Cavs' Mines, Williams to provide senior experience
Receivers rising to roles as U.Va.'s leaders
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Apr 19, 2006
U.VA. SPRING GAME
SATURDAY: 3:30 p.m., Scott Stadium

CHARLOTTESVILLE To a football player who doesn't redshirt, college can pass in a blur.

"You're the old guy around here before you know it," University of Virginia wide receiver Fontel Mines, 21, said with a smile after a recent practice.

Mines is a rising senior on a team that sophomores and juniors will dominate in the fall. So is his close friend Deyon Williams, 20. They ended last season as the Cavaliers' starting wideouts -- each had a touchdown catch in the Music City Bowl -- and are running with the first team again this spring. But their roles have changed.

"We know that the coaches and our teammates are leaning on us a little bit to provide not only the playmaking but leadership," said Mines, a Hermitage High graduate. "Leadership qualities are really big. Right now, we don't have a lot of rising seniors, so a lot of unheralded guys have got to step up into different roles."

U.Va.'s captains for offense last year were tailback Wali Lundy and quarterback Marques Hagans, both of whom are busy preparing for the NFL draft. Coach Al Groh hasn't announced the team's 2006 captains, but even if neither Mines nor Williams is chosen, each will be expected to uphold the program's rules and traditions. Both seem eager for the responsibility.

"Fontel and Deyon have definitely stepped up -- and this occurred way back in the winter -- in the leadership phase of the offense," Groh said. "They're two of the most experienced players with game time in the offense, and without any prompting, they've stepped up and tried to set a good example."

Virginia entered the 2003 season with a receiving corps short on numbers, speed and talent. The group's veterans were Ryan Sawyer and Ottowa Anderson, so Groh's decision to inject Mines and Williams into the mix as true freshmen was understandable. Neither, however, really broke through until last season.

A broken collarbone suffered in the 2004 opener marred Mines' sophomore season, and he was an afterthought in U.Va.'s passing game once he returned that year. Williams posted better numbers in '04, catching 19 passes for 261 yards and one touchdown, but his incon- sistency and unreliability didn't please his coaches, who yanked him from the starting lineup in the MPC Computers Bowl that December.

In 2005, the 6-4, 217-pound Mines stayed healthy and finished with 28 catches for 345 yards and two TDs.

"During my career, I've been kind of plagued with injuries and certain things like that," Mines said, "so to end my season like I did was a pretty good confidence-builder coming into this season."

The 6-3, 185-pound Williams, Virginia's top deep threat, caught 58 passes for 767 yards and seven touchdowns and earned all-ACC honorable mention last year. With 1,150 yards receiving (on 85 catches), he ranks 17th on Virginia's all-time list.

As impressive as Williams' play last year was the maturity the Upper Marlboro, Md., resident displayed. Groh said the "first real tangible signs of such were probably around this time last year, and then throughout the season we could see the maturity taking place."

Mines said: "Everybody sees it. Even the way he carries himself around campus is different. That's just part of growing up, and that's part of becoming a leader, and that's what he's done."

Williams said he's tried to become "a person who's dependable, a person who's going to be there for his team, a person that you can count on."

As a first-year player, he recalled, all he wanted to do was catch passes. "Now I have a different mindset," he said. "There's much more to it. You got to be a leader. You got to make plays, and you got people looking up to you. So you got to bring character to your team, and motivation and energy."


 

U.VA. NOTES
Richmond Times-Dispatch Apr 18, 2006

NO PROBLEM: As senior left-hander Mike Ballard closed in on a no-hitter Sunday against Boston College, Virginia baseball coach Brian O'Connor stayed calm.

"I was never nervous for him. Just excited," O'Connor recalled yesterday. "Once he got them out in the eighth, I really thought he was going to do it."

