Cavaliers overcome sluggish second half
to top Heels

By JOHN GALINSKY
Daily Progress staff writer

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Every day in practice, the Virginia men’s lacrosse team works on a drill called WTCG: Win The Close Game.
“It’s really starting to pay off,” senior defenseman Mark Koontz said after the second-ranked Cavaliers won yet another nail-biter Saturday, 10-9, over No. 7 North Carolina at Fetzer Field.
It was the sixth straight victory for Virginia (7-1, 2-0 ACC) following a loss to No. 1 Syracuse, and four of those have been by one or two goals. By contrast, the Tar Heels (6-2, 1-2) suffered their third consecutive defeat by a total of four goals.
“We’ve talked about that all year, winning close games,” said goalie Tillman Johnson, who made 11 saves. “I think everyone could have played better today, but getting out of here with a win is all that matters.”
Overall, the Cavaliers were not pleased with their level of play. They scored three quick goals and never relinquished the lead, but their offense bogged down in the second half and North Carolina nearly staged a dramatic comeback.
Trailing 10-6, the Heels scored three times and had a chance to tie in the final seconds. Junior midfielder Steven Will caught a pass uncovered on the right side of the crease, but he was unable to control it cleanly and shot into the side of the net.
“I just slid to the pipe. It would have been a close play,” Johnson said. “A little too close for comfort right there.”
Early on, the game looked like a mismatch. Virginia scored three goals in the first five minutes and had seven before 20 minutes elapsed. Even Conor Gill got into the act, scoring his first goal in five games on a dodge from behind the cage.
Gill, a two-time All-American attackman, entered the game leading the nation in assists but had not scored a goal since early in the second quarter against Princeton on March 9. His shot past Carolina goalie Paul Spellman ended his goal drought at 291 minutes and 51 seconds.
“After I scored, I was kidding around with John [Christmas] and Joe [Yevoli]. I said, ‘That hasn’t happened in awhile,’” Gill said. “It doesn’t mean that much to me, but I guess it felt good to get one.”
As it turned out, the Cavaliers would require more offense from Gill. As they sputtered, North Carolina sliced a 7-3 halftime deficit to 7-6. Then, in a span of 52 seconds, Gill had a hand in three straight goals.
First, he fed Chris Rotelli for a clear 10-yard shot. Then he drew out Spellman by holding the ball behind the cage and raced past him for a goal. Finally, Gill delivered a perfect pass to A.J. Shannon for another score and a 10-6 lead.
“Thank goodness for Conor Gill,” UVa coach Dom Starsia said. “He showed his leadership today and was one of our bright spots.”
Said Gill: “I saw things kind of slipping away for us. I needed to step up and do something about it.”
Gill finished with his first multi-goal game of the season along with two assists. Yevoli and Rotelli also scored a pair of goals for Virginia. Freshman attackman Jed Prossner led North Carolina with three goals, while Mike McCall and Pat Jackson each had two.
Down the stretch, the Cavaliers survived more than thrived. They went scoreless in the fourth quarter and barely held on as the Tar Heels seized momentum.
McCall scored with two seconds left in the third quarter to make it 10-7. Prossner and Jackson added goals in the final period to cut the margin to one.
Virginia successfully ran time off the clock, protecting its lead, but North Carolina forced a turnover and called timeout with 17 seconds left. During the timeout, Starsia switched to a zone defense for the first time, which seemed to confuse the Heels, at least initially. But Will still ended up with a good look at the cage.
“We got off a decent shot and that’s all we were asking for,” UNC coach John Haus said. “But it’s obvious that until we win one of these games, we’re not as good as these other teams.”

By ERIC SWENSEN
Daily Progress staff writer

The Saturday night scene at the University of Virginia chapter of Phi Kappa Sigma on Feb. 2 was a stereotypical weekend evening at a fraternity house.

Walking between the head-high hedges that separate the house from Madison Lane, visitors were greeted by thumping music from inside the house and empty cans and cardboard cases of Keystone Light beer strewn across the chapter’s front lawn.

