UVa blows lead
Hopkins rallies to force, win overtime
By Andrew Joyner / Daily Progress staff writer
May 29, 2005

PHILADELPHIA - In a game full of ups, downs, high winds, thunderstorms and a plethora of flying debris, the last shot was Johns Hopkins’ and so was the win.

Defensive midfielder Erwin Benson scored with 50 seconds left in the first overtime period to lift top-seeded Hopkins to a 9-8 win over Virginia in the NCAA Semifinals on Saturday before 45,275 at Lincoln Financial Field.

“It was a great ending for a lacrosse game. You had two teams that were making plays and no one was giving anything away. … Someone has to lose and unfortunately it was us,” said Virginia coach Dom Starsia after the contest, which will be remembered as one of the best in recent memory.

Johns Hopkins (15-0) advances to face Duke, a 18-9 winner over Maryland in the day’s first semifinal. The Blue Jays, who are seeking their first NCAA title since 1987, and Blue Devils will meet in the title game Monday at noon.

“It was a great lacrosse game. It was a game of runs and also a game of mistakes. I almost felt the team that made one less mistake might win it,” Johns Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala said. “I’m just excited because I get two more days with this team.”

Virginia (11-4), which was paced by four goals from attackman Matt Ward and a stellar, 18-save performance by goalie Kip Turner, dropped its fifth straight overtime contest in the NCAAs. In their despair, however, Starsia reminded his players and the media where this team has come from after a 5-8 season a year ago.

“It’s been a heck of a year. I’m really proud of this team. They made a heck of a run throughout the year and again here today,” Starsia said. “The 2005 season is a win for the University of Virginia. Things are abrupt when they end like this but I’m really proud of this team.”

In the beginning, the game gave little indication of the classic it’s sure to become.

The teams were scoreless in the first quarter, marking the first time that’s ever happened in the Final Four. The second quarter provided only slightly more excitement as Hopkins snared a 2-1 lead at intermission as many wondered if they were watching a lacrosse game on a pitcher’s duel at the Phillies’ First Citizens Bank Stadium across the street.

They would be more than rewarded for their patience, even though their patience would be tested once more before the conclusion.

Hopkins came out crisp in the third quarter and opened a 5-1 lead after a goal by Joe Malo with 10:01 left in the period.

Goals by John Christmas, J.J. Morrissey and Matt Ward cut the deficit to 6-3 entering the fourth and signaled the Cavaliers were not quite willing to be dispatched in easy fashion.

Virginia opened the fourth quarter with some offensive modifications that moved Christmas to the top of box, essentially playing a midfield position and not his normal attack. It allowed Christmas room to operate, something the Hopkins’ defense had not allowed him or Ward or anyone really until that point.

“We really just talked about being more patient and trying to make something happen without the ball in our sticks. I think we had been standing around too much,” Starsia said.

The result was four straight Virginia goals and when Matt Poskay ripped a shot past Hopkins goalie Jesse Schwartzman, the Cavaliers had miraculously snared the 7-6 advantage with 4:45 to play.

Despite the adjustments, Starsia claimed he was not certain what exactly triggered the comeback.

“I’m not exactly sure. Maybe it was something from above?” Starsia said.

Well, there were certainly a lot of things above the skies of Philadelphia at that moment.

Heavy wins and rains coincided with Virginia’s comeback and right after Poskay’s goal, lightning strikes were prevalent in the sky and officials halted the game for the next 46 minutes. It was quite a surreal scene as debris from the stands fluttered throughout the playing surface.

“When that storm came, I don’t know what it was but we started playing our best lacrosse. The winds seemed to get the crowd excited and got us excited, too,” Ward said.

The delay clearly halted the momentum of the Cavaliers. While conditions were certainly unsafe, the stoppage clearly damaged the Cavaliers more than Johns Hopkins given the flow of the game at the time.

“I thought we handled it fine but I guess if I had my druthers there, I would not have wanted the delay,” Starsia said.

As if on cue when play resumed, Hopkins’ Kyle Harrison won the ensuing faceoff and 20 seconds later rifled a shot that knotted the game at 7.

Virginia’s Jack deVilliers won the next faceoff. Virginia controlled and held possession until Ward nailed the back of the net with 12 seconds remaining for the 8-7 lead.

Unfortunately for the Cavaliers the apparent winning goal ultimately was their final goal of the 2005 season.

Greg Peyser captured the faceoff with about eight seconds remaining in the game and then sped up the field toward the Virginia goal. He dished off to Jake Byrne, who calmly slid a left-handed shot past Turner with 1.4 seconds left in regulation to improbably tie the game. It was a perfectly placed shot that slipped just between Turner’s legs.

