The Legend of Joe T
Kyle O'Connor

This column is going to fail. I'm 100 percent, no question, hand-on-my-heart guaranteeing it. Why? Because there is no way on earth I could possibly do justice to the subject of this column in a few dozen lines of newsprint. Period.

But here it goes anyway.

If you talk to his friends -- and he has more of them than any other person at the University -- men's lacrosse volunteer assistant coach Joe Thompson,?? known to everyone simply as Joe T, doesn't sound real.

He's been in school for almost a decade.

Half his face is held together by titanium plates.

He would jump in front of traffic for someone he met a few hours earlier.

He's one of the most selfless people you'll ever meet.

He'll change the way you look at varsity athletes.

After sitting down with this real-life Van Wilder, I can honestly report that all of this is true. I have interviewed dozens of athletes of all shapes and sizes throughout my four years in Charlottesville, and not one of them has come anywhere close to Joe T. He's not the smartest guy, he's not the biggest or the strongest or the best athlete, but whether he's jumping into full-contact lacrosse practice wearing nothing but sweats and a helmet, hurdling the bar to stand up for a friend or taking notes in class four years after his peers have graduated, Joe Thompson is the epitome of everything that is right with Virginia sports.

Thompson's story, however, is not the easiest to tell. After all, he has had every reason to give up.

First, there was high school. As a standout senior in 2000, Thompson had recruiting offers from virtually every lacrosse powerhouse in the country.

"While the other places told me I would play right away as a freshman, Coach Dom [Starsia] said, 'Joe, I love you. I think you're a great player, but I don't need midfielders,'" Thompson remembers. "He said, 'I'm armed to the teeth with good young middies. I don't have a lot of scholarship money for you.'"

In Thompson's mind, however, there was no question he was going to the school he had dreamed of ever since his days as a bobble-headed kid at Starsia's lacrosse camp.

"Dom's basically telling me he doesn't know if I can play for him," Thompson said. "Still, I'd rather go to the best place and throw my chips in and see what happens than start somewhere else and wonder if I could have made it at Virginia."

Then there was Halloween night his freshman year. In a freak accident during a game of pickup soccer, Thompson tripped and smashed his head into the knee of another player. One whole side of his face was shattered, and even after doctors reconstructed it with bolts and plates, Thompson was told he would probably be blind in one eye and would never set foot on a lacrosse field again.

With Starsia's full support and after redshirting the 2001 season, Thompson returned to score three goals for the Cavaliers in 2002.

"[Coach Starsia] and I really bonded during that and really got to know each other," Thompson said. "It wouldn't have mattered if I had never been able to play again. I would have been able to be on this team."

After the 2002 season, Thompson thought about giving up. He had been having academic trouble and decided to withdraw from the University for two years and coach lacrosse at the nearby Woodberry Forest School.

Then, in 2005 , he came back to finish what he had started.

"When the opportunity came to come back [to the University], I knew I had to finish school," Thompson said. "That's number one. That's something Dom's instilled in me. One of the coolest parts about this program, and I firmly believe this, is that Dom wants to make you a better guy, wants to make you a better person, wants to make you better for the community and the people you're going to meet the rest of your life. And he really believes that. He doesn't just pay lip service to the papers and he's not just saying that stuff. He tells me that when it's just he and I in the shower."

Still, the question remained about Thompson's playing status. Starsia was ready with the same speech he had given his midfielder back in high school.

"When I talked to Dom about coming back to play, he said, 'Joe, you're one of the most competitive kids I've ever known. You realize at this point that you're 23, I've got tons of younger guys, there's pretty much zero chance that you're going to have an impact on our first two midfields this year,'" Thompson said. "And I said, 'Coach, I'll play goalie. I just really want my locker back. That's all I want. I just want to be back with these guys.'"

Starsia shook his head and agreed.

As the elder statesman, Thompson was elected captain of a 2005 team that went all the way to the Final Four in Philadelphia before losing to eventual champion Johns Hopkins on a last-second goal in overtime.