If visitors stepped past the four large white columns at the front of the house and peered inside one of the front windows, they saw dozens of beer-toting revelers, many soaked in their beverage of choice.
They chatted, danced and occasionally even kissed while standing amid puddles of spilled beer and a sea of empty cans scattered across the floor.
At most fraternities, such a scene hardly would be worth noting. But for Phi Kappa Sigma, it was a violation of alcohol-free housing rules banning alcohol from chapter house property.

Phi Kappa Sigma is one of several national fraternities that have moved in recent years to either eliminate alcohol at chapter houses or have chapters comply with a host of rules to keep alcohol in their houses. Officials hope the changes will steer undergraduate members’ focus from booze-filled parties to the principles espoused by the fraternities’ founders.
“Our organization isn’t about alcohol,” said Jon Hockman, national executive director of Delta Sigma Phi, where 96 of 107 chapters and colonies have alcohol-free chapter housing. “It’s about culture, harmony and friendship. Those values are the defining elements of our organization.”
Unsurprisingly, many undergraduate members of fraternities with similar policies view the rules as an unfair infringement on the liberty that comes with leaving home.
“It’s not allowing people who are 21 the right they have to drink alcohol,” said Matt Rice, the 22-year-old president of UVa’s chapter of Delta Sigma Phi, which allows alcohol in chapter houses if academic, financial and other requirements are met. “Part of college is being on your own and having the freedom to do what you want.”
As the UVa chapter of Phi Kappa Sigma demonstrates, changing the culture of fraternities is a difficult task.
Instituting change
Eleven members of the North American Inter-Fraternity Council have adopted some form of alcohol-free housing policy, including seven fraternities with chapters at UVa, according to Executive Vice President John Williamson. Two of those seven fraternities — Phi Kappa Sigma and Phi Delta Theta — have banned alcohol entirely from chapter property, while the remaining fraternities allow alcohol if a laundry list of requirements is met.
Fraternity administrators said the push to remove alcohol from chapter houses, which has occurred largely during the past five years, is motivated by evidence that alcohol abuse is at the root of problems ranging from low grades and high insurance premiums to damaged chapter houses.
For instance, staff members from Theta Chi’s national headquarters had to make 33 “interventions” at its chapters, leading to some kind of action or punishment, for violations of fraternity policy in the fall of 2000, said David Westol, the fraternity’s executive director. Thirty-one of the violations stemmed from alcohol use, he said.
“Not one of the interventions involved an alcohol-free house,” Westol said.
University administrators and a Charlottesville police officer agreed that drinking by fraternity members is worrisome, though university officials emphasized that fraternities are not the only groups that need extra attention.
“Typically, Greek men and women and student athletes, both on national surveys and at UVa, have the highest rates of drinking, so those three groups are groups that deserve some focus,” said Dr. James C. Turner, the executive director of UVa’s student health program.
A 2001 survey of health behaviors at UVa by the school’s Department of Psychiatric Medicine reinforces Turner’s assertion.
Members of social fraternities at UVa consume an average of 8.25 drinks per weekend night, versus an average of 3.25 drinks for non-fraternity men. Also, 91.8 percent of men who described themselves as members of social fraternities said they participated in “high-risk drinking” — defined as consuming five or more alcoholic beverages on one occasion or in one setting — in the two weeks before the survey was conducted, versus 45.5 percent of non-fraternity men.
Charlottesville police Officer Doug Brooks, whose 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. patrol includes the section of the city with the bulk of the fraternities, said students party much less at chapter houses than when he graduated from UVa 10 years ago. Drinking has not decreased, he said, but students can be found more frequently on the Corner and at off-campus houses, mostly because of new Inter-Fraternity Council rules on parties.
“But when [fraternities] do have the big parties,” he said, “the binge drinking is on an increase.”
Shifting focus
Fraternity administrators hope the new policies will help reduce heavy drinking and place the emphasis on brotherhood and the classroom.
“We’ve got to get out of the entertainment business and back to the fraternity business [of] friendship, academic success, leadership and moral growth,” said Robert Biggs, executive vice president of Phi Delta Theta.
