Going for Glory
Cavaliers, Tigers meet for national title
By Kris Wright / Daily Progress staff writer
May 23, 2004

Virginia women’s lacrosse coach Julie Myers has proven herself as one of the top coaches in collegiate sports, lacrosse or otherwise.

In just her ninth year at the helm, she has won more than 100 games and she is among the top 10 active coaches in winning percentage with a record of 134-43 (a 75.7-percent clip). This season, the Cavaliers set a new program record for wins in a season with 18 when they knocked off Georgetown on Friday in the NCAA tournament semifinals, surpassing the standard set by the 1991, 1998 and 2003 squads.

Myers’ teams have earned nine straight NCAA tournament bids, something that only four other Division I coaches have done in history. The Cavaliers have made the title game five times under Myers.

Today, Myers will look to add one final elusive piece to her impressive head coaching résumé - a national championship. Rest assured, she knows what it takes to get the job done. Myers won the national championship as a player on UVa’s 1991 squad and as an assistant coach on the 1993 team.

Plus, there is a bit of a superstitious good omen for the Cav coach. Myers’ coach and predecessor Jane Miller won her first NCAA title as a coach in her ninth year at the helm - this is Myers’ ninth year as well.

The top-seeded Tigers, who knocked off the Cavaliers in an 8-7 overtime thriller in last year’s title game, advanced with an 11-3 win over Vanderbilt in Friday’s opening game at Princeton Stadium. Over the course of the last two seasons, two-time defending national champion Princeton (19-0) has won 28 straight games - including a 12-9 defeat of visiting Virginia (18-3) earlier this season on March 15.

“We’re excited to be playing [today] and it’s fitting that we play Princeton because they’ve had such a great year,” Myers said after Friday’s win. “And it’s always nice to be able to try to correct an earlier loss. We’ve worked really hard since that game.”

While UVa suffered the loss in the Ides of March, the Tigers may need to beware in today’s championship game. The Cavaliers are hungry for the title after last season’s bitter end and they have one of the nation’s most explosive offenses clicking.

Amy Appelt, who had four goals against Georgetown, leads the attack and the nation for that matter. Friday’s quartet of tallies gave Appelt 86 goals on the season as she continues to add to her school record numbers; that total also ranks her eighth all-time in Division I for a single season. She also has 30 assists this season, giving her an astonishing 116 points, which ranks her No. 9 all-time for single-season scoring in Division I history. Appelt now has 197 goals in her career.

But as amazing as Appelt’s numbers are, she is not the only threat the Cavaliers have. Not even close. Tyler Leachman, Caitlin Banks, Ashleigh Haas and Morgan Thalenberg all had more than 20 goals in the regular season, while Banks and Appelt are tied for third in UVa history with 76 career assists. Virginia’s wide-open motion offense leads to ample scoring opportunities.

Princeton counters with a strong attack group as well. Lindsey Biles, Theresa Sherry, Elizabeth Pillion and Kathleen Miller all entered the weekend with at least 30 goals and 40 points. Sherry scored the

OT winner in last year’s title game and had three goals in the semifinals against Vanderbilt on Friday.

Still, Myers thinks her team has a good chance of avenging that March 15 setback.

“I think we’re a lot more dangerous and we have a lot more offensive sets than we did in that first game. Our defense just keeps getting better every time out. We’ve improved a lot since that first game and I’m sure they have too because they’ve made it this far and weathered a long season,” Myers said. “We’re firing on all cylinders right now and if we play as well as we’re capable of, I think Princeton will have their hands full.”
 

Cavs make noise with recruiting
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
May 23, 2004

