the 1994-95 season, the longest streak in school history. That includes eight straight conference tournament openers, two NIT first-round exits and two NCAA one-and-dones.

Gillen has a 4-5 career record in the NIT, all of his wins coming at either Xavier or Providence.

Cavaliers pick up pair of weekend wins over Penn State, Princeton
Virginia comes back from bitter loss to Maryland with ferocity that garners set of key victories over powerful visiting foes
Chris Kelly
Cavalier Daily Associate Editor

The No. 12 Penn State (2-2) women's lacrosse team suffered a 15-9 loss at Klockner stadium Friday night as the No. 8 Cavaliers rebounded from a loss to No. 3 Maryland March 11. Sunday afternoon yielded similar results for Virginia. No. 2 Princeton (1-2) was thrown for a loop by the Cavaliers, when they lost 13-8, raising Virginia's record to 5-2 on the season.

In Friday's match-up, Penn State took the early 2-0 lead two minutes in on goals from sophomore midfielder Kristen Burke and junior attacker Stephanie Curnoles. It took Virginia almost half of the first 30 minutes to find their rhythm as a team. With 15 minutes left in the first half, Virginia finally captured the lead from the visiting Nittany Lions.

After a shaky performance in the first 10 minutes of play, Virginia junior keeper Andrea Pfeiffer stabilized, allowing only five goals during the first half. Despite Penn State sophomore keeper Lee Tortorelli playing well enough to tie her career high of 20 saves, the Cavalier offense still was potent enough to put Virginia ahead 12-5 at the half.

The final 30 minutes would not be much different as both teams buckled down on defense -- Virginia allowing four goals and the Lions allowing three. At the final horn, Virginia had taken a 15-9 victory from Penn State.

For the Cavaliers, sophomore attacker Amy Appelt had a team-high five goals and senior midfielder Lauren Aumiller tallied four. Junior midfielder Morgan Thalenberg recorded a hat-trick against the rival Nittany Lions. Appelt also led Virginia with three assists on Friday.

Sunday would be another showcase for Appelt as she recorded three goals and four assists.

"If I see it, I take it," Appelt said. "If not, I look for the next person."

Virginia coach Julie Myers sees Appelt as an asset to the team due to her offensive potential and leadership abilities.

"I'm glad she's on our team," Myers said. "I wouldn't want to prepare for her cause I'm not so sure how to do it."

With a light rain falling Sunday afternoon, the Cavaliers again took the lead atthehalf and went on to take down the No. 2 Tigers 13-8, handing them their second straight loss.

Princeton only had played in three games previous to yesterday's match-up while Virginia had six under their belt. These two losses for Princeton may only be a sign of the Tigers' early season jitters.

Virginia's offense worked smoothly and effectively but it was their defense that helped keep their lead against a dangerous Princeton squad that made a late run in the second half.

"I think our defense did an amazing job on keeping the gap as short as it was and we just thought that we had worked so hard for the first 30 minutes that we could do it for the next 10-20," Appelt said.

A three goal margin was the closest Princeton came to Virginia's lead, but with 6:14 left in the game, Appelt put Virginia back up by four. From behind Princeton's net, Appelt sprinted to the right and came around the corner, powering over a Princeton defender and rifling home the goal to give Virginia the 12-8 lead, en route to the 13-8 win.

Coach Myers was very pleased with her team's performance.

"It was our most consistent game so far," Myers said. "I feel like we're moving in the right direction."

For Virginia, Aumiller reached a historic mark in Sunday's game as she set the Cavalier record for consecutive games with a goal at 28. She is not, however, letting her personal achievement overshadow yesterday's key win.

"I'm not even concentrating on that," Aumiller said. "It was just a great team effort."

These past two games have served as a wake-up call for the Cavaliers and an opportunity to learn from their earlier mistakes. The loss to No. 3 Maryland brought Virginia back to earth and these last two victories have shown that they have the talent to play with the rest of the nation at the highest level.
 

Virginia records decided victory over No. 17 Tigers
Cavaliers continue their winning ways with 10-2 win over visiting Towson keeping their hot streak alive as Virginia looks ahead to Johns Hopkins
Bayless Parsley
Cavalier Daily Senior Writer

The top-ranked Virginia men's lacrosse team bolstered their argument for No. 1 after cruising to a 10-2 victory over No. 16 Towson Tigers Sunday afternoon at Klockner Stadium.

Senior midfielder Billy Glading led all scorers with three goals, including a textbook clear that resulted in the Cavaliers' final score of the day. Goalie Tillman Johnson made a save and a heads-up pass to the streaking Glading immediately. Glading, who knew that his man might be apt to watch his shot rather than automatically get back on defense, took the ball from Virginia's own box all the way down the field. On the ensuing four-on-three situation, he dished the ball to point attackman freshman Matt Ward and bounced the ball in on the give-and-go to put an exclamation mark on the game.

