Barrow's wheels carry UVa
By Whitelaw Reid / wreid@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
March 25, 2007

BALTIMORE - Virginia junior Will Barrow was voted the fastest player in the nation by his peers in an Inside Lacrosse poll last season.

Late in the first half of Saturday’s UVa-Johns Hopkins game, Barrow showed why.

After a Kip Turner save, Barrow raced up the field from his defensive midfielder’s position, received a pass from teammate Ben Rubeor and fired a shot past Blue Jays net-minder Jesse Schwartzman.

The fastbreak goal, which came with 1:21 left in the second quarter, gave Virginia a three-goal lead and paved the way for a workmanlike 7-5 victory in front of 4,784 fans at Homewood Field. With the win, UVa claimed the Doyle Smith Cup for the second straight year.

Johns Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala called Turner’s save and Barrow’s ensuing goal the game’s turning point.

“Instead of it being 4-3, it’s 5-2,” Pietramala. said. “I think that hurt us going into halftime.”

Virginia coach Dom Starsia said he was “very proud” of his team. After losing to Drexel in its season opener last month, UVa has now won seven straight games.

“I think the defining characteristic so far is that we’ve played hard in every instance,” Starsia said. “We still have a long ways to go in terms of our progress as a lacrosse team, but we’re working at it. To get this win today is certainly a significant win.”

Virginia junior Ben Rubeor, who leads the nation in points, had three goals and an assist. Danny Glading added two goals, and Garrett Billings had three assists for Virginia (7-1).

Johns Hopkins (4-2) was led by Paul Rabil’s two goals.

“I’ve had this feeling that we’re really on the verge of beginning to click, both offensively and defensively,” Rubeor said. “I don’t think we’ve put it all together yet. I think we have a lot of room for growth, but it’s good we’ve learned to win these close, tough games because I think that’s what you run into at the end of the season.”

Johns Hopkins scored the first goal just 46 seconds into the game when Jake Byrne scored off a pass from Steven Boyle.

But Virginia answered 24 seconds later on a goal by Glading, then scored three goals in the next three-plus minutes to take a 4-1 lead.

Rabil snapped an almost 18-minute Johns Hopkins scoring drought when he beat Virginia goalie Kip Turner at the 5:30 mark of the second quarter to make it 4-2.

The Blue Jays seemed to be finding their groove - until the goal by Barrow.

“Will Barrow was terrific,” Starsia said. “He’s just gotten healthy again. The way we like to play, [the defensive midfielder position] is so important.

“What most fans tend to overlook is what we’re asking him to do at the defensive end of the field, which is to cover [Stephen] Peyser or [Michael] Kimmel or someone like that.”

In the third quarter, Virginia took command. The Cavaliers converted two Johns Hopkins turnovers into easy goals to go up 7-2.

The Blue Jays were able to cut the lead to 7-5 on a goal by Peyser with 1:19 left, but could draw no closer.

“They’re a very good team - we knew that coming in,” Pietramala said. “We knew we had to play 60 minutes. When you only play two quarters of lacrosse, it’s tough to win.”

Starsia, whose team plays host to Maryland on Saturday, was particularly pleased with his defense - namely Matt Kelly, Ricky Smith and Ken Clausen - which was able to stay with the Blue Jays’ top guns man-to-man,

“I was prepared to play a little zone if we had to,” Starsia said. “I was concerned as to whether we’d be able to cover them, but for most of the game we did a pretty good job.”

 

A blue-collar victory
UVa grinds out victory over Princeton
By Drew Hansen / dhansendailyprogress.com | 978-7250
March 25, 2007

Saturday was Junior Day at Klockner Stadium and many of the top prep players in the country were in the stands to take in one of the biggest matchups in women’s lacrosse - Princeton versus Virginia.

Instead of a fluid, high-scoring affair, the prep players witnessed nothing short of a slugfest. Players went airborne, brutal collisions occurred and UVa’s Kendall McBrearty put on a goal-keeping clinic for No. 4 Virginia in a 9-7 win that undoubtedly impressed the high school standouts and maybe tipped the recruiting scale in the Cavs’ favor.

“When push came to shove down the stretch, it was Virginia winning the draws and coming up with loose balls and really hitting home in transition,” said UVa coach Julie Myers. “I was glad to see our team come up with it down the stretch, but it definitely came the hard way. It was hard work today.”

