Hat trick for the ‘Hoos
By Bart Isley
Published: April 28, 2008

Up by one with another three-minute overtime period to play, Virginia had to find a way to kill the clock and hold on to the ball. For three painstaking minutes they did just that.
“I don’t think I breathed,” said Virginia goalie Kendall McBrearty, who watched from the mad scramble of the Cavaliers’ stall from the opposite end. “That was the longest three minutes of my life.”
The stress proved worth the headache as Virginia won its third straight ACC Tournament title with a 10-9 victory over Maryland Sunday at Scott Stadium. The Cavaliers stormed back from a five-goal deficit — a near-carbon copy of the Cavaliers’ comeback victory over Duke in Friday’s semifinal.
Once again Virginia went down 8-3, this time early in the second half. And once again, the Cavaliers ripped off a six-goal run to take a 9-8 lead late in regulation that Maryland, like Duke, quickly evened at 9-9.
Virginia notched the game-winner with eight seconds left in the first overtime after a steady, patient offensive possession that took much of the initial three-minute period. After the Cavaliers’ set play broke down, junior Blair Weymouth improvised, stepping in with the ball to draw teammate Ashley McCulloch’s defender. As soon as the double team collapsed on Weymouth she flipped the ball to McCulloch, who scored from just outside the crease.
“It was kind of ad-libbing there at the end,” McCulloch said. “I just knew there
wasn’t that much time left. She just flipped me the ball and I spun and shot.”
From there, Virginia scrambled to hold on to the ball, winning the opening draw of the second overtime and never allowing Maryland to take possession despite a couple of close calls on ground balls. One timeout by the Virginia bench was well-timed as Kaitlin Duff was trapped along the sideline.
“That pressure came early — we thought that maybe we’d have a minute of breathing room but Maryland did a great job of pressuring out,” said Virginia coach Julie Myers. “We thought maybe for a minute we could hold them tight with the fear that we might go to goal but they didn’t buy it.”
As soon as time expired, the entire Virginia bench sprinted towards Kendall McBrearty and tossed the tournament’s MVP to the ground before dog piling on top of the senior.
McBrearty allowed just three goals in the second halves and overtime periods of the semifinal and final. She had five critical second-half saves against the Terrapins and eight for the contest.
Virginia dominated on loose balls with 11 total ground balls to Duke’s four pick-ups. The Cavaliers’ midfield, led by All-Tournament team selections Claire Bordley and Brittany Kalkstein helped lead the effort.
“That’s just a trait of a solid Virginia lacrosse team,” Bordley said. “We’re going to grub and we’re going to be clean and aggressive and come up with the ball when we need to.”
Kalkstein, McCulloch and Kaitlin Swaggart led a balanced Virginia scoring effort with two goals each. The balanced effort made it tough for the Terrapins to key on any one player when Virginia had the ball on offense. Jenny Hauser had a goal and an assist en route to being named to the All-Tournament team.
The game was the first-ever overtime final in ACC tournament history, and was also Myers’ 200th victory. The coach has amassed a 200-59 record in 13 years at Virginia.
Maryland struggled to score in the second half, which was part of the Terps problem against North Carolina in the semifinal. After putting together a six-goal lead in the first half, Maryland held on for a 6-4 victory.
“We had some openings in the second half, it wasn’t for lack of opportunities,” said Maryland coach Cathy Reese. “We just didn’t finish on them.”
All-Tournament team selections Dana Dobbie and Kelly Kasper led the Terrapins with four points each. Dobbie finished with a hat trick. Her final two goals came back-to-back near the end of the first half to extend Maryland’s halftime lead to 7-3.
Virginia will now get almost two weeks off before starting NCAA tournament play May 11. The tournament bracket will be announced May 5.




Cavaliers Earn Third-Straight ACC Title with Upset Victory Over Top-Seeded Maryland
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Ashley McCulloch's game-winning goal at 3:08 in overtime was all that Virginia needed, as the Cavaliers posted their second come-from-behind victory to upend No. 1 seed Maryland 10-9 and clinch the 2008 Atlantic Coast Conference Women's Lacrosse Championship at Scott Stadium on Sunday afternoon. The league title marked the third in a row for Virginia and the fourth in the last five years.