"For me, every day I would just go out to practice and say, 'This is it,'" Thompson said. "It didn't matter what else was going on in my life, struggling with school or whatever. [The other players] all laughed, but I knew it was contagious. I wanted those young guys to say, 'Why does he care so much? He's never going to be out there anymore. He's the clearing middie. It's a token job because he's a senior.' What I would want to say back to them is that it's not 'why does he do this,' it's more like, 'he has no reason to do this and still does it every day.' That is the reason. Because I have the chance to."

After Thompson's resurrected playing career ended Memorial Day weekend, he was faced with another chance to quit. Still short on credits for graduation, the fifth-year senior decided to come back once more to work for the program he loved as a volunteer assistant on Starsia's staff.

"One of my favorite things to kind of preach to the younger guys is unless you join the army or something of that nature, you're never, ever in your life going to do anything like this again where you're collectively giving everything you have for the group," Thompson said. "You might work for a company, and you want the company to do well, but ultimately it's about putting food on the table. We're not going on to play for millions of dollars. Some of us might go coach, some of us might play pro a little bit, but ultimately you're going to go on and move on with your life. For these four years (and some of us a little longer) you're completely unselfishly giving everything you have in whatever role you have, whether you're [star attackman] Ben [Rubeor] or the last guy on the team."

Members of the 11 classes of students with whom Thompson has attended the University say the unselfishness doesn't stop there.

"Joe T is everybody's buddy," fourth-year Pat Cronin said. "He's changed the way I look at athletes."

"He is an amazing person with the drive to accomplish whatever he wants in life," senior attackman Drew Garrison? said. "As a freshman, I played ahead of him in the eyes of Dom, but I always felt that his drive on and off the field meant that I played far below him."

That drive has defined the selflessness and loyalty Thompson incorporates into so many aspects of his life.

"In terms of my friends and the people I've encountered at this place, absolutely I'd do anything for anybody," Thompson said. "I'd jump in front of a car for you. I'd give you the last dollar out of my pocket. But at the same time, I think all those people would do that for me."

As a coach, one of Thompson's last acts of loyalty will be to finish what he started in the classroom back when today's fourth-years were freshman in high school. Eight years after he first came to Grounds, Joe T is graduating this summer.

"I've hated school my whole life," Thompson said. "Practice is my favorite part of the day. Class isn't. Still, I couldn't come in here as a 25-year-old coach on the U.Va. lacrosse team and bark and yell and hoot and holler and motivate these guys and give speeches and send them e-mails and pick them up when they're down and have them take any of that seriously if on the side I just threw in the towel and say I was done with school. There's just no way."

And Thompson's teammates are quick to give Thompson that same support off the field.

"I have guys e-mail me all the time," he said. "Guys from before, guys that were here with me, who ask, 'Coach T, are you getting it done?' And I'm like, 'Yeah, I'm in class right now. Stop e-mailing me.' And they'll say, 'It makes my day. Just let me know when your graduation party is.'"

If you ask him, Thompson credits all this and more to the lacrosse program that first put a jersey on his back so long ago.

"For me, I look at it like, all right, we're here, we might as well give it our best," Thompson said. "I get to look at myself in the mirror every night when I'm brushing my teeth and say, 'You gave it all today.' It doesn't always work out. I'm not the best student, was not the best athlete, but I gave everything I had every single day, and I'd like to think I'll continue to do that. And that's kind of what I want these young players to realize, 'Man, look at Joe T. That guy's been through a lot. It's almost taken him a decade to graduate.' But I'm going to. And when I'm done, I'm going to go get a great job, and whether it's in coaching or whatever, I'd like to think my life will work out. And I think this program has a lot to do with that."

And that brings us to the moral of this story.

When you're in class wishing you were just about anywhere else, when you find yourself doing something with less than full enthusiasm, when life tries again and again to take you down and when the chance to stand up for a friend presents itself, think about Joe.