McBrearty recorded nine saves - including three in the final 5 minutes, 40 seconds - that proved huge in turning the game Virginia’s way.

“Seven of those saves were unbelievable,” Myers said. “[They were] point-blank and momentum-turning saves. I think if some of those go in, Princeton’s feeling pretty good and we’re a little bit scared.

“Not only were they saves, they came at critical times that were very athletic and really inspired our team.”

McBrearty said she was simply “seeing the ball well” on Saturday and that the defense in front of her closed in effectively enough to alter and slow many of the Tigers’ 25 shots.

Princeton kept coming, however. The 10th-ranked Tigers seemed to counter every time Virginia’s advantage swelled to two goals.

Princeton pulled within 8-7 with 6:35 remaining on a goal from attack Ashley Amo.

Virginia middie captain Jess Wasilewski netted her lone goal of the game with 3:41 left for a 9-7 lead, and the Cavs took possession after McBrearty’s final save with 1:34 remaining and held on to run out the clock.

Kate Breslin scored three goals and Ashley McCulloch added a goal and three assists in what was an especially sweet win for the Cavaliers. Virginia was upset by Princeton in the first round of last season’s NCAA Tournament and Virginia’s players weren’t hesitant to admit revenge was on their minds.

The intensity showed, and the Cavs proved throughout the game they were more than willing to throw their bodies around for a victory.

“We’ve been thinking about that game since it happened, so this is definitely revenge,” Wasilewski said of last season’s loss. “We [came] out just wanting to give them everything we had and just kick the crap out of them, basically. It’s definitely a revenge game for us.”

Virginia travels to Harrisonburg on Wednesday to face in-state rival James Madison. The Dukes are 6-1 and currently ranked No. 6 in the country. UVa follows with a pivotal ACC tilt on Saturday at home against fifth-ranked Duke.

“JMU hates Virginia. I’m pretty sure that’s safe to say in just about every sport,” Myers said. “And they’re very athletic. They’re on a roll right now. They’re scoring a bunch of goals. They’re playing some great lacrosse. We’ll have our hands full for sure.”

Ground balls

With the win, Virginia takes a 13-12 advantage in the all-time series. … Katie Lewis-Lamonica led the Tigers with two goals. … Princeton had a 20-9 advantage on ground balls. … Virginia won 13 of the match’s 18 draws.

 

Packer boxes up Miami
Freshman strikes out 8 in rare shutout of Canes
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
March 25, 2007

Matt Packer was in uncharted waters.

The freshman hurler had never pitched in an ACC game at Davenport Field.

Add to that the fact that Packer had never pitched in front of so many people.

Apparently, it didn’t matter.

The rookie tossed 5.1 innings and fanned eight batters as No. 5 Virginia blanked Miami, 3-0, in front of 2,326.

Packer’s outing was historic - the Hurricanes had not been shut out since 2004, a span of 168 games - and he helped secure the second straight series win for Virginia (22-4, 5-3 ACC). Miami fell to 14-12 overall and 2-6 in the league.

“That was, without a doubt, Matt Packer’s best outing of the season,” said UVa coach Brian O’Connor. “I thought he was in complete command of the game from the start. He made the big pitches with runners in scoring position when he needed to and he was throwing a really good breaking ball that he was burying on those right-handed hitters and getting them to swing right over top of it.

“You can see why Matt Packer is in our rotation.”

Packer (3-1) and Miami starter Scott Maine, who went 5.2 innings, allowing three runs (two earned), breezed through the early stages of the game.

In fact, the contest remained scoreless until the fourth when Virginia third baseman Patrick Wingfield slapped a 1-2 pitch from Maine into left field to score Brandon Guyer from third. As was the case in the Cavaliers’ 4-1 win on Friday, the team’s first run came with assistance from a Miami error - Guyer, who led off the frame with a single, advanced to second on an errant pickoff throw from Hurricane catcher Jason Hagerty.

Virginia added two more runs in the fifth after Greg Miclat opened the inning with a single that extended the sophomore’s hitting streak to 17 games.

Miclat scored on an RBI groundout to short by David Adams, and Brandon Marsh, who walked, crossed the plate on a single to left by Guyer.

It was more than enough run support for Packer, who credited his success to his curveball.

“I usually have trouble throwing it for a strike and I threw it real well today,” Packer said. “It got me out of jams and it was probably my best pitch.”

Packer can also thank reliever Andrew Carraway.