In addition, the win was the 200th career victory for Virginia head coach Julie Myers and the first over Maryland for the league crown. Sunday's championship game was also the first overtime contest in ACC women's lacrosse tournament history.
The first 10 minutes of the opening half was a back-and-forth affair between the conference's top-two seeded teams. Maryland took an early 1-0 lead after senior attacker Lauren Cohen scored the first of her two goals just three minutes into the game. It didn't take long for Virginia to get on the board, as the Cavaliers capitalized on a Maryland foul and set up Jenny Hauser for a free position shot that tied the game 1-1.
Midfielder Dana Dobbie gave Maryland a 2-1 edge on a goal at the 22:25 mark, but Virginia answered on the next possession when Brittany Kalkstein found the back of the net to even the playing field at 2-2.
After senior Kelly Kasper netted a goal that gave the Terrapins a 3-2 advantage at 19:28, Maryland went on an offensive run for the next 14 minutes and collected four more goals. Virginia was able to cut the lead to 5-3 on a goal by McCulloch in between the four Maryland goals, but ended up trailing the Terrapins 7-3 at the break.
Having been out-shot 13-8 in the first half, Virginia came out in the second half with a vengeance. Despite giving up a goal to Maryland just four minutes into the stanza, the Cavaliers went on a scoring spree for the next 17 minutes behind the performances of seven other different players.Kalkstein's second goal of the day put the Cavaliers within one point and Blair Weymouth scored the game-tying goal two minutes later on a free position. Kaitlin Swagart took a feed from O'Malley and found the back of the net to give the Cavaliers a 9-8 lead, their first of the day.
Maryland went on a late rally and tied the game when Caitlyn McFadden scored with less than two minutes left in regulation.
The title game went into overtime for the first time and McCulloch proved to be the keymaker for the Cavaliers as she scored with eight seconds left in the first portion of the six-minute overtime period.
Virginia goalkeeper Kendall McBrearty, who was voted the tournament's Most Valuable Player, made eight saves in all 66 minutes of action to earn the win.
Claire Bordley anchored Virginia’s defense and was named to the ACC All-Tournament Team for shutting down both Duke and Maryland’s top players. The senior won two draw controls, caused two turnovers and scooped up two ground balls in today’s action.
Jenny Hauser, Brittany Kalkstein, Megan O’Malley and McCulloch joined McBrearty and Bordley on the all-tournament team for Virginia.
Kaitlin Swagart, Kalkstein and McCulloch paced the Cavaliers’ offense in the championship game, each tallying two goals. McCulloch also dished out two assists, while Blair Weymouth, Hauser and O’Malley each added a goal and an assist. Kaitlin Duff rounded out the scoring with a goal.
Virginia (14-3, 4-1 ACC) wraps up the ACC Tournament with an overall record of 15-7, including winning 10 of its last 11 games, and extends its win streak to seven straight contests. The Cavaliers earned the conference’s automatic bid into the national tournament and will await the NCAA Selection Committee’s announcement of the 16-team field for the 2008 tournament. The championship bracket will be released Monday, May 5, between 7-8 p.m., and will be televised on the CBS College Sports Network.
2008 ACC Women's Lacrosse All-Tournament Team
Claire Bordley, Virginia
Sarah Bullard, Duke
Allie Buote, Maryland
Lauren Cohen, Maryland
Carolyn Davis, Duke
Dana Dobbie, Maryland
Jenny Hauser, Virginia
Brittany Kalkstein, Virginia
Kelly Kasper, Maryland
*Kendall McBrearty, Virginia
Ashley McCulloch, Virginia
Megan O'Malley, Virginia
*Denotes ACC Tournament Most Valuable Player




U.Va. men beaten; women win in OT
Cavs launch 6-goal scoring barrage, but Blue Devils prevail
Monday, Apr 28, 2008 - 12:07 AM
By JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
CHARLOTTESVILLE - If the University of Virginia men's lacrosse team meets Duke again this season, it will be in the NCAA tournament. After yesterday, the prospect of another clash with the mighty Blue Devils seems less ominous to U.Va.
The Cavaliers didn't beat Duke in the ACC title game, falling 11-9 before a crowd of 3,758 at Klockner Stadium. But U.Va. battled to the end, rallying for the game's final six goals - a stark contrast to its regular-season effort against Duke.