Ballard, a Virginia Beach resident who sat out the 2004 season while rehabilitating from an injury, finished BC off in the ninth to seal the Cavaliers' 5-0 victory and complete their sweep of the three-game series. Ballard (6-2) yesterday was named ACC pitcher of the week.

"You just have a smile on your face," O'Connor said, "because you see how hard a kid has worked, and what's he endured through Tommy John surgery."

Virginia (31-9) entertains Virginia Military Institute (24-13) in a nonconference game at Davenport Field tonight (7 o'clock).

The Cavaliers, 23-2 at home this season, are 5-7 on the road. They travel to South Florida for a crucial three-game series against ACC rival Miami this weekend.

"Now that we've had three ACC weekends on the road, I feel like we've learned what it takes to win on the road in this league," O'Connor said. "It's tough. Everybody has struggles with it. But if you can take advantage when you play at home, like we have, it takes a little pressure off you on the road."

BACK IN THE DAY: Ballard's no-hitter was not, as university officials believed Sunday, the first by a U.Va. pitcher since 1966. Dr. Barry Penn Hollar, now a professor of religion at Shenandoah University, as a junior right-hander threw a no-hitter against visiting Mansfield State in a 4-1 victory March 27, 1974.

"I don't have any memory of the last out," Hollar said yesterday.

But he remembers the fourth inning. That's when he walked the first two batters. The lead runner advanced to third on a fly ball to the outfield and then scored on a sacrifice fly.

The no-hitter came in Hollar's third start for the Cavaliers. A transfer from Dartmouth, he had faced South Carolina and Richmond, respectively, in his first two starts, and U.Va. had been shut out each time.

Hollar and his wife were on the road Sunday after visiting their son at Virginia Tech. They live in Madison County, and as they neared Charlottesville, they turned on the radio broadcast of the game.

He considered taking a detour to Davenport Field to catch the end of the game, Hollar said, but his wife persuaded him to continue north to Madison.

"I really do wish I'd gone back," he said.

Hollar's brother, Hunter, preceded him at U.Va. and threw a one-hitter against Clemson in 1970.

GRAND FINALE: Spring football practice at U.Va. concludes Saturday with an intrasquad game at Scott Stadium. Two hours of fan activities will precede the 3:30 p.m. game.

Coach Al Groh said yesterday that the Cavaliers appear to have at least two players at every position. Barring injuries this week, Groh said, he'll probably split his roster into two teams for Saturday's game.

ONGOING BATTLE: Don't hand the starting job at center to Ian-Yates Cunningham just yet. "We got a pretty good competition right there between himself and Lipsey," Groh said.

Like Cunningham, Jordy Lipsey is a rising junior. Cunningham, a former starter at guard, never has played center in a college game. Lipsey started two games at that position last season.

STEP BY STEP: Nate Lyles continues to progress in his bid to recover from the neck injury he suffered Nov.12 against Georgia Tech.

Lyles, a starter at safety last season, hasn't been practicing this spring, but he's been running and conditioning during practice.

"While I haven't kept track specifically of every single thing he's doing," Groh said, "as I look over - and I try to do it every practice - I see he's working harder and longer."

ON THE MATS: U.Va.'s search for a successor to Lenny Bernstein, who recently resigned as wrestling coach, may focus on Cornell's top assistant, Steve Garland.

Garland, a 2000 graduate of U.Va., recently completed his fifth season with the Big Red. Cornell placed fourth at the NCAA championships in 2005 and fifth this year.

At Virginia, Garland was ACC champion at 125 pounds in 1997. He was named ACC wrestler of the year in 2000, when he was NCAA runner-up at 125 pounds. - Jeff White
 

Ballard adds name to lore
Pitcher's no-hitter transplants Hollar in UVa record books
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
April 17, 2006

Barry Hollar has been telling people for 32 years about a game that he will never forget.
It was March 27, 1974. On that day, Hollar was unhitable for nine innings in his Virginia baseball uniform against Mansfield State.

