Terrapins shell-shock Cavaliers
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
April 4, 2004

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Another Saturday, another game against a top-ranked team didn’t result in another win the for the No. 10 Virginia men’s lacrosse team.

The Cavaliers, who defeated then-No. 1 Johns Hopkins 9-8 in overtime last Saturday at Klockner Stadium, weren’t able to repeat the feat as they fell to No. 1 Maryland 11-2 at Byrd Stadium.

Xander Ritz paced the Terrapins (8-0, 3-0 ACC) with three goals and three assists while Mike Brown had two goals and Joe Walters had one goal and three assists. With the victory, the Terps clinched the regular-season ACC title.

Foster Gilbert and Jared Little scored the lone goals for Virginia (3-5, 0-1 ACC). The two goals were the fewest scored by a Virginia team since an 11-2 loss to North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA tournament on March 16, 1984.

Goalie Tim McGinnis had 17 saves for the Terps while Tillman Johnson had 14 for the Cavaliers.

“We had a very good week of practice and I really thought we’d be up to the challenge. We have a young group and we just weren’t ready to play coming out of the box. There’s no question about that,” said UVa coach Dom Starsia, whose program was playing the nation’s No. 1 team in consecutive weeks for the first time ever. “They just took it to us early. Give Maryland the credit. They are a good team and are playing well and with confidence.”

Earlier in the week, Starsia - with just cause given recent meetings - referred to the Maryland game as the mostly hotly contested and hard-fought game his team plays annually. This particular game, however, was anything but that from the start.

Maryland led 4-0 after the first quarter. Walters ended the quarter with a laser-like shot from 20 yards out that left UVa keeper Tillman Johnson almost motionless.

The Terps extended that lead to 5-0 on a goal by Ritz with 6:15 left before halftime.

“We came out tough and focused. We’re a team that’s been playing well for the last couple of weeks. Virginia has a tremendous program. They are the defending national champions. We came out and played with focus and played solidly,” said Maryland coach Dave Cottle.

Gilbert finally put Virginia on the scoreboard on an assist from teammate J.J. Morrissey with 5:19 remaining before intermission but Maryland

ultimately added another score by

Bill McGlone for a 6-1 Terp advantage at halftime.

Hampering Virginia’s efforts in the first half was Maryland’s domination of the faceoffs. The Terps won six of the eight faceoffs. Virginia was also not aided by a repeated inability to clear the ball. In 11 first-half attempts, the Cavaliers managed to clear the ball successfully just five times while Maryland was a perfect 9 for 9 in its chances.

“That was indicative of everything. I got on the faceoff guys a little bit at halftime. … It was just things like that in general. I don’t know if we were starstruck or something,” Starsia said.

Virginia briefly made a dent in the Maryland advantage on a goal by Little with 13:01 left in the third quarter but the Terps responded by scoring the game’s next four goals. When Dave Matz beat Johnson with 11:45 remaining in the game, the Terps had surged to a 10-2 lead and a game expected to have much drama then had none at all the rest of the way.

Virginia returns to action next Saturday when it travels to North Carolina. That game as will every other remaining on the schedule becomes more pivotal for the Cavaliers, who now are hoping just for a chance to defend their title in the NCAA tournament.

If the Cavaliers are to make a push for the NCAA field, a better performance and better intensity will be required according to Johnson.

“We just didn’t play good lacrosse today. We had no intensity and were flat and those are things you can’t do,” Johnson said.
 

Spring Notebook: Linebackers possess depth, youth
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
April 4, 2004

Since Al Groh took over the reigns of the Virginia football program, one thing has remained a constant - solid play from linebackers.

With a trio of talented players returning next season in Ahmad Brooks, Darryl Blackstock and Kai Parham that is a trend that is destined to continue.

Groh also has a wealth of talented linebackers, young and old, ready to compete for the outside linebacker position left open by the departure of senior Raymond Mann.

Dennis Haley, Vince Redd and Jermaine Dias will be among the leading candidates to battle for playing time and the final starting spot in the Cavalier 3-4 defense.

Despite the impressive depth, Groh has had the linebackers that are taking part in the spring practice period gain experience at other spots in the respective scheme.

“I just want [the linebackers] to have the experience so that they are not boxed into being one thing ... that is [to say that] a guy is not a left outside linebacker, he can play left, he can play right, he can play strong, he can play weak,” said Groh.

