Cavaliers preparing to face off against Orangemen

By JOHN GALINSKY
Daily Progress staff writer

During the entire regular season, Jason Leneau took 10 faceoffs for the Virginia men’s lacrosse team. In his previous three seasons, he had taken just six draws.
So it came as a surprise when UVa coach Dom Starsia turned to the seldom-used senior during his team’s NCAA tournament quarterfinal game against Cornell last Sunday. With freshman Jack deVilliers struggling against the Big Red’s rugged senior, Addison Sollog, Starsia used Leneau as his primary faceoff man.
It wasn’t a storybook day for the 5-foot-11, 189-pound Leneau, who won just five of 14 draws during Virginia’s 11-10 victory. But the former high school All-American wrestler did his job, Starsia said.
“Jason is the strongest of our three faceoff guys. He’s the best at tying people up,” Starsia said. “We didn’t want Cornell to win it cleanly and take it straight to goal. We wanted to turn it into a scrum, and that’s what Jason did.”
The Cavaliers managed to prevail even though they lost 16 of 25 faceoffs, with deVilliers losing seven of 11. The freshman now has a 47.1 winning percentage, which is still better than that of Leneau (45.8) or junior Calvin Sullivan (38.6), who did not play against Cornell.
That makes faceoffs Virginia’s biggest area of vulnerability going into its semifinal showdown with Syracuse on Saturday at Rutgers Stadium.
“People ask whether we work on faceoffs. If we worked any more on faceoffs, we wouldn’t have time to work on anything else,” Starsia said. “It’s something we’re going to continue to work on, but we also have to figure out other ways to get possession, by riding hard and picking up ground balls.”
Faceoffs also are a problem area for the Orangemen, who lost 20 of 23 draws in their 10-9 quarterfinal victory over Duke.
Because of that, Starsia feels his team has a chance to fare better on faceoffs against Syracuse. So deVilliers probably will get most of the work against the Orangemen.

Seeing Orange. There is no obvious favorite this weekend — all four teams lost to at least one of the other semifinalists during the regular season — but Starsia says there is no question which team is the most talented: Syracuse.
“They have three dominant attackmen, a bunch of midfielders who can really play and three seniors on defense,” Starsia said. “They also have a solid goalie. It’s hard not to like all that.”
The Orangemen are second in the nation in scoring at 14.1 goals per game. Sophomore attackman Michael Powell is the nation’s leading scorer with 74 points, while senior Josh Coffman and junior Michael Springer also average at least two goals per game.
Redshirt freshman Jay Pfeifer has allowed 9.2 goals per game with a mediocre save percentage of 53.2.

Rematches. All four of the semifinalists played each other back in March with mixed results.
Syracuse beat Virginia (15-13 on March 2) and Princeton (11-8 on March 23) but lost to Johns Hopkins (9-8 on March 16).
Virginia beat Princeton (13-11 on March 9) and Johns Hopkins (12-6 on March 23). Johns Hopkins beat Princeton (8-5 on March 2).
Of the four coaches, only Princeton’s Bill Tierney said he would alter his team’s strategy this weekend.
“Since we’re the only one who’s 0-3 [against the others], we’re the one who better make changes,” he said.

Jersey-bound? Tickets for this weekend’s games can be purchased through the UVA ticket office, either by going to University Hall or by calling 1-800-542-8821.
A reserved-seat package is $35 and includes both Division I semifinal games Saturday, the Division III championship game Sunday and the Division I title game Monday.

By Jim Reedy
Special to The Washington Post
Wednesday, May 22, 2002; Page D05

CHARLOTTESVILLE, May 21 -- The players and coaches of the Virginia baseball team reported for work this season to a gleaming jewel of a ballpark, a brand-new facility that is perhaps the finest in the ACC and represents a significant upgrade from the shabby, out-of-date U-Va. Baseball Field.

The recently opened Davenport Field would be a welcome addition for any college team, but for the Cavaliers, it also has served as a daily reminder that the university's administration and athletics department are committed to a strong baseball program. Last spring, that commitment seemed shaky at best.

"It's definitely been a tremendous turnaround," junior right-hander Shooter Starr said as sixth-seeded Virginia (25-30) prepared for today's ACC tournament opener against North Carolina, ranked 15th in Baseball America. "We did not see this coming at this point last year."

The future of Virginia baseball was in doubt last April after a university task force, charged with reducing a growing athletics department budget deficit, recommended changes that would have stripped baseball and other nonrevenue generating men's sports of much of their funding. Those programs would lose their scholarship money and would have only limited budgets for travel and coaching staffs.

Baseball coach Dennis Womack and his colleagues in the men's tennis, golf, track and wrestling programs predicted their sports would have been eliminated at the school if the recommendations were accepted.

"It would be pretty devastating," Womack said. "No one's going to come. . . . Eventually, we were going to be the [conference] doormat. We weren't going to be able to beat anybody in the ACC."

But in June, three weeks after the university's Board of Visitors set aside the task force's recommendations -- choosing instead to focus on fundraising to save all the sports -- the athletics department announced plans for a new, $4 million baseball stadium, thanks to a handful of donors who wish to remain anonymous. At the ensuing news conference, Womack observed that the baseball program had gone "from the outhouse to the penthouse."

"Some people told me, 'The best thing that ever happened to you was when that task force wanted to cut the program back,' " Womack said last week.

With the funds finally in place, Virginia cleared away the faded, wooden bleachers and Port-A-Potties of U-Va. Baseball Field and built the new, 1,500-capacity stadium from the ground up. It includes a grandstand with chair-back seating and a canopy for protection from the weather; new dugouts; and concession stands and restrooms. The addition of field lights means the Cavaliers, for the first time in their 113-year history, can host night games.