Virginia football has 13 early commitments. The rest of the ACC has a collective nine.
If you follow recruiting closely, there is reason to be excited. If you’re a rival coach of Virginia, it’s easy to discard the Cavaliers’ staggering early success as “nothing to worry about,” as one competitor recently commented when put on the hot seat at an alumni meeting.
But this recruiting class of 2005 isn’t just fluff. Coach Al Groh and his staff didn’t just offer up full rides to every muscle-bound guy they met. Virginia didn’t make offers to light up message boards. There’s a method to Groh’s madness.
“This is just not about gathering players,” Groh said recently. “The intent is to put together the type of team that can be a consistent challenger in this new conference we’re in. It’s not about saying, ‘We got this guy’ for a publicity victory. Rather it is about, ‘How are we going to put together a contender in the best football league in the country?’”
New-look league
The Virginia coach has said many times that his Cavaliers are in a brand new conference due to the ACC’s expansion, which added perennial power Miami, along with Virginia Tech and eventually Boston College from the Big East. He believes the new ACC could become the premier football league in the land, both competitively and in exposure.
“We have to do everything better,” Groh said. “We have to recruit better. We have to coach better. We have to raise money better. This is the new landscape.”
Part of that landscape, at least in the Old Dominion, is half of next February’s recruiting class already committed to the Cavaliers. Don’t think that people aren’t noticing.
Early commitments
Only four of the 117 Division I-A football schools in the nation have six or more commitments: Virginia 13, LSU 8, Texas A&M 8, and Missouri 6.
“This type of start likely assures Virginia of being in the hunt for another top 20 recruiting class, but, more importantly allows the Cavaliers to narrow their list down so that when December and January come around, they’ll be looking to fill only four or five slots rather than 10,” said Mike Farrell, national recruiting analyst for Rivals and ESPN.
Of course, that is predicated on UVa getting the additional commitments on the normal basis. Farrell pointed out that Virginia will also get a head start on 2006, which will allow the staff to give more attention to blue-chippers that wait until the end of this recruiting year.
That is certainly a change in strategy from the last few years when the Cavs attempted to make a big splash late in the recruiting process. Twice it
worked, but fizzled a little last February.
The 13 commits aren’t exactly chopped liver. The cream of the crop so far is Gretna quarterback Vic Hall, a four-star, top 100 player. While his commitment to Virginia is strong, everybody and their brother is still trying to recruit him to no avail.
UVa’s collection of other talent, according to Farrell, clearly raises the athleticism across the offensive and defensive lines, which any good football mind knows, is the key to winning.
Groh and his guys couldn’t do that the first couple of years on the job. They didn’t know the territory. That has changed significantly.
“Each year we’re more fully versed in who the good underclassmen are,” Groh said. “We keep a board for each class so that we can see who’s coming. That allows us to start the process much earlier than we could in previous classes.”
Acquiring talent is what winning football is all about and Groh believed that Virginia had to make a significant adjustment if the Cavaliers were to reach the gridiron’s Promised Land.
“The last three teams we played last year, all of whom we were able to beat, had a total of 16 players drafted, eight in the first two rounds,” Groh pointed out. “We had one player drafted, none in the first two rounds.”
It doesn’t take Dick Tracy to figure out what needed to happen. While Virginia has gradually increased its talent level with strong classes the last three years, Groh said even then that three or four exceptional classes had to follow in succession in order to contend for the ACC title.
The Cavs have gained commitments from several solid, big, tall and rangy athletes who could be plugged in at several positions, something that many of the premier programs in the country have done for years.

Such a collection of talent will allow future Virginia teams a lot of flexibility in addition to giving the staff options in how they put this recruiting class together.
Some of those positions are filling up and don’t think Groh hasn’t used that to his advantage. Several commitments have mentioned that they didn’t want to wait to see how many schools would offer and then get left out in the cold at Virginia because the Cavs had run out of scholarships.
“Some players at certain positions are aware of that fact,” Groh said with a canary-chomping, Cheshire cat grin. “You aim for a certain number at certain positions. Once they’re used up, there’s no more room at the inn.”
When word hit the recruiting streets that things were filling up faster than anyone may have expected in Hooville, it created a great deal of momentum.
This is the type of momentum that Groh needs to get this thing going in the new ACC. At this rate, the new ACC might be trying to catch up to him.
 

UVa may receive regional
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
May 23, 2004

While the Virginia baseball team has spent the past few days preparing for next week’s ACC tournament in Salem, officials in the school’s athletic department spent the time placing a bid into the NCAA for the right to host one of the 16 regional sites when the field of 64 teams is announced.

With an impressive record of 42-11 and a state-of-the art baseball facility, the Cavaliers have made a strong case to receive consideration from the NCAA’s 10-person selection committee when they meet next weekend in Indianapolis.