In that game, the Devils scored the last 10 goals and romped 19-9 at Klockner.
"I think we got our world rocked a little bit the last time that we played these guys," Virginia coach Dom Starsia said. "It may have carried over into the first 10 minutes today, where I thought we looked a little intimidated early in the game, just handling the ball. And then we sort of got into it."
When the 16-team field for the NCAA tournament is announced next Sunday night, Duke (15-1) may well the No.1 seed, and Virginia (12-3) figures to be No.3. If that plays out, another meeting between these ACC rivals would come in the NCAA championship game.
At the 6:36 mark of the third quarter yesterday, the nation's best player, fifth-year attackman Matt Danowski, scored his third goal to put Duke up 11-3. The Cavaliers' comeback started with a goal by all-ACC attackman Ben Rubeor about 90 seconds later. Five more U.Va. goals followed, but Starsia wasn't ready to call Duke vulnerable.
"Sometimes when a good team is ahead by a bunch, it's hard to keep their edge," he said. "So I would look at this more in terms of us. I thought our effort was more complete. . . . We showed more grit there. We showed some fight not to give in."
U.Va. hasn't beaten Duke since 2004. (The teams didn't meet in'06, when Virginia won the NCAA title and Duke canceled its season in the wake of criminal charges against three of its players.) The only U.Va. player left from the'04 team is goalie Bud Petit, who redshirted that season.
Now a graduate student, the former Collegiate School star recorded a career-high 18 saves yesterday. His counterpart was even more spectacular. Duke's Dan Loftus, the tournament MPV, made 17 saves.
But Virginia eventually had success against Loftus. Rubeor's third goal, off a pass from Collegiate graduate Mike Thompson, pulled Virginia to 11-9 with 1:32 left, and overtime suddenly seemed possible. But the Cavaliers lost the ensuing faceoff, and when they finally got the ball back in the final minute, Petit, his adrenaline pumping, overthrew Rhamel Bratton on a clear attempt.
"I was too excited," Petit said.
Virginia ------------------------- 1 2 1 5 - 9
Duke ------------------------- 4 3 4 0 - 11
Goals - Virginia: Rubeor 3, B. Carroll 3, Billings, R. Bratton, Gill. Duke: Danowski 3, Crotty 2, Greer 2, Quinzani, Schoeffel, Ross, Howell.
Assists - Virginia: Billings 3, Lamade 3, Ru beor 2, Thompson. Duke: Crotty 2, Danowski, O'Hara, Quinzani, Schoeffel.
Goalies - Virginia: Petit 18 saves. Duke: D. Loftus 17 saves.




Cavaliers Fall to Duke in ACC Title Game 11-9
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Bud Petit was named to the All-ACC Tournament team after making a career-high 18 saves in the championship game vs. Duke.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA—Duke bolted to a big early lead and got a tremendous performance from goalie Dan Loftus to win the Atlantic Coast Conference championship with an 11-9 win over Virginia this afternoon at Klöckner Stadium.
Loftus recorded 17 saves and was named tournament MVP. He recorded nine saves in the first half to help the Blue Devils set the tempo and build the lead.
The championship is the Blue Devils’ second in a row; last year they defeated UVa 12-9 in the title game. It is also their sixth league championship overall. The win is Duke’s seventh in a row as the Blue Devils improve to 15-1 this season.
The loss is Virginia’s fifth consecutive to the Blue Devils. The Cavaliers fall to 12-3 this spring.
Brian Carroll scored the first of this three goals with fewer than two-and-a-half minutes elapsed to give Virginia an early 1-0 lead.
The lead was short-lived however, as Duke rattled off the next six goals over the next 18-and-a-half minutes to build a 6-1 advantage. Brad Ross got the Blue Devils going by capitalizing on a loose ball in front of the Virginia net with his 21st goal of the season. Steve Schoeffel notched his only goal of the game to put Duke ahead 2-0 at the 8:36 mark of the first quarter. Zack Greer and Max Quinzani scored on nearly identical plays on the crease as Duke took a 4-1 lead into the second quarter.
Freshman Zach Howell scored early in the second quarter and was followed a short time later by the first of Ned Crotty’s two goals as the Blue Devils built a big lead.
“I told my team at the end that (Duke) is the lacrosse team we want to be,” said Virginia head coach Dom Starsia. “But we gave a very good lacrosse team the first 20 minutes of the game and dug ourselves a hole that was too deep to get out of.”