After a sacrifice bunt moved two Hurricanes into scoring position in the sixth, O’Connor inserted Carraway.

The hard-throwing sophomore promptly struck out Kevin Diego on four pitches and got Dave DiNatale to fly out to center.

“The most important thing in that situation is to throw strikes,” Carraway said. “You have to go after guys and let them put the bat on the ball and get outs.”

After working a scoreless seventh and eighth, Carraway was pulled in favor of closer Casey Lambert, who struck out two of the three batters he faced to record his sixth save of the season.

For the game, Miami mustered only five hits, two of which were registered by Yonder Alonso.

Virginia, which was stifled at times by Maine and two relievers, managed only seven hits and stranded nine runners, but recorded the win with timely hitting.

“It’s a testament to our team, the way we play,” said Guyer, the lone Cavalier with a multi-hit performance. “We never give up and no matter what the score is, like against Niagara when the score was 20-0, we just keep going at it.

“Close game or not, we just keep going like we always have.”

Virginia will look to complete the sweep today at noon with left-hander Sean Doolittle on the mound. Miami will counter with junior Enrique Garcia.

“The coaches always talk about Championship Sunday, and that’s what we have [today],” Guyer added. “Taking two out of three from Miami is not enough. We have to keep going. We want that sweep.”
 

Albert on verge of breakout
By Jerry Ratcliffe / jratcliffe@dailyprogress.com | 978-7251
March 25, 2007

Virginia’s defensive players have a term they use for when offensive guard Branden Albert gets his hands on them during pass rushing drills.
“We call it the ‘Calm Down,’” said defensive end Chris Long.
Why?
“Because Branden’s just like, ‘Calm down, stop your pass rush, it’s over. This rep is over,’” Long explained.

A little lineman love
Albert, who made honorable mention All-ACC last season as a sophomore, doesn’t disagree with Long’s assessment of his pass-blocking ability, but does so in an “aw-shucks” kind of way.
“That’s a flattering comment coming from him,” Albert said. “Me and Chris have a lot of battles.”
Then, it’s true? It’s over when you get your hands on them?
“I believe so ... at least for most people,” Albert said. “Except for Chris, because he has really good technique.”
If this sounds like a mutual admiration society, you’re right. Long, who will be a senior and an All-America candidate this season, was second-team All-ACC last year and probably would have been first-team if the Cavaliers had enjoyed better than a 5-7 season.
Albert, who rose from obscurity as a true freshman two seasons ago, could be in for a breakout year in 2007.
“It should be for him,” said coach Al Groh after Saturday’s practice. “It has to be for us. Branden should be as good as anybody’s got, and if he is, then that starts to elevate our entire offensive line.”

Shoring up the line
Viewed as one of the big question marks last season, the Cavaliers return four starters along the offensive line, and that is where a lot of Groh’s hopes rest in returning UVa to contender’s status in the ACC Coastal Division.
Long doesn’t mince words when it comes to describing Albert’s abilities.
“I’ll go on record,” Long said. “Players are the guys who know who can play, and Branden Albert, in my opinion, is the best offensive lineman in the ACC. He’s the best player I’ve gone against since Brick (former UVa offensive tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson) was here and that includes everybody.”
Ferguson, by the way, also started as a true freshman and went on to become a first-team All-American and first-round draft choice by the New York Jets.