Think about the guy who has had every reason to give up. Think about the guy who was never the most talented at anything but who stuck it out for the love of the game and for the love of his friends. Think about the guy who would take a bullet for his teammates if they didn't take one for him first. Think about the guy who loves practice so much it borders on insanity. And think about the guy who would much rather rip a crank shot than take a midterm, but is finally getting his college degree because he doesn't believe in giving up.

That is the mark of a good athlete and a good man.

That, my friends, is the legend of Joe T.

 

Former Virginia basketball standout shares story of addiction
Gus Gerard's biggest comeback saved his life.
By Doug Doughty

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- When the e-mail alert flashed across the computer screen, there was every temptation to think the worst.

Only the words "former Virginia basketball standout Gus Gerard" appeared in the subject line.

Had addiction taken its final toll?

"There was a time when the phone would ring," one-time roommate Dan Bonner said, "and, depending on who was calling, I would think, 'Something really terrible has happened to Gus.'"

Bonner hadn't seen Gerard in close to 25 years until he turned a corner at UVa's Newcomb Hall Ballroom on Monday night, and there he was.

Gerard, who hadn't been back to Charlottesville in 22 years, took part in a program sponsored by 'Hoos in Recovery, a group of UVa graduates, faculty and former students who have battled addiction. His appearance was the subject of the e-mail.

Gerard spoke without notes for 45 minutes, detailing a basketball career shortened by his abuse of alcohol and drugs and describing a botched suicide attempt that may have saved him. He has been in recovery since 1993 and currently serves as CEO of Extended Aftercare Inc., a 59-bed treatment facility based in Houston.

"It feels like I've gotten some closure," said Gerard, 54. at the end of a four-day stay in Charlottesville. "I've been able to make amends to some people whose lives I came into like a tornado. I've been a bundle of emotions all week."

Gerard arrived at UVa in the fall of 1971, the final season before freshmen became eligible. He was a two-year starter for the Cavs before signing a contract with the American Basketball Association in the spring of 1973.

Gerard, a 6-foot-8 forward from Uniontown, Pa., was the first UVa athlete to turn pro before the end of his college eligibility. As a 21-year-old rookie, he averaged 15.7 points and 7.8 rebounds for the Spirits of St. Louis and remained a double-figure scorer after being traded to Denver the next year.

The Nuggets were one of four ABA teams to merge with the NBA in 1976, and Gerard went on to play in 240 NBA games for five teams over five seasons before his career ended just prior to his 28th birthday.

In all probability, Gerard could have continued to make good money overseas, but he returned to Charlottesville with the idea that he could live off his NBA millions.

Although Gerard's drug use had escalated in the NBA, he was no saint in Virginia.

"If there was a party, I had to be the first one there and the last one to leave," said Gerard, whose alcohol and marijuana use had started in high school. "I was doing a little bit more than having fun on Easter's Weekend. I had this secret little life going on."

That was also the case when he returned to Charlottesville with his family after his NBA "retirement." It was three years before he took a job, and then he became a beer-truck driver.

He subsequently moved to Northern Virginia, where he sold security systems for cars but mostly tried to satisfy his cravings for drugs and booze, His marriage collapsed when his family returned from church one Sunday and was greeted by a local policeman investigating the passing of bad checks.

A series of moves eventually took him back to Uniontown, where he delivered pizzas. He tried to hide his identity by wearing a ski mask.

"But how many 6-8 pizza-delivery guys are there who have size-17 feet and wear glasses?" said Gerard, who also abused cocaine. "People figured it out."

Things got so bad that Gerard was stealing money out of his mother's purse, and eventually his family told him to hit the road. He surfaced as a bartender in Madison, Ohio, on the shores of Lake Erie.

Gerard said he was driving a nearly worthless car with two windows missing when he stopped at the home of a woman he was seeing.