Garrett Billings and Gavin Gill sandwiched goals around another one by Crotty as Duke took a 7-3 lead into the locker room at halftime.
ACC Player of the Year Matt Danowski scored three goals in a span of three minutes and 21 seconds midway through the third quarter, while Greer tallied on extra man in that time to give the Blue Devils a commanding 11-3 lead. Danowski’s blistering shot from 14 yards out with 6:36 to play in the quarter proved to be Duke’s last goal of the game.
Trailing 11-3, Ben Rubeor scored consecutive goals to help UVa creep with six at 11-5 early in the fourth quarter. Carroll’s extra-man goal, his 12th of the season, inched the Cavaliers a little closer with 11 minutes to play. Freshman Rhamel Bratton converted a nice pass from Rubeor for UVa’s third goal of the period.
Seven minutes passed with no scoring as the teams traded possessions before Carroll notched his second extra-man goal of the game to cut Duke’s lead to 11-8 with 1:42 remaining. The Cavaliers won the ensuing faceoff and scored 10 seconds later as Mike Thompson found Rubeor alone in front for a goal that cut UVa’s deficit to two.
Duke won the next faceoff and turned the ball over with less than a minute to play, but Duke intercepted UVa’s clearing pass and ran out the remaining seconds to secure the victory.
“We showed a little grit at the end of the game. I was glad to see that. I never had any sense that we were going to let down,” said Starsia. “If you want to win lacrosse games against teams like this, you can’t make as many mistakes as we did early in the game—we just dug ourselves too big a hole.”
Bud Petit was outstanding in goal for Virginia and joined Loftus on the All-Tournament team. Petit finished with a career-high 18 saves, the most by a Cavalier netminder in the ACC Tournament in four years.
The All-Tournament team consisted of: MVP Dan Loftus, Ned Crotty, Matt Danowski, Zack Greer, Tony McDevitt, Parker McKee, Nick O’Hara, and Max Quinzani of Duke, and Garrett Billings, Danny Glading, Petit and Rubeor from Virginia.
The Cavaliers will take some time off for exams this week and await a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Bids will be extended next Sunday.
Virginia 1-2-1-5—9 record: 12-3
Duke 4-3-4-0—11 record: 15-1
att—3758
Scoring (G-A)— V: Ben Rubeor 3-2, Brian Carroll 3-0, Garrett Billings 1-3, Rhamel Bratton 1-0, Gavin Gill 1-0, Peter Lamade 0-3, Mike Thompson 0-1. D: Matt Danowski 3-1, Ned Crotty 2-2, Zack Greer 2-0, Max Quinzani 1-1, Steve Schoeffel 1-1, Zach Howell 1-0, Brad Ross 1-0, Nick O’Hara 0-1.
Goalie Summary—V: Bud Petit 60 mins., 18 saves, 11 goals allowed. D: Dan Loftus 60 mins., 17 saves, 9 goals allowed.
Shots: V—47, D—39
Ground Balls: V—40, D—36
Clearing: V—20x24, D—19x27
Faceoffs: V—13, D—10
Penalties: V—7-5:30, D—6-5:30
EMO: V—4x6, D—3x6




Duke gets past UVa
By Whitey Reid
Published: April 28, 2008

Last May, the Virginia women’s lacrosse team pulled off the greatest comeback in the history of the sport when it overcame a nine-goal deficit to defeat Duke in the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament.
Nearly a year later, on an overcast Sunday at Klockner Stadium, the UVa men tried to pull off a similar feat.
However, the Wahoos came up short.
Duke, behind three goals from Matt Danowski and stellar play in goal from tournament MVP Dan Loftus, held off a late rally and downed UVa, 11-9, in front of a crowd of 3,758.
“We didn’t play well enough to beat Duke today,” said Virginia coach Dom Starsia, “but there are a lot of things in these type of situations where you say, ‘I am proud of my team.’
“I clearly am proud of our effort in the last 20 minutes, but we also needed to be smarter for 60 minutes and we
didn’t quite have the goods early.”
Sunday’s game was a polar opposite of the April 12 meeting at Klockner Stadium. In that contest, Virginia (12-3) went to-to-toe with Duke until the Blue Devils took over in the
second half.