A man among boys
Long’s father, who happens to know a little football, has studied Albert on film in addition to watching him practice and play, so he feels qualified to speak in support of the rising junior’s skills.
“He’s a man,” Howie Long said back in the winter when discussing Virginia’s football team.
Howie Long wondered how ACC voters left Albert off the all-conference first team, let alone picked him for honorable mention.
At 6-foot-7, 327 pounds and with amazing quickness, Albert is the last thing most defensive players want to see headed their way.
About midway through last season, Albert began doing some things out on the edge, getting to the corner Elton Brown-style, which automatically caught people’s attention.
Brown, you’ll remember, was a terrific pulling guard in Groh’s line a few years ago and was also a first-team All-American, now playing in the NFL.
“Branden actually runs better than Elton out to the edge,” Groh said.
He’s one reason Wahoo fans are excited about this fall and have flocked to practices to see him work this spring. These couple of weeks are crucial in Albert’s development, not only as a player, but as a team leader.
Though he played as a true freshman after having been hardly recruited out of high school in Glen Burnie, Md. (he didn’t begin playing football until his junior year), he missed all of last spring and 90 percent of training camp in August.
“By the time we got to mid-year, he really began to gain some confidence and played more assertively,” Groh said.
That’s when everything began to click for the big guy, at least in his own opinion.
It was Elton Brown who once explained to this columnist that there had to be a special bond between the offensive linemen, that you had to have a trust in the guy beside you. If you sensed fear in the heart of your teammate, then the whole line had problems.
Albert knew exactly what Brown was talking about.
“I feel like my freshman year, I was that guy who was afraid,” Albert said. “I didn’t feel like anybody had trust in me. But some of the older guys did believe in me and that helped.
“If you’re playing next to somebody and if you feel like they’re on the same page as you, ready to play, ready to hit, then it makes your job easier,” Albert said. “But if they’re scared, there’s a little uncertainty if they’re going to get the job done.”
The fact that Albert and left tackle Eugene Monroe played beside one another most of last season is bound to help that chemistry hum this time around.
And, as Chris Long pointed out, “With Branden and Gene on the same side, that can be pretty scary.”
That’s 6-7, 330 and 6-6, 315 headed your way. Don’t forget to duck.
But even that doesn’t do any good sometimes, especially if Albert is pulling, coming around the corner and draws a bead on some linebacker or defensive back in his path.
“A lot of guys do the wrong thing and retreat instead of coming up and attacking me,” Albert chuckled. “If you’re backpedaling and all my momentum is coming at you, that means I’m going to get you. A lot of guys try to duck and dodge, but I’m pretty good in open space, so I think for the most part, I get most people.”
If he gets you, you feel it. Often for hours.
Albert said he still gets the jitters, and like most players, he needs that first hit as a cold slap into reality. Then it’s time to play ball and he can settle into work.
Confidence, as Groh likes to say, is a result of demonstrated performance. As it turns out, Albert didn’t have a whole lot of either until he got into a groove about midway through last season.
“Confidence is huge,” Albert said. “I don’t think I started really gaining it until after the fourth game last year. I was still uncertain of myself.”
The fifth game was against Duke and that’s when Albert picked up his own game, being selected ACC Offensive Lineman of the Week for his performance against the Blue Devils. He hasn’t slowed down since.
Now, he’s taking it to a higher level. Even though he’s a laid-back fellow, he is attempting to become a vocal leader on the team. He has already won his teammates’ respect and hopes to translate that into a more visible leadership role.
One of his chief goals as an offensive lineman is to make sure that Virginia has its first 1,000-yard rusher since Alvin Pearman in 2004.
“That’s my No. 1 goal other than winning the championship, is to have a back with those kinds of numbers,” Albert said. “I want to experience that as an offensive lineman. We take a lot of pride in producing a 1,000-yard rusher.”
Who’s going to stand in his way?

 

Cavs' stalwart defense too much for Hopkins
By Gary Lambrecht
sun Reporter
Originally published March 25, 2007

No. 2 Virginia is not yet built to blow away quality, Division I men's lacrosse teams, as the Cavaliers often did a year ago while rolling to an undefeated season and a national championship.

But, as third-ranked Johns Hopkins learned yesterday while suffering a 7-5 setback before 4,784 at Homewood Field, the Cavaliers still know how to play defense, pounce on their opponents' mistakes and patch together enough goals with a creative, hard-riding attack unit.

Virginia (7-1) won its seventh straight game with a little bit of its trademark transition game, a lot of junior attackman Ben Rubeor and a sprinkling of strange scoring sequences that were products of its overall hustle.

Rubeor (Loyola) scored a game-high three goals and added an assist. His last goal, with six seconds left in the third quarter, came after Hopkins goalie Jesse Schwartzman vacated the net, then failed to secure the ball about 10 yards to the right of the cage before attackman Garrett Billings grabbed it and flipped to Rubeor on the crease.

That empty-net score gave the Cavaliers a 7-2 lead, and it was that kind of day for the Blue Jays, who barely mustered an offense in the first three quarters.

Hopkins surrendered another empty-net goal with 4:44 left in the third, after both teams traded turnovers in front of the Blue Jays goal and freshman midfielder Brian Carroll emerged from the scrum to take another feed from Billings and make it 6-2.

"There were just critical moments, and I think Virginia did a good job capitalizing on critical moments," said Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala, whose Blue Jays (4-2) had their four-game winning streak halted.

"When you look at the way they scored those goals, that's the hardest part.