Construction is not complete with six luxury boxes, clubhouse and practice cages underneath the grandstand to be added. But the Cavaliers, who played not long ago before old bleachers and on used artificial turf, are thrilled with the stadium so far.

"It has been absolutely fabulous," Womack said. "The stadium itself is a great design and what's nice from my standpoint is the pride that I see our players take in it. It's like going to work anywhere -- you want to feel good about where you go work. We are just so excited about being able to play in this thing."

The Virginia athletics department doesn't plan on stopping there. Barry Parkhill, the associate director of athletics who headed the fundraising effort for Davenport Field, said the stadium project is "phase one" in a larger fundraising effort for Olympic sports that will begin in the coming year.

"We've made a lot of really good progress," said Parkhill, whose first priority remains raising another $85 million for U-Va.'s proposed basketball arena. "I think the momentum is there and the understanding is there that we now have a tremendous baseball facility, but there are other needs. That's the next phase."

No passing fancy: Gill wants to deliver championship

By JOHN GALINSKY
Daily Progress staff writer

If there was any doubt that Conor Gill would be remembered as one of the finest feeders in college lacrosse history, it was removed last Sunday.
With an NCAA tournament-record nine assists in Virginia’s 11-10 quarterfinal victory over Cornell, Gill delivered one more passing performance for the ages. Operating primarily from behind the cage, he dissected the Big Red’s defense, finding open teammates and cutters while demonstrating the field vision and unselfishness that make him such a special talent.
“It was amazing being on the other end of the field and watching him do that,” said UVa goalie Tillman Johnson. “Nine assists is awesome.”
The senior attackman now has 145 career assists, putting him third in ACC history. (Maryland’s Ray Altman had 146 in the late 1960s, while ex-Cavalier Tim Whiteley finished with 159.) He has 41 this season, ranking him second nationally for the second straight year.
He is all but certain to become Virginia’s first three-time first-team All-American (the USILA will announce its teams Monday), which would go along with his three All-ACC selections and ACC rookie of the year award.
Gill’s legacy is secure — “He’s one of the all-time greats,” said UVa freshman attackman John Christmas — but in his mind, it is far from complete.
“The assists and points don’t matter,” he said. “The biggest legacy I have right now is that I was part of the 1999 team. I want people to remember me as being part of the 2002 team.”
To Gill, another national championship would trump all of his individual awards and records. He won one as a freshman, earning MVP honors in the title game as Virginia beat Syracuse, 12-10.
Now his brilliant career is nearing the end, which will either come Saturday in the NCAA semifinals against the same Orangemen, or, he hopes, in Monday’s championship game against Johns Hopkins or Princeton at Rutgers Stadium.
As the only senior starter on Virginia’s team, Gill finds himself in a position of unusual responsibility and leadership. Going into the NCAA tournament, UVa coach Dom Starsia did not lift the pressure from Gill’s shoulders.
“The truth of the matter is we’re only going wherever Conor takes us,” Starsia said. “That’s the way it is. … Conor has now become the emotional leader of this team. If we’re going to do this, he’s going to be the one who takes us there ultimately.”
By saying that, Starsia says he intended to draw out Gill’s passion for the game, which he hides behind a cool, calm exterior. He wants his best player to be the driving force for this NCAA run, even if it means putting Gill in a slightly uncomfortable role.
“For Conor, there’s some stepping out of your skin now,” Starsia said. “It’s less of a big deal that he yells and screams. I just want intensity on his face and focus in his play, and the rest of the guys will feed off that.”
Gill has generally been a quiet role model, preferring to lead by example, but teammates say he has become more vocal of late, especially since senior defenseman and fellow captain Mark Koontz went down with a season-ending knee injury.
“Conor has taken on the role no one else really wants – nagging people to do things the right way,” said junior midfielder Chris Rotelli. “He knows the right way to do things, so it makes sense for us to listen to him.”
This is Gill’s third trip to the final four, a setting in which he shined as a self-described “scared” freshman. In the national semifinals against Johns Hopkins, he scored five goals in a 3:08 span of the first quarter. Then in the title game, he scored Virginia’s 11th goal and assisted on the 12th.
“I remember being in the parking lot afterward and not remembering anything that happened in those games,” Gill said. “It was all a blur.”
The past two NCAA tournaments were disappointments for Gill. In 2000, the Cavaliers were upset by Princeton in the semifinals despite two goals and five assists from Gill. Last year, Virginia fell to Hofstra in the first round.
“I think we might have overlooked Princeton my second year,” Gill said. “What I learned is you have to treat every game like it’s your last. Whether you’re a freshman or sophomore or junior, you can’t take anything for granted. I think I appreciate some of this stuff more now that I’m a senior.”
Gill prolonged his career by elevating his play a notch against Cornell, which probably made a mistake by not pressuring him behind the cage.
Instead, the Big Red gave him time and space to find teammates, and he picked them apart. He scored once himself and had a hand in Virginia’s first 10 goals.
“Conor wants to lift his team this time of year,” Starsia said. “Apart from the points, he picked up ground balls and rode hard and did the things needed for the team to be successful. A combination of those things made it Conor’s day.”
Gill says this team reminds him of his freshman year, when the Cavaliers were the surprise champions with a young roster. Another title to cap off his career would be sweet, he says, because he wants to be remembered as a team player, first and foremost, not as a remarkable individual talent.
“I don’t necessarily like the spotlight. That’s why I like team sports. Then you have others to celebrate with,” Gill said. “I’ve been part of some great teams here. I want this team to be thought of as a great team. That’s all I really care about.”