This time, UVa started the game sluggishly and then came on at the end.
“We have to put a whole game together,” said Virginia senior Peter Lamade, a former Duke player. “You’re not going to beat that team playing one half of lacrosse.
“They go on runs and you can’t play just one half against them.”
Brian Carroll gave Virginia a 1-0 lead less than four minutes in, but it was downhill for the Cavaliers from there.
An errant clearing pass from defender Ken Clausen went right to the Blue Devils’ Brad Ross, who scored on an empty net. Top-seeded Duke (15-1) went on to score five unanswered goals and take a 6-1 lead. The Blue Devils led 7-3 at the half.
“We looked a little bit in awe during the first 20 minutes,” Starsia said. “There was all this talk about Duke and the circumstances of [the game]. I thought we just stood around and gave them too many second-chance opportunities. The score should have been 3-2 or 4-2 at the half rather than 7-3.”
One of the reasons was the play of Loftus (17 saves), who made an array of spectacular stops that had Virginia players scratching their heads.
“I think our defense did a really good job of giving them poor-angle shots,” Loftus said, “and I was seeing the ball really well today.”
In the second half, Duke picked right up where it left off, scoring four more goals to take a commanding 11-3 lead with 6 minutes 36 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
The pro-Virginia crowd at Klockner Stadium seemed shocked — as did UVa players. However, the Cavs slowly began to peck away at the lead.
Ben Rubeor and Carroll scored back-to-back goals to cut the margin to 11-6 before freshman Rhamel Bratton scored at the 8:56 mark of the fourth quarter to make it 11-7.
Meanwhile, Virginia’s defense put the clamps on Duke’s high-octane attack. In addition, the Cavaliers started winning face-offs. They won 13 of 23 on the afternoon.
When Carroll and Rubeor scored within 10 seconds of each other to make it 11-9 with just under two minutes left, an air of hope returned to Klockner Stadium.
However, a few seconds later, an outlet pass from Petit to Bratton missed its mark, and Duke was able to run the clock out from there.
“We try and take something away from every game, win or lose,” Rubeor said. “I think we’ll learn more from our mistakes today than the things that we did well.
“We’ll go back and look at this game, but we have the playoffs coming up. We need to refocus and concentrate for our first-round game [on May 10].”
Groundballs
Virginia received a career-high 18 saves in the net from Bud Petit. …Petit, Rubeor, Garrett Billings and Danny Glading made the All-Tournament team.
Duke was represented by Loftus, Danowski, Zach Greer, Parker McKee, Ned Crotty, Max Quinzani, Tony McDevitt and Nick O’Hara.




For Cavs, the best is yet to come
By Jerry Ratcliffe
Published: April 28, 2008

The old coaches will tell you that it’s wise to bring a team along so that it is peaking at the most important time of the season: playoff time.
While Virginia lost to Duke for the fifth straight time on Sunday in the ACC men’s lacrosse championship game, the runner-up Cavaliers may have gained a jolt of confidence should they meet for a third time this season. Such a matchup could come at the NCAA championship game in Foxboro, Mass. in late May.
Down 11-3 with less than seven minutes remaining in the third quarter Sunday, the situation looked bleak for the Cavaliers.
They had been bombarded by the Blue Devils in the prior meeting a couple of weeks ago also on UVa’s home turf.
In that one, the two teams had been deadlocked at 9-all before Duke reeled off 10 unanswered goals.
Not this time around
Perhaps that mugging was stuck in the Cavaliers’ heads going into the rematch. This time, UVa was supposed to get into Duke’s collective heads, but it’s difficult to block out a 19-9 thumping in front of the largest crowd to ever see a game in your own stadium.
Trailing 11-4 going into the final quarter, Virginia coach Dom Starsia had seen enough. He demanded more from his team.
At the end of the third quarter, Starsia delivered a stirring message to his Cavaliers.
“We’re not going home like this,” the fiery UVa coach said. “It’s not going to end this way.”
Senior Ben Rubeor was so animated in the huddle that Starsia had to actually grab him.
The team responded with five consecutive, unanswered goals in the final quarter in the 11-9 loss. As one old quarterback once said, “We didn’t lose, we just ran out of time.”