Fraternity leaders believe emphasizing those kinds of values instead of drinking also can help attract more and better members.
Chris Hanes, director of chapter services for Phi Kappa Sigma, said some chapters struggled to recruit new members to chapter houses that were suddenly alcohol-free.
But this year has been a “breakthrough” year for the fraternity, he said, as membership is on the rise and the dry house policy has attracted students more interested in the fraternity’s ideals and less interested in heavy drinking.
Membership has grown at Phi Kappa Sigma chapters by an average of 47 percent this academic year, Hanes said, up significantly from an average annual increase of 25 percent to 30 percent.“Not only has the quantity [of new members] increased, but the quality has increased as well,” Hanes said.
Officials stressed, however, that they are not attempting to ban drinking by undergraduate members entirely. Members of fraternities that have banned alcohol from chapter houses can still drink elsewhere, and chapters may sponsor social events with alcohol served by licensed vendors off chapter property.
“We’re not talking about prohibition,” Hockman said. “[But] when we consume alcohol, we’re going to do it legally and responsibly and in appropriate venues.”
Echoing many of the reasons cited by fraternity leaders, university officials said they would support more houses going dry, though Turner suggested another potential benefit.
“It limits access to alcohol by underage people,” he said.
But Officer Brooks said he was worried that increasing the number of dry houses would simply shift more parties to off-campus houses and apartments that are not subject to the same party regulations as fraternity houses.
“We don’t want those [off-campus houses] to become the party sites with no regulations,” he said, “and oh, by the way — these houses are city neighborhoods where families live.”
At the corner of University Circle and Rugby Road sits Phi Delta Alpha, formed by undergraduate Phi Delta Theta members who suddenly became Phi Delta Theta alumni after the national fraternity revoked their charter in 2000.
Phi Delta Alpha members claim that national fraternity officials stripped them of their charter because the chapter refused to abide by the fraternity’s decision to ban alcohol from chapter property effective July 1, 2000.
Rob Abendroth, the former president of Phi Delta Alpha, said his group does far more than drink, but at the same time, he firmly believes in his right to drink inside his fraternity house.
Coming of age
“I’m 21, and I’ve got a case of beer in my fridge right now,” he said during an interview last spring. “When 5 o’clock rolls around, I’d like to think I can come home and crack one open if I want to.”
Other Phi Delta Alpha members said a dry house would put the fraternity at a disadvantage when recruiting new members.
“There are 33 fraternities on campus, almost none of which are dry,” said alumnus Peter Egge, adding that “a lot of the time, the party is what gets your foot in the door” with potential pledges during rush.
Abendroth also does not see a sudden need to eliminate drinking from fraternity houses.
“We’ve been here for 128 years,” he said. “Why right now should we stop drinking in our own house? We understand the dangers involved with the use of alcohol, and we feel we’re responsible.”
National officials with Phi Delta Theta did not share Abendroth’s opinion. It suspended the chapter’s charter in May 2000 — two months before the alcohol-free housing policy took effect — for what Biggs described as two violations of the fraternity’s risk management policy “with regard to the misuse and abuse of alcohol.”
In August 2000, Biggs said an appeal of the suspension by the chapter was rejected, meaning that the national fraternity no longer recognized a chapter at UVa.
Biggs said one violation occurred in the fall of 1999 and the other during the spring semester of 2000, adding that a pledge was hospitalized after one incident and a fraternity member was hospitalized after the other episode “due to excessive alcohol consumption.”
“We investigated these two incidents, and we saw there was a culture there that focused on alcohol,” Biggs said. “And we weren’t going to stand for that.”
In response to Biggs’ comments, Abendroth said national fraternity officials approached the chapter in the spring of 2000 and asked it to sign onto the dry house policy.
“We decided to vote against it at a chapter meeting that spring, and at that point they took our charter away,” he said.
Phi Delta Theta started fresh in February 2001, forming a new UVa chapter with 32 new members.
At the re-established Phi Delta Theta’s initial rush events, UVa chapter member Andrew Pearson said, “I was just very impressed with what I saw and the message … the heavy emphasis on brotherhood above all else.”
The fraternity’s alcohol-free housing rules also fueled his interest, he said, because “alcohol would not be the cornerstone of the house.”