While Hollar's no-hitter never left his thoughts, it slipped through the cracks of the record books at UVa partly because he had allowed a run on a sacrifice fly in a 4-1 win.

That left most to think Mike Ballard's no-hitter on Sunday against Boston College was the first since Ned Turnbull's no-hit performance in 1966.

Friends and family members of Hollar, who is now a professor at Shenandoah College, knew better.

"I will not be able say that I threw the last no-hitter any longer," Hollar laughed. "It is great to still talk about it 32 years later."

Ballard said on Sunday that he noticed the no-hitter in the seventh. Hollar said for him it was even later.

"Once you have given up a run, you don't even think about a no-hitter," Hollar said. "It got to be the eighth or ninth inning and I realized that I hadn't given up any hits and, of course, nobody will talk about it.

"I went in the ninth wondering if anybody realized that I was throwing a no-hitter."

Hollar got his answer as his teammates threw the ball around the horn prior to the final inning.

"Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that our whole dugout was up on the top row of the dugout," Hollar said. "I realized that they knew and, even though I had given up a run, it mattered. It was still a no-hitter."

Hollar, who now lives in Madison, was almost there to see Ballard's no-hitter. On a return trip from seeing his son at college, Hollar turned the game on his car radio.

"It was the bottom of eighth and the announcers were talking real funny. I could tell there was something they weren't saying," Hollar said. "Then I realized they weren't willing to say that Ballard had a no-hitter.

"I said to my wife 'Let's go the game.' She said 'It's been a long day,' and I didn't argue with her. I really wish I had turned around. I think we would have gotten there in time."

Hollar questioned his decision again when he got home and noticed that Turnbull's no-hitter was a hot topic.

"When I got home and realized that Virginia didn't realize that I had thrown a no-hitter and couldn't find out I had thrown a no-hitter, I said

'I should have gone to make sure they got that right,'" Hollar quipped.

Hollar does not remember his next start. For Ballard, the events that followed his no-no also remain a blur.

The southpaw snuck in a quick conversation with his parents before they started a three-hour drive back to Virginia Beach and then happily signed hundreds of autographs. Both events only delayed Ballard's postgame conditioning.

By the time Ballard emerged from Virginia's clubhouse, it was already 6 p.m. and he had missed phone calls from former teammates, including Jeff Kamrath, Scott Headd and Ryan Zimmerman, the starting third baseman for the Washington Nationals.

"I had 10 missed calls," Ballard laughed. "Everybody called to say congratulations."

Ballard's 117-pitch, complete game no-hitter did not go unnoticed.

He did a number of radio and television interviews and was named not only the ACC Pitcher of the Week for the second time in his career, but he was also tabbed a Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week.

It was only fitting that Ballard had to get up early on Monday. He had a class on team sports at 8 a.m.

Interestingly enough, the class is currently studying the sport of baseball.

Perhaps Ballard should have offered to give a lecture on the art of pitching.

 

Scandal gets attention of ADs, players
The Duke saga has been an embarrassment, but it's a shining example to athletes of how not to behave.
BY DAVE JOHNSON
247-4649
April 19, 2006

Like everyone who has cable television or a newspaper subscription, Christopher Newport athletic director C.J. Woollum has followed the reports out of Durham, N.C., the past five weeks. What was supposed to have been a group of Duke lacrosse players getting together to blow off steam quickly got out of hand - that much is apparent. To what extent, that's for the courts to decide.

But from an observer's standpoint, Woollum sees it as Exhibit A to administrators and athletes alike that bad decisions can lead to chaos. On Tuesday, two Duke players were charged with raping and kidnapping an exotic dancer who had been hired for the party. Even if they are innocent, the damage has been done - to a once-proud lacrosse program and university.

"You think schools like Duke are above that, but it just shows how it can happen anywhere when you make poor decisions," Woollum said. "It's not the school's fault and it's not the coach's fault. It's a group of knuckleheads who decided it was a brilliant idea to have this party. And generally, when you make decisions like that, nothing good is going to come of it.