On the bright side
Whether that’s a valid statement or not, Virginia can head into the NCAA Tournament in a couple of weeks realizing that it lost to the nation’s best team by two goals, that it won the second half 6-4, and hope that perhaps the third time’s the charm.
Duke, No. 2 nationally going into the game, is expected to be the top seed in the NCAA Tournament because of strength of schedule. Virginia figures to be no lower than No. 3, which at least gives promise for a third meeting.
If nothing else, the ACC Tournament was a good exercise for a Virginia team that is still coming together, but alas at the right time. With little exception, playing Maryland and Duke within 48 hours is the most physically demanding challenge that the Cavaliers could have asked for, much tougher in that respect than anything they’re likely to face in the NCAAs.
In addition, it’s good experience.
Observers of the game can see Virginia improving. The Cavs have made steady progress the last few weeks with faceoffs and other facets of the game.
“We haven’t been as tough a team as I would like this season, but in the last two weeks we’ve gotten a little tougher,” Starsia said of his 12-3 squad. “We’ve been winning the ground ball battles and I think we’re going to be a better defensive team.”
Games against Dartmouth, Maryland and Duke bore that out. Virginia held the Blue Devils down fairly successively the second half and had it not been for spectacular goal play by Duke’s Dan Loftus
(17 saves, tournament MVP), the game might never have gotten away from UVa.
The Cavs showed more of that toughness against Maryland in the semifinals.
“Maryland, in every sport, they come down here and are thinking, ‘we’re a tougher team than those Wahoos,’” Starsia said.
He was determined for that not to happen this time and it didn’t. Maryland had manhandled UVa during the regular season, but the Cavs responded physically and moved on to the championship game.
“I think we’ll get a little healthier in the attack, so things are improving,” Starsia said.
“I think our best lacrosse is still out there.”
And, one of the Cavalier leaders is hoping for yet another shot at the Dookies.
Fifth year goalie Bud Petit said Virginia learned Sunday that it doesn’t have to play a perfect game in order to beat Duke.
“Everything starts in practice on Monday,” said Petit, who made 12 of his 18 saves in the second half. “Everyone in this locker room knows we can beat those guys. We might be the only guys in the country who believe that we can do it.”
Maybe that’s true, but the old coaches would have to like Virginia’s odds should the two meet for all the marbles.




Santi to Colts; Lyles, Gould may sign
By Jay Jenkins
Published: April 28, 2008

A whirlwind pair of days for Tom Santi were capped with a massive celebration with friends and family Sunday in his home in Nashville, Tenn.
The eruption ensued during the sixth round of the NFL draft when the former Virginia tight end was selected by the Indianapolis Colts. Santi was taken No. 196 overall and was one of four sixth-round selections for the organization.
“This is such an amazing opportunity,” Santi said. “To have the chance to play for such an elite and classy organization is an absolute dream.”
Santi will be headed to a minicamp in a matter of days. He will not be alone.
Chris Long and Branden Albert sealed their professional fates, landing with St. Louis and Kansas City, respectively, in the first round, and at least two other signed as undrafted free agents.
Former safety Nate Lyles is headed to New York City on Thursday to work out with the Jets, and multiple sources confirmed that placekicker Chris Gould agreed to terms with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Santi’s selection surprised some draft experts due to the Colts selection of Kentucky tight end Jacob Tamme in the fourth round with the 127th overall selection.
But Indianapolis, which features a pass-happy offense with quarterback Peyton Manning, had a need at tight end after losing Ben Utecht to the Cincinnati Bengals through free agency.
The Colts boast several tight ends on their roster, including Dallas Clark and Bryan Fletcher.
“Santi, we think, can fill the role that Utecht played for us,” said Colts president Bill Polian on the NFL Network. “So it’s a question of bringing in new players where we lost valuable contributors and bulk it up for us. We wanted to solidify that tight end position and make sure we had the right people and weapons around Peyton.”
Lyles credited the relationship that Virginia coach Al Groh maintains with the New York Jets for ability to earn an invitation.
“I was trying to find the situation that matched me and best fit me more than anything.” he said.
The agents for offensive lineman Ian-Yates Cunningham and nose tackle Allen Billyk were attempting to iron out details late Sunday night to secure free agent contracts and invitations to a minicamp for their clients.