At least one member of the committee thinks the Cavaliers have a chance to host a regional for the first time in the program’s history.

Skip Bertman, the Director of Athletics at Louisiana State and a member of the selection committee, said that entering the ACC tournament, the Cavaliers are in good position.

“The [NCAA Division I committee] takes into account the record and RPI,” said Bertman in an e-mail, “Right now, Virginia is in pretty good shape to get a site.”

Bertram also stated that he is “only one vote” and two factors weigh heavily into the equation - UVa’s performance at the ACC tournament and the actual bid and site proposal that the school submitted, which he has not seen yet.

To determine the tournament’s 64-team field, the committee takes 30 automatic qualifiers from schools that win their respective leagues and 34 at-large teams.

“It is strictly who the best teams are and our judgment has nothing to do with ability to draw [fans],” said Chris Monasch, a member of the committee and the Commissioner of the America East Conference. “Once [the field] is in place, then we look at the selection of the first-round sites. Obviously, a team has to have put in a bid to be eligible so that eliminates a bunch of schools and I think a lot of weight is put on the seeding.”

According to David Worlock, the NCAA’s College World Series Media Coordinator, 40 teams including UVa submitted bids to host a regional. Worlock said that schools can submit bids to host a regional, super-regional or both and he said UVa placed a bid to host both.

“If the top seeds have the ability to host, have put a good bid in, have the history and have a good facility ... there is probably a presumption that they will more likely than not get [to host a regional],” Monasch said on Friday.

Despite the fact that Virginia has not hosted a baseball regional before, both Bertram and Worlock said it should not be a factor and that the committee likes new sites.

“The committee looks at several factors, including the facility, how well they believe the event would be attended, how much revenue the host can generate, and geographic location,” Worlock said in a released statement. “Another factor that the committee takes into consideration is how many regionals a school has hosted in the past. If at all possible, the committee likes to award a new school with an opportunity to host a regional.”

Should Virginia get the chance to host a regional, an important factor for having the committee consider UVa in the future will depend on the support of the fans during the three-day regional from June 4-6.

“We need it supported by the community for the future because you have to show the NCAA that you are going to have great crowds and that you are going to support it in order for it to have a chance to come back in the future,” UVa coach Brian O’Connor said. “For the fans, it is a tremendous opportunity to watch Division I college baseball at the highest level. The potential of having the NCAA Regional here in Charlottesville is critical to reward our team for what they have accomplished this year.

“The exciting thing about it is that we could be one of 16 sites in the entire country to host [a regional]. That is a tremendous honor that the NCAA could potentially give us.”

The tricky things for UVa fans will be the ticket policies that the NCAA puts in place at regional sites.

Should Virginia be selected to host a regional, three other teams will play Virginia in a double-elimination tournament with the winner advancing to a super-regional the following weekend.

With a double-elimination format, the only game that Virginia fans can be assured that the Cavaliers will be playing in will be the evening contest on the opening day of the three-day event. The only way for a fan to be guaranteed a ticket in advance for the remainder of the Cavaliers’ games in the regional will be to purchase a Regional tournament booklet of tickets.

The booklet costs $36 for reserved seats and $24 for general admission tickets and it guarantees fans admission to at least six and potentially seven contests, if necessary. The booklets also offer fans a discount off the individual price of $12 per game for reserved seats and $8 for general admission.

Fans can reserve priority tickets on Monday at the Virginia Athletics Ticket Office by calling 1-800-542-UVA1 or (434) 924-UVA1. Ticket booklets will also be sold the remainder of next week, as well. Fans that place orders on a credit card will only be charged if Virginia is awarded a bid.

“The buying of the tickets early solidifies a fan for being able to come to the games,” O’Connor said. “If we are not awarded the host site, everybody is refunded his or her money. This is how it is done across the country for potential regional sites … everything is done pre-sold like this.”
 

Under new coach Brian O'Connor, Virginia baseball has jumped
INTO THE LIMELIGHT
Picked to finish 7th, UVa sits atop the ACC
By Doug Doughty

For the longest time, the Virginia baseball team was like its stadium - hidden in a remote corner of the campus, downtrodden, without lights and out of the spotlight. The only way that some UVa fans had seen the baseball field was on their way out of Klockner Stadium, stylish home to the lacrosse and soccer programs.