“A lot of the problems in chapter houses revolve around alcohol, like things getting damaged,” Pearson said. “We’re not removing alcohol completely from the equation, [but] we’re removing it where it might be a stumbling block.”
This semester, the chapter has added 15 new pledges attracted by the focus on brotherhood and undeterred by the notion of living in a dry house, Pearson said.
“It’s nothing we hide,” Pearson said, referring to the fraternity’s alcohol policies. “It’s an understanding that alcohol is not really a priority.”
The chapter is set to move into a leased house on Chancellor Street in June, and Pearson hopes to create living conditions similar to sorority houses, where alcohol also is banned.
“We want someplace where we can bring our parents, our friends, our girlfriends and not be worried about what the reaction will be,” Pearson said. “Sorority houses are palaces, but if you walk in some fraternity houses you might stick to the floor.”
Making it stick
As Phi Kappa Sigma’s UVa chapter demonstrates, finding ways to enforce alcohol-free housing policies can be challenging.
Then-chapter President Brian Johnson said last month that after asking a member of the corporation that owns the chapter house for advice, “I’ve been instructed to say that I have no comment.”
After being told about the Feb. 2 party, Phi Kappa Sigma’s Hanes said: “I’m not going to say anything against the chapter until I get their perspective.”
He added that he already had planned a visit to the UVa chapter, scheduled for this month, before learning about the Feb. 2 party.
“In the past, they haven’t had the best communication with us,” Hanes said.
Based on how Hanes said the fraternity has disciplined the handful of chapters that have violated the new alcohol rules, it appears unlikely that the fraternity will sever its affiliation with the UVa chapter.
“We definitely give them a second chance and work with them,” he said.
Hanes also sounded a note of optimism based on his latest dealings with the chapter.
“I’ve been encouraged by their recent communication with [national headquarters], and I’m hopeful that with a personal visit they will begin to follow all the policies of the fraternity and the University of Virginia,” he said.
Even before learning about the Feb. 2 party at his fraternity’s UVa chapter, Hanes acknowledged that change would not come overnight.
“It’s a tough policy,” he said. “You can’t expect college students to immediately understand the rationale, especially the younger members ... especially when many of them were brought in and recruited [under] different policies.”
Enforcing the alcohol-free housing policy is difficult, Hanes said. Phi Kappa Sigma has two full-time staff members assigned to travel to its 61 chapters and colonies for four- or five-day visits, while Hanes also makes occasional visits.
Otherwise, the fraternity relies on a group of 11 alumni volunteers from around the country, as well as local chapter advisers, to watch over its undergraduate members.
There is little help available locally to ensure chapters abide by dry house policies.
UVa’s Inter-Fraternity Council does not enforce alcohol policies set by leaders of national fraternities, said President Phil Trout, though it does have its own set of rules governing fraternity parties. For instance, hard liquor is banned at most parties, and chapters must keep a guest list.
UVa’s Office of the Dean of Students/Fraternity & Sorority Life also does not enforce alcohol policies handed down by national fraternities.
The office’s purpose is not to police fraternity and sorority chapters, said Director Aaron Laushway, but to support students in managing their affairs.
“The university has always afforded students tremendous responsibility in governing their lives and their organizations,” Laushway said.
How much responsibility is starkly spelled out in a fraternal organization agreement between Greek organizations and UVa. The agreement, along with similar accords between the university and other student groups, was created in 1987, partially in response to two lawsuits filed against the university about five years earlier after a truck accident during a UVa fraternity’s trip to Lynchburg.
Fraternities and sororities must sign the agreement to receive benefits from UVa such as the use of the school’s facilities.
Any benefits the agreement provides to fraternities, according to the document, “should not be misinterpreted as meaning that those fraternal organizations are part of or controlled by the university, that the university is responsible for the fraternal organizations’ contracts or other acts or omissions, or that the university approves the fraternal organizations’ goals or activities.”
With chapters spread across the country, Hanes said, ensuring chapters abide by a fraternity’s regulations — and in Phi Kappa Sigma’s case, dry house requirements that would mean major changes to a chapter’s social life — is always a challenge.
“It’s not easy to keep an eye on everything a chapter does,” he said.

ACC Next Year:  Balance