Virginia punter Ryan Weigand, due to the lack of activity surrounding kickers and punters in the draft, may be forced to stand put for a while, but his agent continued to discuss the possibility of a tryout with the Houston Texans.




No. 1 Miami Defeats No. 16 Virginia in Series Finale
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – No. 1 Miami struck early for three first-inning runs and got a home run and six RBI from Mark Sobolewski in notching a 10-0 win over No. 16 Virginia Sunday afternoon at Mark Light Field. After earning one-run wins in the first two games of the series, the Hurricanes finished off a three-game sweep.
Virginia’s pitching staff had held the nation’s No. 3 offense to five runs and 11 hits over the first two games, but the Hurricanes used a four-run fifth inning to break open a close game and roll to the win.
Andrew Carraway (Jr., Marietta, Ga.) started for Virginia and took the loss after pitching 4.1 innings and giving up seven runs (five earned), 10 hits and an intentional walk while striking out four. His fifth-inning walk was his first in 25.2 innings.
Enrique Garcia (3-1) earned the win for Miami and pitched seven innings, giving up three hits and two walks with five strikeouts. The Hurricanes’ pitching staff limited Virginia to six hits, with David Coleman (Fr., Richmond, Va.) recording two hits.
Miami (36-5, 20-2 ACC) scored three runs in the first inning, but benefited from a key UVa error for two of the scores. After the Hurricanes put runners on second and third with no out, Sobolewski grounded out with one out to score Blake Tekotte. A dropped fly ball on a ball hit by Dennis Raben allowed Jemile Weeks to score, and Ryan Jackson followed with a bloop single to bring home Raben for the third run.
The Hurricanes blew the game open with four runs in the fifth inning, with the big blow – a three-run home run – coming off the bat of Sobolewski. Jackson added an RBI single to give Miami a 7-0 lead and knock Carraway from the game.
Miami added two runs in the sixth inning on a two-run double from Sobolewski and a run in the seventh on a single by Ryan Perry.
Virginia (32-15, 13-11) returns home to Davenport Field at 6 p.m. Tuesday to play Mount Saint Mary’s. It marks the first of eight-consecutive home games to wrap up the regular season.



Virginia shut down, hit hard by UM
BY MIKE PHILLIPS
mphillips@MiamiHerald.com
Don't blame the Virginia Cavaliers if they never want to see another pitch from the University of Miami.
They didn't get a good look at many this weekend.
The top-ranked Hurricanes didn't just sweep the 16th-ranked Cavaliers; UM's pitching staff blew through Virginia's lineup as if it wasn't there, topping off the three-game sweep with a 10-0 victory Sunday afternoon.
The Cavaliers, who showed up in Coral Gables on Friday with a team batting average of .299, managed 13 hits over three games, and batted .144 for the series.
''This was an incredible weekend for us,'' said Enrique Garcia, who pitched his best game of the season, shutting out Virginia for seven innings on three hits, while striking out five and walking two.
''Virginia came in with a highly touted pitching staff, but everyone pitched great this weekend,'' he said. ``I think our pitching staff is a little underrated. I think we showed some people this weekend.''
The Hurricanes allowed two earned runs over 28 innings (0.64 ERA), and did not allow a run in 26 of the 28 innings.
The Canes (36-5, 20-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) managed to squeak by in the first two games, winning 1-0 on Friday and 4-3 in 10 innings Saturday. UM was hitting .186 over the first two games against what coach Jim Morris called ``the best pitching staff we've seen this year.''
Morris wasn't happy after Saturday night, saying, ``I'd like to see them show more energy.''
They lit it up Sunday.
UM third baseman Mark Sobolewski produced twice as many runs Sunday as Virginia produced all weekend.
Sobolewski drove in a run in a three-run first with a groundout, hit his fifth homer of the season -- a three-run shot in the fifth -- and drove in two more in the sixth with a double to give UM a 9-0 lead.
Virginia's Andrew Carraway, who had the fourth-lowest ERA (2.82) in the ACC, was the victim. He lasted 4 1/3 innings and never recovered from Sobolewski's homer.
Dennis Rabin followed Sobolewski with a shot off the wall in right field for a double, and Ryan Jackson knocked out Carraway with his second RBI single of the game.
''We had more energy today,'' said Morris, who watched the Canes pound out 16 hits. ``We were swinging the bats, and we had a lot more to be excited about in the dugout.''