If you told me we'd hold Virginia to seven goals, I'd say we win. They did a good job of keeping us out of our offensive rhythm. Our stickwork at times was poor."

One week after scoring a season-high 17 goals at Syracuse, the Hopkins offense hit the wall with its lowest output of the year, and the Blue Jays needed a 3-0 fourth-quarter run from midfielders Michael Kimmel, Stephen Peyser and Paul Rabil (two goals) to make the game interesting.

Freshman attackman Steven Boyle, the team's leading scorer, had his first goal-less outing, thanks largely to the presence of Virginia sophomore defenseman Matt Kelly.

Early on, Hopkins couldn't keep the ball -- mixing in unforced turnovers and coughing it up to Virginia's chasing, trail-checking defenders -- or shoot it without missing the cage or finding Virginia senior goalie Kip Turner.

After Blue Jays senior attackman Jake Byrne opened the scoring nearly four minutes in, the Cavaliers scored four straight, while outshooting the Blue Jays 13-3 in the first quarter.

Sophomore attackman Danny Glading scored the first two. Rubeor followed with two more, including one that resulted from a lob pass inside to midfielder Steve Giannone that skipped awkwardly past Schwartzman (14 saves).

Rabil cut the lead to 4-2 with 5:30 left in the half on a 14-yard runner, but the Cavaliers made the Blue Jays pay with their only transition goal of the day, by defensive midfielder Will Barrow.

It started when Turner (seven saves) stuffed Peyser with a kick save in close. It ended with Rubeor feeding Barrow, who finished the break from about seven yards out.
 

Falcons traded the wrong QB
By Furman Bisher | Friday, March 23, 2007, 11:57 PM
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

To get to the point, the Falcons traded the wrong quarterback. Of course, that’s an illogical conclusion. They had no alternative. How are they going to dump a $70 million load on some other NFL team? The logical conclusion is that Arthur Blank and his franchise are wed to Michael Vick, and when an athlete’s picture begins to appear more often on the front page than the sports page, it’s a marriage in trouble.

Now, having said all that, you’ll note the modest little line that appears beneath the picture of that grizzled old guy accompanying this column, that what is written here is strictly my opinion. The very notion that the Falcons could have traded Vick rather than Matt Schaub is preposterous. But it was a question of hanging onto the quarterback from Wahoo U. and losing him next winter. Schaub is a commodity. He is a quarterback in the NFL tradition, drop back, find the target, deliver the pass or hand off. Run only when under defensive duress.

One of the platforms in Vick’s defense is dropped passes. The Falcons traded a first-round draft choice for Peerless Price. A bummer. Then used first-round choices to draft Michael Jenkins and Roddy White, and still the passes keep falling. “You don’t see any wide receivers trying to get to Atlanta,” as beat writer Steve Wyche says.

But is it all the fault of the catchers? Vick is inclined to dally about before he decides to run or to pass, while his receivers roam around, never quite sure where they should be, should he decide to pass, or what. So it would seem there’s enough blame to pass around. Look, there’s no doubt that Vick is a bundle of talent, but to this date the investment hasn’t been paying off. Among other things, he has become a public embarrassment, flipping off the fans, his Ron Mexico escapade, or whatever you call it, and now the Infamous Water Bottle Mystery.

Ever strike you strange that he took 65 days to explain that thing, and that the “mystery substance” was jewelry? Did he swallow it? Did somebody heist it? He doesn’t appear to be much disturbed about it, other than to suggest that someone might have been trying to “frame” him. What next, Michael, for heaven’s sake?

It has become he-said, they-said, Rich McKay said. Bobby Petrino said, or rather, it was said that the new coach “brushed it off,” whatever that meant. (Remember, it was one of Petrino’s Louisville players who was stepped on by Vick’s brother in the Gator Bowl, not that that’s either here or there. But what intrigue!)

Whether Vick ever becomes the classic quarterback he was supposed to be, he’s locked in as a Falcon. There are no takers with all his baggage. What McKay did was get the most out of Schaub before he lost him on the open market. The Texans thought enough of him to put David Carr on the market, a No. 1 draft choice.

A lot of fans put money into those No. 7 Vick shirts. You don’t see a lot of Schaub shirts. To suggest that Vick has become a burden rather than an asset is an irritating thought, but for the man picking up the tab for a $109 million payroll this season, this situation has “hit the wall,” as they say.

Blank had no choice. Mine would have been Schaub. My opinion, as it says.