“Then we can deploy them in any particular gameplan the way that we want to rather than saying ‘We would like to do this but … this guy never learned how to do it,’” said Groh on Saturday after practice. “So we just kind of pick a day and one day they stay left and right and the next day they go strong and weak but it is not inside guys playing outside and safeties playing linebacker. That would be a little extreme.”

Groh does like the depth at the position.

“We have enough of [inside and outside linebackers] right now. We have about six at each spot and we have two outsiders and one or two more insiders coming in the fall,” said Groh. “I think we will be well stocked there.”

That depth could pay major dividends within the corps if injuries persist or arise. Rich Bedesem is out for the 15-practice period because of surgeries he had at the end of the season and Marvin Richardson had his own offseason surgery.

One of the biggest absences so far this spring has been Parham. Groh indicated earlier this week that the sophomore was unable to practice with a different back problem than the one the Virginia Beach native suffered from the last couple of years.

According to Groh, one of many bright spots at linebacker in Saturday’s practice session was Dias.

“[Dias] had a good day today,” said Groh. “We are trying to emphasize to him as well as to a few others to be aggressive while he is learning and don’t let the learning part slow down his aggression.

“That is one of his things that he brings. At that position, as I have said before there is a tremendous amount going on. It has a tendency to slow guys down while they are sorting it all out. I want him to really stay aggressive and sort it out while he is doing that.”

Groh also likes the similarities that Dias has to Blackstock at that position.

When asked if Dias had speed like Blackstock, Groh replied:

“I wish we could say we have a whole bunch with speed like [Blackstock]. He is a similar style player and in fact his weight gain has been ... probably a little bit ahead of what Darryl’s was at this stage. We hope that we will develop into a similar type of player.”

Changes in recruiting. Groh admitted on Saturday that with a handful of new assistant coaches on his staff that many of his assistant coaches are recruiting in new geographical areas. Groh did not release the new areas that each coach would focus on.

“We have [changes] but I am not going to tell you what they are because then you are going to print it and everybody else is going to know where they’re recruiting,” joked Groh.

Groh did admit that the staff is placing a stronger emphasis on recruiting in New Jersey.

“[We have] more than we have had. We will put more up there if we have to,” said Groh.

When asked by a reporter if he felt that New Jersey is to UVa what Florida is to many programs for recruiting, Groh chuckled.

“I don’t recall saying that. If I said that there would be a lot of people vacationing there in January. I do [spend time there in January] but it is not vacation for me, it is work.”
 

Looking for its place in history
Virginia's unexpected trip to the Final Four in 1984 is often overlooked
By Doug Doughty
doug.doughty@roanoke.com
981-3129

Some people may be wondering about the observance of the 20th anniversary of Virginia's 1984 Final Four trip. Was there a reunion? Were there interview requests? Speeches? A halftime ceremony at midcourt?

"I don't know how many questions that was," said Tim Mullen, a junior on the 1984 team, "but, the answer is, 'No, no, no and no.'"

Mullen, now relocated in Charlottesville and a regular spectator at Virginia home games, isn't complaining. While often overlooked, the former players and coaches haven't forgotten their magical 1984 run.

The 1976 and 1981 teams are generally considered Virginia's most famous, the former for winning the Cavaliers' only ACC championship and the latter for making UVa's first trip to the Final Four. Ex-head coach Terry Holland now says the '84 team deserves to be mentioned in the same breath.

Funny, that's not what he was saying at the time.

When Wake Forest defeated a lackluster team in the first round of the 1984 ACC Tournament, Holland called the offices of the National Invitation Tournament and offered to take his team to UCLA for a first-round game.

"We were lobbying as best we could," said Holland, who was in the 10th year of a 16-year UVa coaching career. "Contacting the NIT sometimes is like contacting the mafia. We put out word that we were looking forward to the tournament, but we would prefer the toughest competition on the road that we could get. We needed to get jacked up. We felt like we had lost our confidence and needed something to get us over the hump."

After winning their first 10 games, the Cavaliers had lost 11 of their last 18 and were no certainty to make an NCAA field that would not expand from 48 to 64 until 1985.

Virginia athletic director Dick Schultz was on the committee, and while Schultz later would serve as chairman of the NCAA Men's Basketball Committee as well as the president of the NCAA and executive director of the U.S. Olympic Committee, he was in his first year on the committee and had not yet become a power broker.