A $4 million expansion project helped dress up the stadium, but that's not what put people in the stands or excitement in the air. Now, when UVa fans walk through Klockner Stadium, they're headed in another direction, on their way to see the nationally ranked Cavaliers baseball team.

For as long as he serves as a head coach in college, Brian O'Connor may not experience a season like his first one.

Just more than three years after UVa baseball was nearly de-emphasized, the Cavaliers find themselves 31 games over .500 and atop the ACC standings after sweeping five of their eight ACC opponents.

Georgia Tech (35-17, 15-5) entered the weekend with a 14-game win streak and had a chance to capture the top seed for the ACC Tournament starting Tuesday in Salem, but that wouldn't diminish what the Cavaliers (42-11, 18-6) have done.

"There's no doubt about it, it's amazing what these kids have accomplished," said O'Connor, a 32-year-old former Martinsville Phillies pitcher who came to UVa after nine seasons as an assistant at Notre Dame. "I can't say it came as a total surprise to me because I knew we had talent and I knew it mattered to them."

Virginia had posted a winning record in ACC play six times in 39 seasons before this one, none since 1988. In 1996, when the Cavaliers won the ACC Tournament and set a school record for victories with 44, they finished fifth in the conference at 11-13.

After finishing sixth in the ACC last year and returning eight starting position players and most of its pitching, UVa was a preseason choice for seventh this year.

"I can't say it bothered me when we were picked for seventh," said senior Joe Koshansky, the ace of the pitching staff and the team's top run producer for the past two seasons. "People were going on history."

If so, pollsters were ignoring recent history. The Cavaliers were 29-25 in 2003 with a schedule that included 26 games against Top 25 teams. Virginia was 22nd in the RPI at NCAA tournament time but didn't get a bid.

"You can't be 22nd in the RPI and be more than one win away from making the field," former coach Dennis Womack said Friday.

Womack served as UVa head baseball coach for 23 seasons before it was announced June11 that he was stepping down and would become an assistant athletic director. Although he wasn't calling the shots for a 40-game winner, the next-best thing was leaving one for his successor.

"Let me tell you, Dennis Womack is the one individual on our team - and I consider him part of the team - that has not gotten any credit for what's gone on and who deserves a lot of the credit," O'Connor said. "He recruited the players and he built the foundation."

Womack passes along some of the credit to his 15-year assistant and new Western Albemarle athletic director, Steve Heon, as well as other members of his staff.

"Sometimes the various parts of an organization don't go well together," Womack said. "For whatever reasons, the kids go in different directions some times. These kids have always gotten along and the new coaches have done some nice things to get them to believe in themselves."

Virginia has won 17 games in which it trailed or the score was tied in the eighth inning or later, and the Cavaliers are 18-4 in games decided by two runs or fewer.

The Cavaliers are led in victories by a middle reliever, Cannon Hickman (8-2). That is a reflection on the number of close games that UVa has played, but the cornerstone of the team is the trio of Koshansky, junior left-hander Andrew Dobies and 6-foot-5, 230-pound sophomore Matt Avery that starts on weekends. They are fifth, seventh and eighth in the ACC in ERA. With a 3.41 team ERA, the Cavaliers are the only team in the ACC under 4.00.

Remarkably, 25 of Virginia's 29 home runs have been hit by two players (Koshansky and junior shortstop Mark Reynolds), and the Cavaliers have two regulars who are hitting .300 or better (third baseman Ryan Zimmerman and outfielder Matt Dunn). On the flip side, UVa has stolen 63 more bases than the opposition and is a landslide ACC leader in sacrifice bunts.

"We have coached this team based on the personnel," O'Connor said. "A lot of people have said we play 'small ball,' but we're a 'small-ball' club with guys who have to play the game that way. Plus, our ballpark lends itself to that kind of play. If you try and live and die with the three-run homer here, you're going to get beat."