"This is a perfect example of a poor decision being made, and now see what you've got. Lots of innocent people were hurt with this thing, and the institution as a whole was. All based on a what a couple of idiots did."

Even if there are no criminal convictions, it cannot be denied that a party was held that included (a) a stripper and (b) underaged drinking. In the words of NCAA president Myles Brand, it was "inappropriate at best." In the five weeks since that night, the nation has heard far more about Duke lacrosse than it did last spring when the Blue Devils won 17 games and finished as NCAA runner-up. CNN's Nancy Grace has turned it into nightly fodder.

The Blue Devils' season has been canceled. Their head coach, Mike Pressler, resigned after 16 seasons. And relations between a predominantly white school and a city that is 43 percent black have become further strained.

And the message at other universities becomes: Don't let this happen to you.

"Sometimes college students do things that have us all thinking 'What were they thinking?' " Cavalier athletic director Craig Littlepage said. "This is the case (here). We asked our coaches to meet with their coaching staffs and subsequently with their team leadership to discuss conduct and how they needed to be aware of how bad things can happen when people fail to step up if they sense others around them are about to do something that could lead to trouble.

"What drives the point home is that many of our coaches and student-athletes know how close we all are to having the same thing happen in our program. We have student-athletes and coaches that have good friends at Duke and know these friends to be good people."

At Hampton University, athletic director/football coach Joe Taylor said the lesson is all part of what he stresses on a daily basis.

"You don't wait for situations like this to address it," he said. "One of the things athletics should teach is character building, decision making. It's unfortunate - truly, truly unfortunate - what is going on. And certainly you remind the young men that bad decisions can impact a lot of lives."

At William and Mary, which in many ways is similar to Duke as an institution, it's the same.

"That's such an unfortunate incident and it could ruin (the school's) reputation even if they're found not guilty," said Patrick Mulloy, a captain on the Tribe's football team last fall. "Here, when problems come around and they're small, we take care of them before we grow into something major. We don't want to ruin what we have going on here.

"After every game, you can be certain that Coach (Jimmye) Laycock will say something about being smart that night and not doing anything stupid. When he gives us a day off, he says, 'This is a time to rest, so stay out of trouble.' Every day, it's imprinted in our mind: Don't do anything bad."

Woollum admits he has an "obsession" regarding behavioral matters, from criminal activity to drinking to appearance. Watching the news recently, he was appalled to see Florida basketball player Joakim Noah attend a White House ceremony with his shirttail hanging out. A far cry from what allegedly went on in Durham, he knows, but it's the little things ...

"We talk to them about the impression they make on their professors, and how they should not go to their classes looking like slobs and sit in the back and fall asleep," Woollum said. "They have to prepare themselves for what's next. None of them are going to be professional athletes, so they'd better be thinking about a bigger picture than where are we going tonight to have fun. Unfortunately, that overwhelms the thought process for a lot of them."

IN MY OPINION / TOM SORENSEN
Wolfpack search: Buy a vowel; get a coach
TOM SORENSEN

The NCAA basketball tournament lasts 18 days. On Wednesday, N.C. State will have gone 18 days without a basketball coach.

If you call N.C. State athletics director Lee Fowler on Monday, you expect to hear, "Hi, this is Lee, I can't come to the phone right now, I'm getting rejected by a high-profile coach. Leave a message and I'll get back to you if you promise not to reject me, because I swear on all that's holy that I can't take rejection anymore."

You expect to hear this. What you hear is no comment. Fowler isn't talking about the coaching search.

But everybody else seems to be, and some of the talk is absurd. I was asked last week why the Wolfpack hasn't pursued Rick Pitino and Tom Izzo, the theory apparently being if a coach's name ends in a vowel he must be interested in moving to Raleigh.