"I was just trying to get up the field as fast as I could," Glading said. "I tried to hit the point man which I did and Matt [Ward] just made a great look back to me."

The real story of the day came on the defensive side of the field, led by Johnson. Coming into the game one save short of reaching the top ten all-time list for Virginia goalies, the junior from Annapolis, Md. blocked 15 Tiger shots to notch 378 career saves.

Johnson and the Cavalier defense worked hand in hand on Sunday, giving Towson attackmen nothing but frustrating stick checks and suffocating pressure. Although blessed with several early opportunities to take the lead, Towson (1-3) failed to capitalize, hitting two posts, missing a point blank put-in on the crease, and getting stuffed from the same spot in the first 7:12.

Heading into the season as the sole Division I goalie named as a candidate for the Tewaaraton Trophy, the award for player of the year in college lacrosse, Johnson was expected to dominate in his third season as a starter.

Although playing solidly through the first four games of this year, Johnson had not turned out a performance that justified his early season accolades until the Towson victory. He gave up 15 goals in the one point victory at Syracuse on March 1, nearly five and a half more than his season average of 9.53. In the next two contests, he responded by shutting the door on perennial power Princeton with seven goals allowed, and eight goals against then No. 9 Notre Dame.

"I think this is my breakout game," Johnson declared. "I feel like I played decent all year so far, but I haven't played a game like this where I felt like I controlled the game."

Virginia coach Dom Starsia had more to say about his All-American keeper.

"He's been our best player since the first day of practice, and he's been a little bit frustrated because he hasn't felt like he's played like that [against Towson] yet this season," said Starsia. "We beat Syracuse on the road, we beat Princeton on the road...you're not doing that without terrific goalie play."

Virginia (5-0) has had an exceptional season, considering that they have defended their No. 1 ranking against some of the best the nation has to offer. Following this Saturday's matchup with Johns Hopkins, the Cavaliers will have had a taste of all of their fellow 2002 Final Four participants. The matchups against Notre Dame and Towson combine with Syracuse, Princeton and Hopkins to make Virginia's schedule extremely unique, seeing as they will have played all of the Final Four teams from the last two years combined.

"There's not a lot of teams at our level that are having a week like this," Starsia noted. "You're playing really and truly three top ten, top 12 teams in the same week. You've only got so much gas in the tank, so I give my guys a lot of credit for really just battling through this one and getting the 'W' against a really good team."
 

Virginia triumphs over Towson, 10-2
Tillman Johnson registers 15 saves in solid defensive effort
March 16, 2003

Charlottesville, VA - Behind a solid defensive effort led by goalie Tillman Johnson's season-high 15 saves, the Virginia men's lacrosse team kept visiting Towson in check to post a 10-2 victory. The two scores given up by the Cavaliers are the fewest they've allowed in a game since a 7-2 win over Maryland during the 2001 campaign.

Johnson recorded seven saves in the opening quarter and didn't give up a goal until less than two minutes were left before half-time. With the 15 saves, Johnson jumped into 10th place on UVa's all-time leader chart with 378 career saves. "Tillman played the way we expected him to play," said Virginia head coach Dom Starsia. "This was a game where we needed to play tough defense and he did a great job for us. He really bailed us out at times."

In the first half, Johnson weathered 23 shots, saved 11 of them, and only allowed one to get past him, while the Virginia offense scored on six of their 20 attempts. "It gives me confidence to play a game like today," said Johnson. "I stepped up and I knew we needed to play tough defense against Towson and we did."

Senior midfielder Billy Glading, who had a game-high three goals, struck first-blood for Virginia with his first goal, 6:18 left in the first quarter. Despite 21 combined shots from both teams during the first period, Glading's shot was the lone ball that found the back of the net. Each team had scoring chances, but stingy defense and 11 combined saves on both sides contributed to the scoring drought. "Tillman played great," said Glading. "He stopped a lot of their drives and did the job for us today."

After Glading's lone score in the first period, Virginia scored five unanswered goals during the second stanza. Freshman Matt Poskay, sophomore John Christmas, and senior Chris Rotelli all connected for a goal apiece, while senior middie A.J. Shannon added two goals during that span.

In the second half with the score 6-1, senior and long-stick midfielder Trey Whitty opened second half scoring for Virginia with a goal at the 8:41 mark. Brad Monaco scored Towson's last goal a minute later off of Peyton Chane's assist, to trim the deficit to 8-2. But that's as close as Towson would get before Glading scored the game's final two goals, one unassisted with 1:32 left in the third quarter and the last shot finding the net midway through the final period.

Towson's two goals today are the fewest the Tigers have scored in a game since 1992.

Virginia returns to action next Saturday (March 22) when the squad visits Johns Hopkins at 8 pm. The game will be televised in the Baltimore area on WMAR-TV, Channel 2.

Towon travels to Delaware next Saturday to face the Blue Hens at 7 pm.