"I pulled the car into a garage, said a prayer, reclined the seat and waited for the fumes to kill me," said Gerard, who had closed the garage door and left the engine running. "Like the fool I was, I never realized, after driving around for three days, the gas would run out.

"I tried to kill myself and I even screwed that up."

It was Gerard's sister, Roxanne, who put him on the road to recovery after reading a Parade magazine article on John Lucas, himself a former drug abuser. Roxanne sent her brother a one-way ticket to Houston, where Lucas, a former World University Games teammate of Gerard's, had opened a treatment facility.

Gerard arrived at Houston with a bag that contained a change of underwear and a T-shirt and stayed for more than 100 days. He subsequently returned to school and was certified as a chemical-dependency counselor, a field in which he worked for nine years before getting his own facility.

He also married a woman he met in recovery. He reconnected with children from his first marriage, but never got back to Charlottesville.

"That would have meant re-addressing his demons," Bonner said. "This is the place where the demons really got him."

By the time Gerard finally made it back this weekend, many of his former teammates knew that he had turned a corner to sobriety. Barry Parkhill, UVa's star during the early 1970s and now an associate AD, had heard about Gerard's return. Bonner and another 1971 recruit, Andy Boninti, attended Monday's speech.

Gerard's brief varsity career has kept him from being mentioned among the great players in UVa history, but few have been as gifted physically.

Over 52 games, he averaged 17.9 points and 9.3 rebounds, with that latter mark among the top five in school history.

Gerard was best known for his jumping ability -- developed, he speculated Monday, while riding his sister's one-speed bicycle on a hilly newspaper route. However, it was his athlete's mentality that fed his addiction in the end.

"We're always taught as athletes to play to win," he said. "We're told, 'Never give up.' But, until I surrendered, I was never going to beat this opponent."
 

Where boys become men
Small upstate N.Y. gym draws big basketball talent
Posted: Wednesday April 9, 2008 12:21PM; Updated: Wednesday April 9, 2008 5:10PM

High school basketball stars have flocked to this bandbox basketball gym in Port Chester, N.Y. for 62 years.
Stacey Davis

PORT CHESTER, N.Y. -- When Sylven Landesberg, a 6-foot-6, 195-pound Virginia signee, strolled into the second floor gym at Our Lady of Mercy School last Wednesday, he wore Cavalier navy blue and orange and carried a McDonald's All-American bag on his back. Two hours later, after leading the Metro Hawks AAU team to a CYP tournament title, he moved more slowly, holding the game's MVP trophy in his right hand and wearing a nascent bruise with a drop of blood under his right eye. "This is jail ball in here," says Landesberg, a three-year veteran of the single-elimination challenge who scored 30 points in the final. "Nothing comes easy."

Free to play in spacious college arenas now, Landesberg left the happy meal-sized gym, body intact, not that the facility -- which measures 20 feet shorter and 5-10 feet thinner than an NBA court -- and its inhabitants, did not try to break him. "You're soft!" yelled one fan as Landesberg was leveled on a left-handed lay up attempt.

Another said, "If you can't take the mugging, get out of the gym!"

For 62 years, locals here in this New York City suburb near the Connecticut border have come to witness an annual urban flight of talent. From Connie Hawkins and Hall of Famer Billy Cunningham to Bobby Hurley and current Kansas point guard Russell Robinson, the area's top prep prospects have come to tighten their games. "We have youth-league parents who come in and say the gym is too small for the children," says Lou Larizza, a homebuilder who has attended the tournament since he was a youth. "I tell them to come back in late March, early April and see who squeezes in here."

Admission at the door is $5 for adults and $2 for children, but all who enter quickly realize there is more bang-for-your-buck. One night in 1966, the tourney, which uses the funds raised to run the native Catholic Youth Program, had its best night. On the court, Calvin Murphy played for the Stamford All-State Extinguishers and Dean "The Dream" Memminger for the Bronx Stars. Charging $1 for children and $2 for adults, organizers almost had to lock the doors.