Three more potential candidates from the vowel movement: Mike Krzyzewski, Vince Lombardi and, if you work under the supposition that y sometimes is a vowel, Pat Riley.

All the vowel-sters are high profile. I suspect N.C. State's next coach will not be.

I suspect he will be a man who has won at lesser schools and based on his body of work, creativity and personality will be expected to win in the ACC.

Ah, but what happens if, in his first two seasons, he fails to win? A celebrity coach can withstand a slow start. Hey, he must be good. If he weren't good, he wouldn't be famous.

A coach with a lesser profile won't get that break. Lesser fans, those twisted, fanatical, fresh-air-intolerant fans who live vicariously through their team and in their mother's basement, won't wait.

Such fans aren't the majority, of course. They simply make the most noise.

And even some of them have to know N.C. State is one of the toughest jobs in the country. In fact, I can't think of a tougher basketball job.

Blame history. The Wolfpack won national championships under Norm Sloan and under Jim Valvano.

Blame geography. N.C. State shares a neighborhood with two of the most successful programs in the sport. N.C. State wins first-round NCAA tournament games. Duke and North Carolina win championships.

Is it unreal, then, to expect the Wolfpack to occasionally beat its neighbors? It had better not be.

One quality to which fans are entitled is hope. If a team can't provide hope, why should fans give a school their heart and their money?

N.C. State's next coach has to, at least on special occasions, beat Duke and North Carolina. Has to. He also has to realize how important these games are. And if his team is fun to watch and he is charismatic and fun to be around, that will not be held against him.

Obviously, the coach has to be a special guy, and if N.C. State needs more time to find him, so be it. Whether he is the school's third choice, fifth choice or 10th choice soon will be forgotten.

His record against Duke and North Carolina will not.

 

No Hopkins in NCAAs? It's possible
Mike Preston
Originally published Apr 19, 2006

It's crunch time in lacrosse, the part of the season where teams either solidify a spot in the men's NCAA Division I tournament or go home. No. 10 Johns Hopkins is in that position, and with Duke already having canceled its season, the field could be without the two finalists from 2005.

A year after winning the national championship, Hopkins, the university that prides itself on lacrosse, might not make the tournament. It sounds crazy, but the Blue Jays are 5-4 with games at No. 3 Navy on Saturday, followed by a home game against No. 12 Towson. Hopkins closes out the season at No. 14 Loyola.

In previous years, this was no big deal. But if you watched Maryland take apart Hopkins, 11-4, Saturday night at Homewood Field, you can understand why the Blue Jays and their fans might be feeling a little pressure.

Not only did the Terps humiliate Hopkins, but they also embarrassed the Blue Jays on their home turf before a crowd of nearly 10,000. Maryland coach Dave Cottle did to Hopkins what Blue Jays coach Dave Pietramala has done to so many others over the years. Cottle took the opponent apart slowly and methodically, especially after gaining an early lead.

Pietramala is exceptional at breaking down opponents, especially reading tendencies. But Maryland changed some of its offensive looks on both the regular and extra-man offense, bothering the Blue Jays. Once the Terps got the lead, they held the ball as long as possible, forcing the Blue Jays to come out and play the ball. Once that happened, they simply ran around or through a Hopkins defense that isn't overly athletic.

Cottle didn't bring any new fans to the game with his version of stall ball, but he played within the rules. The loss put the Blue Jays in a tough position.

There are all kinds of questions about Hopkins now. How could they be so lethargic against a big rival at home? Where was the leadership in the second half when the Blue Jays panicked with poor shots and turnovers? It's apparent Hopkins has regressed, but have the Blue Jays gone so far back that they can't salvage this season?

Oh, it gets interesting from here.

Hopkins has to play in Annapolis on Saturday against a Navy team trying to break a 31-game losing streak to the Blue Jays. Towson coach Tony Seaman would like nothing better than to knock off the school that fired him seven years ago, and to put the Blue Jays out of contention. Loyola and Hopkins campuses are separated bya little more than a mile, so it's a natural grudge match.