Virginia has placed itself in the enviable and unexpected position of having sewn up an NCAA bid before the start of the ACC Tournament. The only other time that happened was in 1985 under Womack, who, as fate will have it, will not be at the tournament this week.

"Wouldn't you know it, I agreed to go to Italy with my wife," said Womack, who leaves Thursday. "It's going to be interesting to try and keep up with the tournament from over there. We'll just have to keep winning, so we can go to the College World Series when we get back."
 

Hagan a hit for UVa
Tom Hagan has had to overcome injuries, but he's still a key contributor in baseball.
By Doug Doughty

CHARLOTTESVILLE - After Virginia completed an unprecedented three-game sweep of Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Tom Hagan and his UVa baseball teammates did not arrive home until approximately 2:30a.m.

In all likelihood, if any of the others were awake at 6a.m., only Hagan was lifting weights with the football team.

"That wasn't what made up my mind," Hagan said, but by then his days as a two-sport college athlete were numbered.

"I had called [football coach Al Groh] earlier and he hadn't gotten back to me. It was a decision I had to make. I talked to my family a lot and I'd had a really good conversation with Coach Groh earlier in the semester."

Hagan, a systems engineering major from Roanoke, was spared some of the rigors of playing two sports when he aggravated a shoulder injury and was sidelined after playing 15 games in the 2002-03 baseball season.

Hagan also was injured during the 2003 football season but, for the second year in a row, punted in every game for the Cavaliers (9-5).

Hagan finished eighth among ACC punters last year, with a 34.7-yard average, and may have faced a challenge for his job. That didn't faze him.

"I had some ups and downs last fall, but I really don't have any regrets," said Hagan, who feels that if he were 100 percent he could punt for a 40-yard average. "Coach [Groh] felt the same way."

Hagan was injured in practice the week before UVa's second game. An MRI several weeks later revealed a torn medial collateral ligament, an injury that did not require surgery but would have healed only through rest.

"It hurt to do everything," Hagan said. "I took cortisone or whatever and I could get by for a game, but, the next day, I couldn't flex my knee. When that's in the back of your mind, when you can't get your reps in and can only kick one day of the week, it's definitely going to hurt your production."

Hagan looks back fondly on his football experience, which included victories in two bowl games, but acknowledges that baseball was always his first love.

"When Coach Groh offered me a scholarship, I don't think my mom believed it," said Hagan, who also played on Cave Spring's state-championship basketball team in 2002. "She was like, 'What does that mean?' I don't think it really set in that I could go to college and play sports until I got to high school. I was recruited a lot earlier in baseball.

"I wanted to play baseball at any level before any other sport."

Despite missing the fall baseball workouts that help most college coaches determine their lineup, Hagan was so impressive in indoor workouts during the winter of 2002-03 that he became a starter as a freshman and was hitting .386 at the time of the injury, an average that ended up leading the team by the end of the year.

Hagan's shoulder problems went back to high school. When he was hurt in the opener of a three-game series at Florida State, surgery was inevitable. The operation was performed by Dr.James Andrews, a renowned orthopedic surgeon whose attendants included Hagan's father, Hugh, a Roanoke orthopedist.

"They said it would take 12 to 18 months," said Hagan, who had hoped for a swifter recovery. "Last fall, I couldn't even throw."

Eventually, Hagan would like to return to his role as a full-time outfielder, but he has carved a niche for himself as a designated hitter against right-handers and as a first baseman on Sundays, the day that regular first baseman Joe Koshansky pitches.

Hagan has played in 37 games for the Cavaliers (42-11) and started 25. Although his .266 average is down from last year, it is not at the bottom of a lineup that boasts only two .300 hitters among its regulars, third baseman Ryan Zimmerman and outfielder Matt Dunn.

Hagan frequently has been involved in late-inning rallies for the Cavaliers, who have won 12 of 14 games decided by one run. Hagan had game-tying RBI in one-run, come-from-behind victories over No.4 Miami and Maryland, and he scored the winning run in two other games.

"He's gotten a lot of clutch hits," first-year UVa coach Brian O'Connor said. "That, I would think, is tied to the kind of athlete he's been throughout his career. He was a three-sport athlete in high school and he's played college football in front of 50,000 to 80,000 people. Coming up in the eighth inning and having to get a two-out hit is old hat for the kid."

