Cavaliers pick up the pace, top Terrapins
By Whitelaw Reid / wreid@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
April 1, 2007

The errant pass from a Maryland player sailed high over its intended target and bounced quickly toward the center of the field.

Just as the ball crossed the midfield line, Virginia attackman Ben Rubeor snaked in front of a Terrapin defender and snared the ball with his stick.

Rubeor exploded up the field, then zinged a pinpoint pass to Garrett Billings, who was standing about 20 yards away on the right wing. Billings raced into Maryland territory, forced a defender to commit, then dished to Danny Glading, who fired a laser into the Terrapin net.

If Virginia basketball coach Dave Leitao had been in attendance, he would have been handing out high-fives.

The perfectly executed fastbreak gave No. 2 UVa a commanding five-goal lead in the third quarter and paved the way for a relatively easy 12-8 victory in front of 5,048 fans at Klockner Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

“It’s nice to get our first ACC win against a team like Maryland,” said Virginia junior Will Barrow. “I think we executed our game plan pretty well today and got a nice victory.”

Added Rubeor, who scored a game-high five goals: “It’s very important because the ACC season is a short one and you have to capitalize on the few games that you have. Today we got started on the right foot.”

Billings added two goals and three assists for UVa, which plays host to Binghamton on Tuesday afternoon.

Goalie Kip Turner had 12 saves, his second-highest total of the season.

No. 8 Maryland (7-3, 1-2), which was led by Max Ritz’s three goals, had its five-game winning streak snapped.

After losing its season opener to Drexel, Virginia (8-1, 1-0) has now won eight straight.

UVa only led 6-4 at the half, but turned it on in the third quarter, outscoring Maryland 5-2.

“I was pleased with the way we came out of the locker room to start the second half,” said Virginia coach Dom Starsia. “We created some transition and it seemed like we started to gain some confidence - in the offensive end of the field in particular.

“I thought that at the start of the second half our offense got a hungry look. It looked like we just felt we could score some goals.”

After Glading’s goal put UVa up 10-5, Billings scored another transition goal off a great pass from Ricky Smith.

“I think in the second half we just decided to really step it up because we knew we weren’t playing our best game when we went in at halftime,” Barrow said. “When we’re clicking on all cylinders, that’s when we get the fastbreaks. That was just a part of us coming together.”

Last season, the fastbreak was a staple of the Virginia offense. This season, the Cavaliers have played at a noticeably slower tempo. However, that hasn’t been by their choice.

“I think we like to play up-tempo, but other teams slow it down on us and it’s tough to create the transition that you want,” Rubeor said. “I think it’s more fun to play [up-tempo] lacrosse, but we’ll play whatever style we have to as long as we’re winning.”

One of the reasons Virginia was able to run successfully against Maryland was the play of defender Mike Timms, who played one of his best games ever. The sophomore ignited several breaks.

“Mike Timms was a force,” Starsia said. “It seemed like he was on every ground ball and got it going the other way.”

Starsia hopes to see his team run more as the season progresses.

“It’s who we want to be,” said Starsia, when asked about his team’s running and gunning, “but we’re only just starting to get to that part of the game. … I would hope we would be able to play a little more like that - put the ball on the deck and get it up and get out quickly.

“We’re a team that doesn’t want to be in the box fighting you six-on-six. That’s not our strength.”

 

Cavs blow lead, fall to Blue Devils in OT
By Whitelaw Reid / wreid@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
April 1, 2007

After the Virginia women’s lacrosse team defeated James Madison on Wednesday night, Julie Myers was visibly happy. However, the UVa coach wasn’t too stoked about allowing JMU to score 13 goals.

Just imagine how Myers felt on Saturday afternoon at Klockner Stadium.

No. 4 Virginia blew a six-goal first-half lead before losing to ACC rival Duke in overtime, 19-18. The loss snapped UVa’s three-game winning streak.

The 19 goals by No. 5 Duke were the most that Virginia has given up since surrendering 23 in a loss to Penn State way back in 1986.

“I would love 13 goals right now,” said Myers, with a forced smile on her face. “Obviously it was a shootout. I think both offenses are incredibly talented, and both defenses needed to work on making some stops.

“Some [of Duke’s goals] were pretty good looks, but overall I’m disappointed in our defenders. Duke kept getting that same look over and over. For us to not make adjustments was disappointing.”

Coincidentally, in its only loss this season - at Maryland on March 3 - Duke gave up a season-high 19 goals.

Jess Wasilewski and Brittany Kalkstein led Virginia (9-2, 2-2) with four goals apiece. Duke (9-1, 2-1) was led by Kristen Waagbo’s six goals.