"People were all over the place, including sitting along the basket stanchions," says Joe Bellofatto, the tournament organizer of 22 years, who keeps both the game and gate books. This year, in front of a semi-packed house, first-time participant, Mookie Jones, a 6-6, 190-pound shooter from Peekskill, N.Y. who will matriculate to Syracuse next season, took his first lumps on early layups. "After the first four times up and down, I was like, 'OK, this is going to be some Big East style banging up here'," Jones says.

The preferred defense in the gym is a turn-the-screws pressing attack, which takes advantage of the seemingly closing walls. Both team benches and the single row of courtside seats are actually in bounds. Whether playing inside the red line or outlying green line, the inbounds-out-of-bounds dynamic grays as the games grow more heated. "If it hits a fan, you keep it playing unless there is a bad ricochet and causes a disadvantage," says Kevin Donohue, who has been a referee for 25 years. "There are no nickel-dimers called here, either."

In order for ball handlers to negotiate the taut straits, a certain tack is needed. Not to be lost in the tales of "Half-court" Ernie Kobb, who would pull up and drain shots with ease from center court or Hawkins' looping dunks is the fact that there has never been a three-point shot taken from any of the courts four corners. The green three-point line runs into the sideline just under the foul line, requiring an adept skill set to maneuver in such constriction. "Taking the corner on a defender is like dribbling in a phone booth," says recruiting guru Tom Konchalski, who has attended games since 1973.

To the old guard and new guard alike, the tight quarters are a testing ground. Upon entering the second floor, green books greet all comers with lists of former MVPs. From Hawkins to Jamal Mashburn and Elton Brand, their performances correctly portended future success. "The Rucker gets a lot more ink," says Willie Worsley, who played in the tourney before being a part of Texas Western's 1966 NCAA championship team. "But playing in that indoor gym was something that was prestigious to us."

While guards enjoy the run of the gym, some big men shrink their games to compete and others establish their own pace. Louisville signee Samardo Samuels, a 6-9, 235-pound Jamaican bruiser who was also a McDonald's All-American, returned for the fourth straight year last week. "It's so small, you can get 40 even when you're not in the best shape," says Samuels. "Less running works."

Three years ago, Landesberg, then a rail-thin budding talent playing alongside the likes of Louisville forward Derrick Caracter, was held scoreless in his CYP debut. Each spring since, he returned, taking the ride north from the Flushing section of Queens. A week removed from playing on the biggest stage of his career in the McDonald's game at Milwaukee's Bradley Center, Landesberg was back once more to the smallest, beating a team led by West Virginia-signee Kevin Jones. By the time he had dressed and readied to leave last Wednesday, he was asked if he was happy not to have to play again in the gym. "Yes," he said.

After a moment's pause, he added, "The points don't come easy, but you don't outgrow this place."

 

UVa pitcher works out of a jam to defeat LU
By Chris Lang
Published: April 9, 2008