Eventually, O'Connor wants to look at Hagan in the outfield, his original UVa position. That could come during the fall, when Hagan's football commitments previously would have kept him off the baseball field.

"I actually encouraged Tom to continue to play football, but it's his decision and his life," O'Connor said. "He's got to do what makes him happy. Now that he's become a full-time baseball player, it will be exciting to watch his development."

When Koshansky is on the mound or the opposition is throwing a right-hander, Hagan and his left-handed bat will be on display next week in Salem, home to the ACC Tournament for the second year in a row. Hagan, who was in street clothes for the event last year, will also be recognizable for the shaggy, strawberry-blond locks that became his trademark at Cave Spring.

"What can I say about Tom Hagan?" O'Connor said. "The same thing I always say: 'When are you going to cut your hair?'"
 

On speaking terms, some talkin' points
BOB LIPPER
POINT OF VIEW May 22, 2004

"This has been an unfortunate and regrettable episode. Our thoughts are with the parents of the young people involved."

That's what Frank Beamer could've said if he wanted to appear diplomatic and sensitive.

"I am deeply disturbed by this incident and will soon take steps to make sure these young men understand just how disappointed we are with their conduct."

That's what Frank Beamer could've said if he wanted to appear tough-minded and decisive.

Instead, in the aftermath of a court decision that laid bare the grimy - not to mention criminal - behavior of star-in-waiting quarterback Marcus Vick and Virginia Tech football teammates Mike Imoh and Brenden Hill, Beamer appeared for a scheduled press op at Richmond International Raceway last Saturday and avoided contact like Deion Sanders faced with a 240-pound running back on a power sweep.

Asked about the verdicts that found Vick, Imoh and Hill guilty of contributing to the delinquency of minors and resulted in each receiving jail time and fines - appeals have been filed - Beamer detoured around the issue.

"I don't think that thing is over," he said. "I'm going to reserve my statements for when the whole thing is over."

Less than 48 hours later, Beamer's boss - AD Jim Weaver - issued a sternly phrased communique that promised sanctions against the three players and called their actions "contrary to the values of our university." Nowhere in his comments was there the suggestion he might be holding out for a day in a friendlier court.

Sports guys say the darndest things. On that score, Frank Beamer isn't alone. Over the past week, for instance, figures as dissimilar as Myles Brand and Ke vin Garnett uttered statements that ranged from huh? to sheesh. Brand is a career academic who now bosses the NCAA. Garnett is the reigning pro hoops MVP who never spent a day in college. Ph.D.'s are optional when it comes to spouting nonsense.

Brand, for his part, delivered the commencement address Sunday at Bridgewater College and also spoke there with reporters on a variety of topics. Among them was the shakeup of conferences that began when the ACC culled Tech, Miami and Boston College from the Big East.

"Most of the realignments had to do more with academic affiliations than they did with [athletics]," Brand said. "No question about it. And I know that for a fact. . . . The press thought that this was a money grab."

Well, silly us. And here we all figured the ACC raided the Big East only because it lusted for fatter TV contracts and football championship games. Little did we know this was about symposiums and seminars. Or that those Jesuits at BC really wanted to escape Georgetown, Notre Dame and Villanova - such shabby academic institutions - and three other Catholic schools to join a league that includes four land-grant universities and not a single campus that monitors papal decrees.

Earth to Brand: Extract your pointy head from the sand and save the malarkey for board meetings. Thank you.

As for Timberwolves ace Garnett, he went way, way over the top when he compared the prospect of Game 7 against the Kings to either a turf war in the'hood or Iraq - it was tough to tell which.

"I'm loadin' up the pump," Garnett said. "I'm loadin' up the Uzis. I got a couple M-16s, a couple 9s. I got a couple joints with some silencers on them, couple of grenades, got a missile launcher. I'm ready for war."

Garnett apologized the following day for his "totally inappropriate" remarks - but it's still jarring to hear someone rattle on so casually about guns. Especially a star-power African-American who projects to an audience of young black males that's been decimated by weaponry and violence.

Sometimes it's what you say. Sometimes - as in Frank Beamer's case - it's what you don't.