The only scare of the day came when Yonder Alonso left the game after a rough slide at the plate in the sixth. Alonso, who leads UM in homers (12) and RBI (44), was safe, but the hard slide scared the crowd at Mark Light Field.
''He's fine,'' Morris said. ``It's just a bruise on his leg.''
With first base open, Virginia intentionally walked Alonso in the fifth and elected to face Sobolewski, who smacked a 1-0 pitch over the wall.
''It will make them think the next time they walk Yonder,'' Morris said. ``And the game was on TV so [the ACC teams] saw it, and it will make everyone think the next time they walk Yonder.''
But the story of this series was UM's pitching. Chris Hernandez, Eric Erickson and Garcia -- UM's 1-2-3 in the rotation -- pitched well.
The Hurricanes, who had a team ERA of 4.13 when the series started, have 10 games left in the regular season, and Morris figures there is no better time to get his pitching in line for the stretch run -- and a chance at the College World Series and a national title.
''They will have three or four more starts to get to the promised land,'' he said. ``And they are gaining confidence.
``I think that [our pitching] could be the difference. If you are going to win [it all] you have got to have pitching. All three of our starters have been very good, and this was a good day for Enrique.
''It's a confidence thing,'' Morris said.
``He feels good about himself right now.''
It's not an accident.
''I have been bearing down lately,'' said Garcia, who had a 6.18 ERA before Sunday. ``It's time to get serious.
``You don't have to throw that good at the beginning of the year, but you have to at the end.''




Tech, U.Va. stars unite in win
Monday, Apr 28, 2008 - 12:07 AM
By JOHN PACKETT
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
What would happen if University of Virginia point guard Sean Singletary played with Virginia Tech's athletic forward Deron Washington?
A crowd of about 500 at Randolph-Macon's Crenshaw Gym found out yesterday when the Seniors of the ACC Extended, which included Singletary, and the Seniors of the Commonwealth met in the Commonwealth Collegiate Challenge.
"I really liked it," Singletary said after signing autographs for nearly everyone in the gym afterward.
"The guys played with a lot of energy, especially Deron. He really knows how to play basketball. He knows how to run the floor. I just wonder what my career could have been like if I have played with somebody like that, with all that energy, night in and night out.
"It was just fun to go out there and play with him, especially being able to get a win together."
Singletary, Washington and the rest of the ACC players were able to squeeze past the Commonwealth stars 112-110 when Maryland's Bambale Osby (Benedictine High) hit both ends of a one-and-one opportunity with 7.4 seconds left.
On one occasion, early in the second half, Singletary (10 assists) threw a long pass to Washington underneath the basket and the Tech senior dunked it.
"I didn't know what he was going to do," said Washington, who finished with 27 points. "I just saw him ready to throw a pass, and it was a bounce pass. That was actually a pretty exciting play. It seemed like me and him had a connection out there.
"It felt a little funny in the beginning, playing with him, but it was all fun because we just came out and had a good time."
The second annual affair was 15 minutes late starting because three players got stuck in heavy traffic on I-95. All three, Jamal Shuler and Michael Anderson of VCU, and Reggie Williams of VMI (Prince George High), played with the Commonwealth stars.
While Shuler fed Anderson for a number of crowd-pleasing jams, it took a while for Shuler and Williams to find the range on 3-pointers.
"I got a steal early in the game and cut my hand," said Shuler, who had 21 points. "It bothered me the rest of the game."
Shuler had a chance to send the game to overtime but missed a layup in the closing seconds.
"I started off bricking and ended bricking," Shuler said. "I had the ball in my hands on the last play and thought I got fouled. But this is an all-star game. Michael was the crowd favorite. He calls himself the people's champ, so he gave them what they wanted to see."
Anderson won the halftime dunk contest, edging Washington, who failed to make one in three attempts.
"I came out here to have fun and get a lot of dunks," said Anderson, who had 25 points. "Get the crowd involved. They came to be entertained."
Williams, who led Division I in scoring (27.8 ppg), wound up 13 of 22 from the floor after a slow start for 31 points.
"I got more comfortable," Williams said. "It was fun to come home and play in front of the home crowd."
Laimis Kisielius of William and Mary hurt his right knee in a collision at midcourt early on and didn't play again. He was on crutches afterward.