CHARLOTTESVILLE — Everything was falling apart around Virginia pitcher Jeff Lorick on Wednesday evening. He was inducing ground balls, but his Cavalier teammates took turns booting the baseball and making poor decisions. Lorick wasn’t immune, at one point plunking Liberty’s Kenneth Negron with a 1-2 count to load the bases with one out in the second inning.
Lorick’s recourse? Attack. There was no sense in getting timid with his pitches. He got out of the bases-loaded jam with minimal damage, allowing just a sacrifice fly. After that, Virginia’s pitching staff dominated the Flames, holding Liberty to one hit in the final seven innings of a 7-3 victory at Davenport Field.
No. 24 Virginia (26-9) had lost on consecutive Wednesdays to unranked opponents at Davenport. George Washington (16-14) routed the Cavs 17-5 on March 26 and Towson (15-16) downed UVa 7-6 last Wednesday. The Flames (14-17) held a 3-0 lead after two innings, using back-to-back doubles from P.K. Keller and David Giammaresi to score once in the first and looked poised to make it three wins in a row for the Wednesday underdog.
In the second, Garrett Young singled, Jeff Jefferson reached on Patrick Wingfield’s error and Young scored when Virginia’s Tyler Cannon made a nonchalant flip to second to try to force out Jefferson on a hard-hit Joseph Feeley ground ball. Jefferson was safe. Errol Hollinger’s sacrifice fly put Liberty up 3-0.
“You start thinking,” Lorick said. “What’s the bad juju that we’ve got going on here that we can’t get the job done on Wednesdays?”
Keller came to the plate with two outs and runners at the corners, but Negron got caught in a rundown trying to steal second, ending the threat.
After that, Lorick settled. He threw three straight scoreless innings before ceding the mound to Jake Rule and Robert Morey. Cody Brown’s high pop-up to the no-man’s land between shortstop and center field in the eighth inning was Liberty’s lone hit the rest of the way, and Cannon nearly gloved that ball for an out.
“Virginia has arguably one of the top 10 pitching staffs in the country with a real good pitching coach in Karl Kuhn,” Liberty coach Jim Toman said. “We knew it was going to be tough to get hits.
“When we scored three runs in the first two innings, I was a little surprised because you usually don’t score too many runs off UVa’s staff. They’re excellent.”
Lorick’s outing, his first since the George Washington debacle, could prove fruitful for the Cavs down the road. Lorick allowed three earned runs and four hits in one inning and took the loss against the Colonials that day, but he showed tenacity and control after falling into an early hole against Liberty. In five innings, he allowed two earned runs on three hits with three strikeouts and no walks, lowering his ERA to 3.92.
With college baseball’s new condensed schedule — teams must cram 56 games between the uniform Feb. 22 start date and May 25 — having adequate pitching for mid-week games is important.
Having depth in the NCAA regionals, when teams could be forced to play four games in four days, is also significant.
“Obviously, he’s a very capable left-handed pitcher,” UVa coach Brian O’Connor said. “It makes you feel good when a guy like Jeff Lorick makes a quality start.
“You’re going to need a guy like that when it comes toward the end.”
Wingfield sparked Virginia’s rallies in the third and fourth, leading off each inning with a hit and scoring both times. Cannon drove in Wingfield with a double in the third, and David Adams followed with a sac fly. Jeremy Farrell’s RBI single knotted the score at 3.
In the fourth, Greg Miclat drove in Wingfield with a single and later scored on Aaron Phillips’ throwing error to push the lead to 5-3. The Cavs added two more runs in the fifth.
After winning two of three at UNC Asheville last weekend, Liberty was limited to eight hits total in mid-week losses to James Madison and Virginia. The Flames travel to Radford for a three-game Big South series this weekend.
“We swung it well early,” Toman said. “But they kind of shut us down. Against a team like Virginia, you’ve got to get more than four hits, or you’re not going to win too many games.”
BASE HITS: One positive for LU: Pitcher Grady Ihnat, who entered with an infinite ERA because he failed to record an out in his only other outing this season (in which he allowed four earned runs on three hits), set the Cavaliers down in order the eighth. … LU’s Dane Beakler pitched a scoreless sixth and struck out two. It was his first appearance in more than a week after experiencing elbow discomfort. … Toman said he expects to start David Stokes Friday at Radford, Dustin Umberger Saturday and either Clarence Nicely or Ryan Page in Sunday’s series finale. … Virginia is 47-5 against in-state foes under O’Connor.