On paper, it's an uphill battle, but not impossible. It's been a crazy and unpredictable season, and teams that have hit rock bottom have rebounded and climbed back into the national picture. Look at No. 9 Syracuse. The Orange started off 1-4, and was proclaimed dead by some.

But never count out the Orange.

Snowstorms often force the team inside during the early part of the season, but once the weather warms up, so does Syracuse, which has gotten outstanding play from freshmen like midfielders Kenny Nims and Patrick Perritt and sophomore attackman Mike Leveille.

No. 20 Colgate, No. 19 Stony Brook and No. 16 Denver have maintained a consistent level of play. Who would have thought Hofstra would have been No. 2 in mid-April at the beginning of the season?

Now look at the local teams.

Loyola struggled early in the season with losses to Towson, Duke, Massachusetts and Syracuse. The Greyhounds had every reason to fold up with first-year coach Charley Toomey, but they upset No. 2 Georgetown, 14-10, Saturday. With an offense that gets better each game, the Greyhounds are in a three-way tie for the Eastern College Athletic Conference lead with Georgetown and Penn State, all at 3-1, in the conference.

So much for this being a rebuilding year, huh?

"We're 1-4 on the road," said Toomey, whose team has two straight road games against Fairfield and Hobart before playing Hopkins. "We've defended our turf, and I've got to give my kids credit for that, but we have got to learn to win on the road. The key for us is our offense. Our shooting has gotten better, and our offense has improved in time. We'll see where we end up."

Both Towson and UMBC struggled earlier in the season, but seemed to have found their grooves. When the Tigers (7-4) beat Villanova, 11-6, over the weekend, it was their third win in a row and sealed home-field advantage as the second seed in the Colonial Athletic Association tournament. The No. 15 Retrievers (6-4) have earned a berth in the American East tournament.

No. 4 Maryland assured itself a berth in the NCAA tournament with its win over Hopkins on Saturday night. So now, most of the local teams are looking good with the exception of Hopkins. The Blue Jays have to be sweating. That obnoxious, but small band that irritates most opponents could be playing the blues soon.

But in a season in which only No. 1 Virginia has clearly separated itself from the rest of the field, almost anything can happen. You can never count out a program like Hopkins, which has a storied tradition and had some of the game's greatest players.

Can you?

 

Keydets no match for powerful Cavs
Virginia concludes homestand with 5-0 record, freshman Carraway earns first collegiate win
Martin Barna, Cavalier Daily Senior Writer

On the strength of senior Tom Hagan's bat and freshman Andrew Carraway's arm, the No. 17 Cavaliers (32-9) routed the visiting VMI Keydets 5-0 last night at Davenport Field.

The Virginia offense came out firing on all cylinders in the early going, notching five hits, five walks and all five of the game's runs in the first three innings of play.

The Cavalier scoring began in the bottom of the first, when two early walks were followed up by an RBI single by Brandon Guyer and a two-RBI double down the right-field line from Hagan. Two innings later, Virginia added two more runs and effectively put the game out of reach.

The bigger story from last night's matchup, however, was the phenomenal play of Carraway, the freshman pitcher out of Marietta, Ga. In the first start of his collegiate career, the young right-hander recorded nine strikeouts, gave up just five hits and allowed no walks in six innings of shutout baseball.

"My arm felt really good all day," Carraway said. "With [catcher] Beau [Seabury] playing so well, all I really had to do was hit my spots."

The performance of Carraway, who had previously pitched 15 innings of relief, came as no surprise to Virginia coach Brian O'Connor.

"Andrew has good ability and a great command of the strike zone," O'Connor said. "He's going to be a key guy for us down the stretch –- especially around ACC Tournament time."