"I don't think he had much to do with it," said Holland, who returned to UVa in 1995 as athletic director and is now a special assistant to president John Casteen. "The committee goes through times when it focuses on certain things. That year, they were trying to send a message for teams to play a tougher schedule."

Virginia (17-11) ended up making the tournament easily, although its No.7 seed in the East Regional did not merit one of the 16 first-round byes. Moreover, the Cavaliers had the unenviable task of facing a team from the New York metropolitan area, Iona, at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J.

In what would be a precursor of later in the NCAA tournament, UVa slipped past Iona 58-57 on a jump shot by Othell Wilson with six seconds remaining. Two days later, Rick Carlisle hit a baseline jumper with four seconds remaining in overtime to lift the Cavaliers over second-seeded Arkansas 53-51.

Wilson 'unbelievable'

"Life after Sampson" was a persistent theme for a 1984 UVa team trying to rebuild after the graduation of 7-foot-4 Ralph Sampson, a three-time national player of the year. The Cavaliers were 29-4, 30-4 and 29-5 in Sampson's last three seasons.

There were no Sampsons on the '84 team, but three players went on to play in the NBA - Wilson, Carlisle and Olden Polynice, who at 39 actually played in two games for the Los Angeles Clippers this season before being placed on the injured-reserve list. Polynice has scored more than 8,000 points in his NBA career, which is more than any other former UVa player, including Sampson.

Time has not dimmed Mullen's memories of the best player on the team, Wilson, a 6-foot point guard.

"I was playing less and less and less," Mullen said, "so, I had a great seat. Maybe I should have written a column or something. It was a group of guys who wanted to prove they weren't a bunch of schmoes who would throw the ball in the air and have Ralph catch it.

"There was some talent there. Othell was unbelievable. Remember how good he was? He was really tremendous. When Othell was matched up against other name point guards, he generally would just crush them. He wouldn't just outplay them. He would humiliate them."

Wilson, now a researcher for a law firm in Prince William County, has an amazing recall of UVa's run to the Final Four. He doesn't just remember hitting the winning shot against Iona, he also points out that the Cavaliers subsequently committed a foul and that Iona made one of two free throws.

In the regional semifinals against third-seeded Syracuse, Wilson was matched up against one of the nation's top point guards, Pearl Washington. Then, after Indiana's monumental upset of North Carolina in what turned out to be Michael Jordan's final college game, it was the Hoosiers' Steve Alford.

"He had just scored 27 points against North Carolina but I wasn't too worried about it," Wilson said. "I wanted to be able to say we held him down. I took playing against Danny Ainge and those type of guys as a challenge. I wanted to stop 'em. I wanted to make a difference on our team."

Washington had eight points against UVa, making three of 10 shots from the floor. Alford scored six points, going 2-for-7 from the field.

"He dismantled Pearl Washington - who intentionally fouled out of that game so he wouldn't have to play any more - and then poor Steve Alford could barely even touch the ball the whole game," Mullen said.

It is Holland's contention to this day that Virginia's best chance for a national championship might have been in 1982, before Wilson suffered a deep thigh bruise that prevented him from playing in the regional semifinals against Alabama-Birming- ham.

That's not to say the Cavaliers didn't have a great chance in 1984, when they had the ball in the closing seconds of regulation and overtime but failed to score either time in a 49-47 loss to Houston in the NCAA semifinals in Seattle.

"I always thought we would have matched up better with [eventual champion] Georgetown than we did with Houston," Holland said.

Wilson's brilliance aside, there were many UVa heroes during the 1984 Final Four run. Junior forward Jimmy Miller was named East Regional MVP. If the voting had been held any later, he would have received a strong challenge from former walk-on Kenton Edelin.

The Cavaliers were trailing Indiana 44-43 before Edelin stole the ball from Dan Dakich and converted a layup with 1:27 left. In the regional semifinals, Edelin had contributed 10 points and 14 rebounds in a 63-55 triumph over Syracuse.

Coaching cradle

The Indiana Pacers were willing to give Edelin a one-year contract, but he elected to go to law school. Miller tried coaching but ended up as a stockbroker in Charlottesville, where Mullen is in the financial management business.