Lorick, Cavs top Flames
By Jay Jenkins
Published: April 10, 2008

You could call it the season’s most important meeting of the minds.
Well, one mind at least.
Trailing by three runs early in Wednesday’s game, Virginia coach Brian O’Connor unleashed a furious message upon his players in hopes of finding energy after a lackluster start.
It worked - Virginia scored seven unanswered runs, rallying past Liberty for a 7-3 win at Davenport Field.
“Our players are 18 to 22 years old and they are not paid professionals, and I wanted to make sure we weren’t sleepwalking through the game,” O’Connor said. “We have 20 ballgames, starting on Friday, and every game remaining on the schedule is an important game for this team.
“Fortunately, we got some big, clutch hits that drove in some runs for us.”
Virginia also got a positive performance from starting pitcher Jeff Lorick, who was making his first start in 14 days after having his previous start scrathed due to soreness in his knee.
After allowing three early runs - two of which were earned - the southpaw settled into a groove, holding the Flames hitless over the final 3.2 innings that he worked.
“The knee was bothering me last week,” Lorick said. “It has only been two weeks, but it seems like eons in a pitcher’s life. We are always itching to get out there.”
For the game, Lorick worked five innings, striking out three batters and getting some help from a 6-4-3 double play in the fourth inning. He improved to 3-1 on the season and, perhaps more importantly, helped Virginia avoid its third mid-week loss in as many weeks.
“In those losses, the pitchers just didn’t stop the bleeding and Lorick certainly did today,” O’Connor said. “He kept the game under control and fortunately our offense rose up and scored some runs.”
The Cavaliers, who had not faced Liberty since 2005, scored three times off starter Tyler Light in the third inning as Tyler Cannon, David Adams and Jeremy Farrell highlighted a four-hit frame.
Light, who worked 3.1 innings, was chased from the contest in the fourth as Virginia scored two runs to take its first lead. Patrick Wingfield, who opened the third with a single, led off the fourth with a double to left field that eluded the glove on a sliding attempt made by Liberty’s P.K. Keller.
Wingfield, who finished 2 for 3 with two runs, scored on an RBI single from designated hitter Greg Miclat, who later crossed the plate when a would-be double play was failed when Liberty second baseman Kenneth Negron’s relay throw to first bounced into foul territory.
“As of recently, Pat’s really been swinging the bat well and we need him to swing the bat well,” O’Connor said. “He is the one senior in that lineup and he had a couple of big hits today.”
The offensive production was more than enough for Lorick, who threw just nine pitches in the third and 16 in the fourth.
“We forced the momentum to come back to our side,” Lorick said. “That really changed the outcome of the game.”
Virginia added two more runs in the fifth off Liberty reliever Andrew Wilson as left fielder David Coleman and pinch-hitter Tyler Biddix connected on back-to-back triples to open the frame.
Two UVa relievers - Jake Rule and Robert Morey - combined to work four scoreless innings of relief. Morey, who retired nine batters, fanning five, which helped drop the rookie’s ERA to 3.66.
“Morey really threw the ball well,” O’Connor said. “His velocity was good and his command of his breaking ball was good.”
The Cavaliers, who are 8-7 in the league, return to action Friday at Maryland (20-14, 5-10 ACC) at 7 p.m.
Extra bases
In the second inning, a throw from the outfield bounced up off the dirt and off the body of Adams, sending the Cavaliers’ second baseman to the ground in obvious pain. The junior remained in the game until the fifth inning, before being removed from the game by O’Connor. “The doctors will check him out this evening and we will see how he is doing,” the coach said. “As the innings moved on he wasn’t doing very well. Hopefully, we get some good news on his condition.” … Virginia has now won seven straight against the Flames.

 

Lamade faces former teammates Saturday
Fifth-year senior spent four years playing at Duke, came to Virginia to complete eligibility and pursue graduate degree
Megan McDonald, Cavalier Daily Associate Editor

Weird.

It's the first word that comes to mind when fifth-year lacrosse midfielder Peter Lamade anticipates this weekend's game against his alma mater, Duke.

"It is going to be very, very weird," Lamade said. "This is the only time [Duke] will face a former teammate this year and I think that's where a lot of the strangeness comes from."

Joining the Cavaliers for the 2008 season after graduating from Duke last May, Lamade chose to use his fifth year of NCAA eligibility at Virginia while pursuing a graduate degree.