Sophomore reliever Pat McAnaney took over for Carraway in the seventh and allowed just one hit while striking out three Keydet batters in the final three innings. The game marked the team's second straight shutout and the 10th consecutive outing in which Cavalier pitchers have held an opponent to four runs or fewer.

"Tonight really showed the depth of our pitching staff," O'Connor said.

On the other side of the diamond, the Keydets (24-14) were simply overmatched and outplayed. Despite winning four of their last five contests, VMI quickly went through three pitchers in five innings, struck out 12 times, stranded four and successfully advanced only one runner past first base.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the lopsided contest was the balance between the Virginia offense and defense. As of Sunday, the Cavaliers were the only team in the nation to be ranked among the top 10 in both pitching (2nd) and batting (9th).

"It's so rare to have a team that has pitching depth like we have and an offense like we have," O'Connor said. "Some days when your pitching's not there, your hitting can pick you up and vice versa. [The balance] is so important -- especially when you're playing against tough opponents."

The Cavaliers next travel south to Miami for a three-game series with the Hurricanes this weekend.

 

Virginia returns to tough competition against Hoyas
After beating up on recent in-state teams, No. 3 Cavs travel to No. 4 Georgetown for final regular season match
Chris Marsh, Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
 

After playing the role of in-state bully for the past two weeks, the No. 3 women's lacrosse team will once again have the opportunity to pick on someone their own size when they take on the No. 4 Georgetown Hoyas tonight.

Georgetown has done some bullying of its own on its way to a 9-2 record. Junior goalkeeper Maggie Koch has been sensational for Georgetown between the pipes. Koch leads the nation with a stingy 6.9 goals-against average, and is seventh in the nation with a 54.1 save percentage.

The first player that Virginia will look to neutralize, though, is attacker Coco Stanwick. Stanwick has contributed for the Hoyas all over the field. On offense, her 39 goals lead the team. Even more impressive has been her success on draws -- the junior leads the nation with 7.09 draws per game. As Stanwick goes, so goes Georgetown; she has been a large part of building the team to get its lofty ranking.

Stanwick is "their go-to girl," Virginia senior Kim Connors said. "We've been generating our defense around her a little bit. She's someone to keep an eye out for tonight."

Georgetown meets the Cavaliers at the tail end of what has been an extremely tough season for the Hoyas. The Hoyas have played nine of their last 10 games against ranked opponents, and they have been tested often. Georgetown's last four games have all been decided by one goal, and three of them went to overtime. In contrast, Virginia's last three games have come against Commonwealth foes who never posed credible threats to the Cavaliers.

Connors says the team is "looking forward to a big game again," adding that after playing Old Dominion, James Madison and Virginia Tech, the team is hoping to "end the regular season on a big win against a really good team."

Virginia coach Julie Myers believes each team brings certain advantages to the game.

"I think our advantage is that we are a little bit fresher," Myers said. "We were able to take a couple of games off here and there. I think we're sharp, I think we're ready, I think we're fresh. Depending on how you look at it, it's an advantage for both teams. Hopefully with our speed and our freshness we're really able to have lots of success."

The Cavaliers remember last year's game against the Hoyas. Georgetown came into Charlottesville and left with a hard-fought 13-11 win, in which Virginia squandered a two-goal halftime lead. Stanwick found the goal often against the Cavaliers, ending the game with five goals.

"They came to Virginia last year and pulled out a win which we weren't happy with," Connors said. "We'd really like to come out on top. We hope to go there and do the same thing to them."

Beginning with the Georgetown game, Virginia's remaining schedule will feature opponents that are the cream of the crop. Potential matchups against Duke, UNC and Maryland loom in the ACC tournament. All of these teams are ranked and the stakes will be raised with the conference championship on the line. Myers said she wants to kick off this stretch with a solid performance against the Hoyas.

"We want to end our regular season on a strong note," Myers said. "We want to really play well against a top opponent. In the ACC Tournament, there's not going to be much breathing room."