Virginia has one conference game remaining - at Boston College on April 21. Duke has two - versus BC and North Carolina.

“Come Monday, we need to work on the things that didn’t go our way - especially draws and ground balls,” said Virginia sophomore Blair Weymouth. “Hopefully we can tighten up on those things.”

On the game-winning goal, which came with 13 seconds left in the second overtime, Virginia allowed Duke’s Rachel Sanford an uncontested shot from just a few feet in front of the net.

“They had been running that set the entire game and just crept in closer and closer,” Myers said. “She came over the top and they set it up perfectly. It was one of those ones you practice for the last minute if you need a goal quickly. I’m disappointed we didn’t step up and made it look as easy as we did.”

Added Virginia senior defender Jessy Morgan: “There was no slide on the right side, then it was a great shot. Not much you can do.”

In the first half, Virginia seemed completely in control. UVa built a 9-3 lead before taking a 10-5 advantage into the locker room.

However, Duke slowly began pecking away at the deficit thanks to its success on draw controls. The Blue Devils held a 23-18 edge for the game.

Duke tied the game at 14 on a goal by Leigh Jester with 11:45 remaining. Nearly three minutes later, Jester gave the Blue Devils their first lead of the game.

Virginia fought back and wound up taking an 18-16 lead on a goal by Wasilewski with 1:41 left.

But Jester answered with a goal. Then, after Wasilewski threw an errant pass on a clear attempt, Waagbo scored with 20 seconds remaining to force overtime.

“We stopped working as hard as we did in the first half,” Myers said. “Things don’t come as easy when you stop working that hard.”

Added Weymouth: “It’s definitely a very disappointing loss.”

 

Carraway closes the door on Tech
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
April 1, 2007

BLACKSBURG - As a native of Georgia, Andrew Carraway admits he still has a thing or two to learn about the in-state rivalry between Virginia and Virginia Tech.

If Saturday was any indication, Virginia Tech has a thing or two to learn about facing Carraway.

The hard-throwing right-hander silenced the Hokies after entering in the fifth inning, and the Cavaliers pounded out 17 hits on their way to an 11-4 win at English Field.

With the win, UVa secured its third straight series win in ACC play and improved to 26-5 overall and 7-4 in the league. Virginia Tech (15-13, 4-7) lost its eighth straight in the rivalry.

“Our guys were determined today,” said Virginia coach Brian O’Connor. “I thought our approach was real good today, much better than yesterday, and Andrew Carraway came in and threw the ball really well.

Carraway, who relieved starter Matt Packer with UVa leading 9-4, said he struggled to find his control upon entry but quickly settled down and got into a groove.

“I have to give all the credit to our offense,” said Carraway, who threw 65 pitches, 44 of which were strikes. “It makes the pitcher’s job easy when you come into a game and you have a big lead to work with.”

It was the second appearance of the week for Carraway - he pitched in Wednesday’s rally over Longwood.

“With his stuff, Carraway could easily be a starter in our rotation and in the rotations of most teams in the country,” O’Connor said, “but he is an unselfish player and I know every weekend there’s going to be a game like this that he’s going to have to come in and throw well.”

Carraway said he was just happy to have an impact in a series that means so much to Virginia’s large fan base.

“I didn’t know much about the rivalry at first,” Carraway said. “When people would say we were going to play Tech I would say, ‘We aren’t going to play Georgia Tech.’

“But I have quickly learned about it and it’s still growing on me.”

Offensively, Virginia appeared on track from the onset - the Cavaliers scored three runs apiece in the second and third and added two more in the fourth as they chased Hokie starter Andrew Wells early.

Wells (2-2), who beat North Carolina last weekend, worked five innings, allowing 13 hits, three walks and nine runs (eight earned).

Brandon Marsh paced Virginia with four hits, including his second double of the season, and drove in three runs. Tyler Cannon and Brandon Guyer, who hit a solo homer, finished with three hits apiece.

Virginia will look for a series sweep today when the two teams play at 1 p.m.

The Cavs will have ace Sean Doolittle (4-2, 3.20) on the bump, while the Hokies are expected to counter with Adam Redd (2-1, 3.68)

 

Rubeor spurs U.Va.'s romp
Junior attackman scores five goals against Maryland
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Apr 1, 2007
LACROSSE
VIRGINIA 12 MARYLAND 8

CHARLOTTESVILLE - As remarkable as Ben Rubeor's performance against Maryland was, neither his teammates nor his coach seemed surprised by it.

Rubeor, a junior attackman for the University of Virginia men's lacrosse team, leads the nation in scoring and thus regularly draws opponents' top defensemen. None has stopped him yet. Rubeor had five goals and an assist yesterday to lead the third-ranked Cavaliers to a 12-8 victory over ACC foe Maryland before a season-high crowd of 5,048 at Klockner Stadium.