Lamade was no stranger to Virginia before his arrival, though. His older brother, Ted Lamade, served as a team captain of the 2004 Virginia men's lacrosse team and was also a midfielder.

Somewhat ironically, Ted Lamade chose to use his fifth year of eligibility at Georgetown to attend that school's International Affairs masters program. Understanding the importance of his players' academic careers, Virginia coach Dom Starsia gave Ted Lamade his blessing four years ago and has since welcomed Peter Lamade with open arms.

As a Blue Devil, Lamade was a four-year starter and Inside Lacrosse magazine recently ranked him as the nation's No. 28 player. In the Cavalier uniform, he filled the gap on attack while senior Ben Rubeor was injured at the beginning of the season. With Rubeor back on the field, Lamade has since returned to his usual midfield position and plays an important role for Virginia in the middle.

Thus far, he has tallied six goals and eight assists. More importantly, however, Lamade is the kind of experienced player of whom Starsia admits he has too few out on the field. The same poise Lamade shows on the field is expected to carry him through Saturday's unusual circumstances.

"Peter will handle this situation as well as anyone could possibly handle it because that's the kind of guy he is," Starsia said. "I am sure all of his Duke friends are going to take a shot at him during the game but I don't think anyone will hold ill feelings towards him -- it was such a complicated situation for everyone involved."

While Lamade, a graduate of the Landon School, has faced former high school teammates on nearly a weekly basis, playing against an entire team he was a member of less than a year ago is an entirely different situation.

"So many guys go on from Landon that playing them is something you get used to," Lamade said. "This is like one against 30 guys that I played with not that long ago. When I see them coming out of the locker room, I won't know whether to hug them or to not say anything until after the game. I guess I'll just figure it out when it happens."

Lamade expressed relief that the contest is being played at Klöckner Stadium . He certainly expects some heckling by Duke fans but anticipates most of the taunting to come from friend and Duke senior defenseman Nick O'Hara.

The Cavaliers consider Lamade one of them, and some have even admitted they had forgotten about his Blue Devil roots until he gave them a few insights in practice. Nevertheless, everyone appreciates the unique circumstances Saturday presents, and no one is trying to take advantage of Lamade's position.

"I am not going to sit down with Peter [Lamade] and ask him to give me all of Duke's secrets," Starsia said. "I am not going to put him in that awkward position of asking for that information. Saturday will be hard enough without my adding to it."

 

Hoyas nip Cavs near end of game

With 27.9 seconds remaining in the contest, No. 6 Georgetown scored and pulled ahead, leading to an upset of the No. 4 Virginia women's lacrosse team yesterday, 8-7.

The loss drops the Cavaliers' season record to 10-3 (4-1 ACC)? and pulls Georgetown up to a record of 9-3.

The Cavaliers previously noted Georgetown's threat, saying the key of the game was ball possession. That proved to be the case, as the Hoyas controlled 10 draws and Virginia controlled just seven, with only two of those coming in the first half. Virginia did, however, control five more ground balls than Georgetown's 10, but that proved not to make the final difference.

Virginia junior attacker Blair Weymouth led all scorers with four goals, while Virginia junior midfielder Ashley McCulloch contributed a goal and an assist for the Cavaliers. Those efforts were not sufficient, as Virginia scored on just seven of its 25 shot opportunities and had 11 shots blocked by Georgetown sophomore goalkeeper Caitlin Formby. Virginia also converted only one of its five free-position shots.

The Hoyas scored the final three goals of the match to claim the come-from-behind upset victory in the Cavaliers' final road game of the regular season. Leading her squad in scoring was sophomore midfielder Ashby Kaestner with two goals and an assist, while two other players found the net twice. Junior midfielder Megan Bloomer clinched the victory with her last-minute score.

As a result of the loss, Virginia did not attain its 400th program win and will have to wait until it faces Johns Hopkins Sunday to try again.

--compiled by Ryan Williams