Most amazing is the number of coaches who have come off the 1984 UVa team. All of the assistant coaches are head coaches now, at South Carolina (Dave Odom), George Mason (Jim Larranaga), Virginia Tech (Seth Greenberg) and American (Jeff Jones).

Among the former players, Carlisle was named NBA Coach of the Year in 2002 for the Detroit Pistons and this year has led the Indiana Pacers to the best record in the NBA. Anthony Solomon is the head coach at St.Bonaventure, and Ricky Stokes is an assistant at South Carolina after four years as the head coach at Virginia Tech.

Wilson, too, was set to join his UVa coaching brethren when he was named coach at DivisionIII St.Mary's (Md.) after the 1998-99 season. He subsequently was placed on administrative leave when he was charged with the rape and kidnapping of his former girlfriend. Although he was acquitted in April2000, he was relieved of his coaching duties.

"I view that whole situation as something that was blown out of proportion, partly because of my background as a known person, per se," he said. "I've absolutely put it behind me."

Odom, a college coach for nearly 30 years, says that Wilson had the best footwork in a guard that he has ever seen. Recently, Wilson has tried to pass along some of his secrets in individual workouts arranged through old playing and coaching contacts.

"I've been asked to return [to basketball] in different environments," Wilson said. "I don't mean that anybody has been beating down my door and begging to come coach with them. If I really wanted to get back into coaching, I think I could have. I thought I was going to be a very good coach."

Wilson, who ideally would like to have his own business in 5-10 years, said his greatest regret was not focusing on a specific post-basketball career when he was in college.

"I wish I had done a lot of things differently," he said.

Wilson said he has a tape of the 1984 Iona game that he watches from time to time, but he hasn't found himself thinking about the 1984 season as he has watched this year's tournament. Few people have.

"We were all so young," said Odom, who became a three-time ACC coach of the year at Wake Forest, as well as the Southeastern Conference coach of the year this year at South Carolina. "It was my first Final Four [as a participant] and, to this day, my only Final Four. It very well might be my last, which shows that you can't take anything for granted."

Theoretically, Wilson could be reminded of the Final Four every time he gives out his phone number, which ends in "8484."

"No connection," Wilson said. "That's just what they gave me."

For a pleasant memory, he may want to hold on to it.
 

Terps remain undefeated with 11-2 win over Virginia
No. 1 Maryland clinches regular season ACC title, Cavaliers held to just two goals for the first time in almost 20 full seasons
Joe Lemire
Cavalier Daily Senior Writer

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Eight members of the Virginia men's lacrosse team weren't even born the last time the Cavaliers were held to just two goals. But that's just what happened to Virginia Saturday for the first time since May 16, 1984, as No. 1 Maryland (8-0, 3-0 ACC) downed No. 10 Virginia (3-5, 0-1) in an 11-2 drubbing to clinch the regular season conference title.

The Terrapins wasted little time to begin the onslaught, scoring four unanswered goals in the first quarter. Maryland then tallied a fifth before Virginia finally got on the board at the 5:19 mark of the second quarter with a goal by sophomore Foster Gilbert, who reeled in a high feed from J.J. Morrissey and snuck a shot into the lower right-hand corner of the goal.

The story of the first half was Maryland's patient possession of the ball and Virginia's inability to mount any sort of counterattack. Virginia won only two of eight faceoffs in the first half and successfully cleared the ball only five times in 11 tries.

"I think that you can owe that to a general sloppiness," sophomore defenseman Michael Culver said of the team's inability to clear the ball. "We just weren't concentrating enough on all aspects of the game."

The Terrapins demonstrated more energy and hustle than the Cavaliers, scooping 22 first-half ground balls to Virginia's eight. Maryland made the most of its chances, converting that ball control into increased scoring opportunities.

"We got down early," sophomore defenseman Steve Holmes said. "They came out and got a lot more ground balls and a lot more faceoffs from the beginning. They had more opportunities to score."

The high-octane Terrapin attack, which had been averaging 13 goals per game, was led by sophomore Xander Ritz, who tallied three goals and three assists. Joe Walters, the ACC's leading scorer, added three assists of his own for the Terps and notched one goal -- a hard shot from 20 yards out that barely beat both the buzzer and Virginia goalie Tillman Johnson at the end of the first quarter.