The final score doesn't reflect U.Va.'s dominance. After reserve attackman Ryan Kelly's goal made it 12-6 with 8:35 left, defending NCAA champion Virginia (1-0, 8-1) all but shut down its offense. The 10th-ranked Terrapins (1-2, 7-3) scored twice in the final 1:40 to make their margin of defeat more respectable.

U.Va. has won eight straight since opening with a shocking loss to Drexel. Only twice this season has Rubeor failed to score at least three goals, and he rang up a career-high seven against Towson. He's totaled 49 points, on 34 goals and 15 assists.

Under Dom Starsia, the Cavaliers have won three NCAA titles, and "I would tell you that I've been blessed to have coached some really wonderful attackmen throughout my career," he said.

"I'm not sure that anybody that I've been around in some time has had a better stretch of lacrosse than Ben is at this moment."

Rubeor won a starting job immediately as a freshman and made the All-America second team as a sophomore. But ankle injuries slowed him during his first two years, and the English major from Towson, Md., put himself through a grueling conditioning program this offseason.

"I think the results are paying off," Rubeor said.

Other standouts for U.Va. yesterday included sophomore attackman Garrett Billings, senior goalie Kip Turner, senior defenseman Ricky Smith and long-stick midfielder Mike Timms, who dominates at a position not often in the spotlight.

Timms is a 6-5, 222-pound sophomore from Virginia Beach whose size, speed and dexterity help him terrorize opponents.

"He's pretty much a beast, a red-headed monster," Turner said. "You can't tell he's that fast, but he has those long strides, and nobody can really get by him."

Timms gobbled up nine ground balls, more than twice as many as any Terp.

"Mike Timms was a force," Starsia said. "He was maybe the best long-stick I've seen in a long time today."

U.Va. hosts Binghamton at 4 p.m. Tuesday, then entertains ACC rival North Carolina (0-2, 7-3) at 7 p.m. Saturday. UNC upset Johns Hopkins 13-10 yesterday in Chapel Hill.

 

Hoosiers' loss was Hokies' gain
No change in plans for UVa's Byers
By Doug Doughty

One of the mysteries of the recently completed football recruiting campaign is how Virginia Tech could land a 7,000-yard career rusher and Parade All-American who was named Mr. Football in Indiana.

The Hoosier state does not qualify as prime Hokie recruiting.

And, if Darren Evans had been able to get several of his teammates to buy into his original plan, he never would have left the state.

In the letter-of-intent issue of SuperPrep magazine, Evans admitted that he tried to mobilize several of his teammates after their junior year at Warren Central in Indianapolis and get them to commit to Indiana University.

"I was kind of the leader to do it, but no one started following me," said Evans, who was the EA Sports National Player of the Year for 2006. "They don't want to admit it, but that's the truth. I wanted to go there first."

Remarkably, three of Evans' Warren Central teammates committed to Indiana but only after Evans already had pledged to Virginia Tech.

There was a story behind that, too. The No. 1 prospect in Indiana was Warren Central safety Jerimy Finch, who took an unofficial visit to Tech during the summer and persuaded Evans to come with him.

Nothing became of Finch's recruitment, but Evans ran the 40 under the eye of Tech's coaches, who had not offered him a scholarship until that point.

"I don't think the visit was mainly for me; the visit was mainly for Jerimy," Evans told SuprerPrep. "I ran a 40 time that was a deciding factor on if they were going to offer me. I felt that I could come in and get some playing time."

SUPERPREP'S "Recruits on Record" section also had an interesting look at quarterback Mike Paulus' decision to honor his commitment to North Carolina after the firing of coach John Bunting and his staff.

"I was really close with all the coaches and when they got fired, I decided to wait and see what happened before I made any decisions," said Paulus, whose older brother, Greg, is the point guard for Duke's basketball team. "Then, when coach [Buth] Davis got hired, I felt like I hit the jackpot.

"I talked to him on [the] Sunday night right after his press conference. I really didn't think I'd hear from him until Monday or Tuesday. I was honored when he told me he was the first guy he called."

LONGTIME SUPERPREP publisher Allen Wallace had Tech's recruiting year ranked 26th in his "Big 50" and Virginia was 32nd. However, I'm not sure, when there are fewer than 125 teams in Division I-A, that a 49th- or 50th-rated recruiting class can be classified as "big."

Virginia's recruiting class was an improvement on its No. 40 ranking in 2006, but UVa's four classes before that had all been ranked in Wallace's top 18.

Tech's football recruiting classes have been ranked as high as eighth (in 2001), but this was the eighth time in 10 years that the Hokies have been ranked between 19th and 31st.

Wallace did not have Virginia Tech's incoming offensive-line among his elite group of 12, which might have been an oversight on his part. It's hard to remember a time when Tech has recruited as many top offensive linemen in one class.

REVIEWING AL GROH'S quotes from the first 10 days of spring camp, it would seem that an injury to wide receiver Kevin Ogletree might be cause to revisit the status of Emmanuel Byers.

Byers was eligible for a fifth season of eligibility in 2007, but Groh said he generally will advise a player not to return if he is going to graduate and will not have a "substantial" on-field role.

At this point, with Ogletree expected to miss the 2007 season, Byers would have more career receptions than anybody UVa could put on the field. In fact, he had more receptions (10) in 2007 than any other Virginia wide receiver with remaining eligibility, not counting Ogletree.

However, when asked if the Ogletree injury had caused him to revise his thinking, Groh responded, "It has not." Presumably, there's more to the Byers situation than meets the eye."

IN A RECENT Notebook Plus that drew criticism from at least one reader for its lack of sizzle, it was suggested that Virginia Tech could be picked as low as eighth in the ACC in men's basketball next season.

"Does that mean I'm a genius if we finish better than eighth?" Hokies' coach Seth Greenberg asked earlier this week.

Maybe so. In its most recent edition, the ACC Sports Journal had Tech ranked 10th in its early look at the 2007-2008 race. Virginia was fifth.
 

Cavaliers have a blast at Hokies' expense
Virginia piles up 17 hits on Virginia Tech and goes on to another win over its intrastate rival.
By Mark Berman
981-3125

BLACKSBURG -- It is a source of frustration for one team and a source of pride for the other.

The Virginia baseball team beat Virginia Tech for the eighth straight time Saturday, cruising past the Hokies 11-4 in front of 1,425 fans at English Field.

Tech (15-13, 4-7 ACC) hasn't beaten the Cavaliers (26-5, 7-4) since April 16, 2003. UVa's current players and coaches have never lost to the Hokies.

Beating the Hokies matters to the Cavaliers, even though Tech isn't a fellow national power.

"Everybody back at school only cares if you beat Virginia Tech," said UVa's Brandon Marsh, who had four hits and three RBIs.

UVa won the three-game series Saturday, earning a point in the Commonwealth Challenge, the all-sports competition between the schools. UVa leads this school year, 1312 to 512.

Fifth-year senior Andrew Wells, who took the loss, is one of only three players on this Tech team who were part of the last Hokie squad to beat Virginia.

"Before we came to the ACC, it was always big, beating UVa," Wells said. "Now having them as an ACC foe, it's that much tougher to lose to them. With the Commonwealth Challenge and everything else, there's a lot on the line every time.

"It's especially tough for me because as a fifth-year senior, I really wanted this game."

Today's final regular-season meeting is especially important to Tech's Bryan Thomas and his fellow fourth-year seniors.

"For us seniors, it's going to be a special game ... because we've never beaten them," said Thomas, who had three hits, including a two-run homer. "That's something we want to put on our resume. We're not going to be the class that doesn't beat Virginia."

UVa sophomore Andrew Carraway is from Marietta, Ga., so he used to think teammates who mentioned "Tech" were referring to Georgia Tech. But he has grown to appreciate the rivalry.

"They etched 'VT' on [the court of] our basketball arena this year, wrote a 'T' on our football field [in 2005]," said Carraway, who pitched five scoreless innings of relief to earn the victory. "Little things like that are kind of building up the hatred."

UVa is ranked fifth nationally by Baseball America and sixth in the USA Today coaches' poll and Collegiate Baseball poll.

"We're striving to be where they are," said Thomas, whose team is coming off back-to-back losing seasons.

UVa, which banged out 17 hits, improved to 8-0 against intrastate foes. Tech fell to 4-4 against intrastate foes and 3-5 against ranked opponents.

The Hokies, who have lost four straight games, trailed 6-0 midway through the third inning.

Wells (2-2) beat heavyweight North Carolina last weekend, but on Saturday he allowed nine runs -- eight earned -- and 13 hits.

"He was leaving the ball up," Marsh said. "We really came prepared today, because he had a great [game] last weekend against UNC."

Virginia coach Brian O'Connor didn't bring out starter Matt Packer for the bottom of the fifth with an 8-4 lead, costing Packer the chance to earn the victory. O'Connor said he wasn't happy that Packer had allowed two runs in the fourth. He turned to Carraway (4-0), who yielded just two hits.

Brandon Guyer and Tyler Cannon each had three hits and one RBI for UVa.