Johnson made 14 saves on the afternoon, but his performance was outshone by Maryland's Tim McGinnis, who stopped 17 of the Cavaliers' 19 shots on goal. McGinnis, a three-time Division III All-American at Gettysburg College, transferred to Maryland this year and is competing as a graduate student. The 17 saves was a Maryland high for him, though he did record a 22-save performance at Gettysburg.

Virginia beat McGinnis only twice in Gilbert's second-quarter score and an unassisted third-quarter goal by Jared Little. None of the Cavaliers' top six scorers recorded a point in the game. Top scorer Matt Ward saw his team-best 13-game goal scoring streak end at the hands of a Maryland defense that entered the contest allowing only 6.7 goals per game, which was good for seventh in the nation.

With the loss, Virginia failed to defeat the country's top-ranked team for the second straight week after beating then-No. 1 Johns Hopkins, 9-8, the week before. The Cavaliers fell to 11-4 against first-ranked teams under coach Dom Starsia, who said he was disappointed with the loss considering last week's upset.

"Here we went from playing with probably as much poise as we've played with last weekend to the least amount that we've had in some time," Starsia said. "We had a really good week of practice. I thought we were going to be ready to play."

Virginia's postseason tournament hopes remain in doubt after the loss. The Cavaliers continue the conference stretch of their schedule with games the next two weeks against UNC and Duke.
 

Virginia comeback comes up just short
Cavaliers fall to second in ACC with loss to Duke after several first half opportunities, season record now 9-2
Bart Isely
Cavalier Daily Senior Writer

DURHAM, N.C. -- In their last ACC matchup of the year, the Virginia (9-2, 2-1 ACC) women's lacrosse high-octane offense ran into a staunch Duke (6-3, 2-1) defense Saturday and came up just short, losing 10-9.

The loss drops the Cavaliers to second place in the ACC and to a second seed in the ACC tournament, set to take place the weekend of April 23.

The first half of the contest was tough for the Virginia women, as they missed a number of early scoring chances and quickly fell behind by four goals.

While senior midfielder Morgan Thalenberg and junior defender Ashleigh Haas closed the gap to 4-2 with a goal apiece, Duke extended their lead with two more goals in the last four minutes of the first, leaving the Cavaliers down 6-2 at halftime.

"I don't think that we got in the flow of our offense," Virginia head coach Julie Myers said. "We all get a little nervous when our shots don't go in."

After the break at the half, the delay game became the Blue Devils most important asset. Duke's offense passed the ball all over the offensive zone, eating up huge chunks of clock while waiting for a defensive breakdown from the Cavaliers and a wide open shot.

"If I was Duke, I would do the same thing," Myers said. "They typically score 10, 11 or 12 goals, so they knew they didn't want to get in a shooting match with us. I think their game plan was great, and I think their kids executed it perfectly."

With about 20 minutes left in the second period, junior defender Molly Urlock made an impressive stop on a Duke shot with her stick, but her misplay of the ensuing groundball allowed Duke to retain possession.

Quickly after securing the groundball, a Duke attacker took a shot which senior goalie Andrea Pfeiffer stopped, but Duke's junior attacker Kristy Dirks scooped up the rebound and extended the Blue Devil lead to 8-2 -- once again, a well-played ball by a Virginia defender followed by a mistake.

Despite the lack of chances caused by Duke's delay game, the offense began to make their run with 10 minutes left, down 10-5. Junior attacker Amy Appelt, who came into the game averaging 4.5 goals a game, quickly became the hot hand for the Cavaliers.

Appelt found the net three times in the last 10 minutes, twice on penalties, to bring the Cavaliers within two, to 10-8. The Cavaliers also stepped up their defensive presence during this run, creating Appelt's chances by picking up several ground balls, a statistic which they led overall, 14-10.

Appelt's last goal came with 3:44 to play, and then again the Duke delay game set in, as they passed the ball all over the field, playing keep away from the Cavaliers.

"It was pretty amazing, I've never actually seen a team go all the way back to their goalie a couple of times," Myers said. "It seemed really effective."

The Cavaliers put in one last goal, scored by sophomore attacker Tyler Leachman, her second of the game. The goal, however, came with no time left on the clock, too late to help the Cavaliers push to comeback.

Despite the loss, there were lessons to be learned from Saturday's game.

"It's just good to know that we do have heart and that we want to win," Appelt said. "We were just a couple of minutes short."