“I’ve already been replaying that one in my mind,” said a disconsolate Turner after the game.

The game went to overtime, where Hopkins had won three previous games this season and Virginia has known only heartache of late in the postseason.

Virginia controlled the play early and had several shots - notably ones by Kyle Dixon and Poskay - that would have won it but missed the mark.

It was after Dixon’s shot that was deflected by Schwartzman that Hopkins retrieved the ball, fed it up field and ultimately wound up in Erwin’s stick for the winning goal. It was just the soft-spoken Erwin’s fourth goal of the season.

“This team has been through a lot. For them to battle back and be there at the end, it’s hard not to be upset with how this one turned out,” Starsia said.

Contact Andrew Joyner at (434) 978-7248 or ajoyner@dailyprogress.com.

Johns Hopkins 9
Virginia 8 (OT)
VIRGINIA (11-4) 0 1 2 5 0 - 8
HOPKINS (15-0) 0 2 4 2 1 - 9

VIRGINIA: Goals: Ward 4, Rubeor, Christmas, Morrissey, Poskay.
Assists: Gill, Rubeor, Christmas, Morrissey, Dixon.
JOHNS HOPKINS: Goals: Byrne 2, Malo 2, Harrison, LeSeur, Rewkowski, Barrie, Erwin.
Assists: Rabil 3, Huntley.
Shots: JH 48, UVa 39. Groundballs: JH 48, UVa 34. Faceoffs:JH 13-20, UVa 7-20. EMO: JH 2 of 4, UVa 2 of 4. Saves: JH 11 (Schwartzman 11), UVa 18 (Turner 18).
Attendance: 45,275.





Cavs win thriller over Tigers
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
May 29, 2005

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Long before he set foot in the Sunshine State, Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said his team was good enough to win the ACC Baseball Tournament.

We will find out today if he was right.

Virginia kept its magical postseason run alive with a thrilling 5-4 win over Clemson at The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville on Saturday. The victory propelled the Cavaliers into today’s championship game at 1 p.m. against Georgia Tech, who advanced to the title game with a 17-2 victory over Florida State.

It marks just the third trip to the title game for Virginia (41-17) in program history. Clemson fell to 39-21.

“Obviously that’s a tremendous win for our team and to have the opportunity to play for an ACC Championship is a tremendous accomplishment for our team and something we’re very proud of,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “Clemson is one of the most storied baseball programs in this country. I felt like they were one of the hottest teams in the country and probably the hottest team in our league; and to come down here and get two victories against them and have the opportunity to play for the title is something that I know all of our players and coaching staff and everybody involved in our program is very proud of and we look forward to that opportunity.”

O’Connor’s usage of the word opportunity was fitting in more ways than one. When UVa had chances to score they took full advantage of them. Clemson did not.

Virginia went 4 for 9 at the plate with runners in scoring position, while Clemson was just 1 for 11 and only one of the five Tigers that advanced to second base scored.

“That is the game,” said O’Connor, after improving to 6-2 against Clemson. “In college baseball, you are going to give up hits. The greatest pitchers in college baseball give up close to a hit per inning. You are going to be pitching with runners on a lot.

“What matters is what you do with the runners in scoring position. Do you raise your game up to another level or do you let them score? Our guys have the ability to raise their game to a different level when there are runners in scoring position.”

Virginia starter Mike Ballard retired eight of the first 10 batters he faced to open the game and he had a four-run lead to work with by the end of the third.

The Cavaliers plated one run in the second and added three more in the third off Clemson starter Kris Harvey.

In the second, UVa freshman Brandon Guyer, who opened the inning with a single, scored from third on a two-out single up the middle by Kyle Werman.

The Cavaliers fueled their scoring spree in the third with three hits and two walks.

The biggest blow in the frame came off the end of the bat of Virginia catcher Scott Headd. With the bases loaded and one out, Headd was sitting on a fastball from Harvey.

The pitch ran away from Headd, however, and he weakly slapped it off the end of the bat into shallow right, allowing Matt Street and Ryan Zimmerman to score without a throw to the plate.

Tom Hagan followed with a single to center, driving in Sean Doolittle from third.

Hagan’s hit also chased Harvey from the game.

“I thought my stuff was good today but unfortunately I worked up in the zone too much,” said Harvey, who dropped to 5-4 on the season. “If I had worked the ball down just a little more I think I would have been alright. [Virginia] didn’t really hit that many balls hard, I just left it in the zone enough to where they could put it where we were not. That’s the way it goes sometimes.”

Clemson got on the scoreboard in the top-half of the fourth with three runs, two of which came on a mammoth homer by Travis Storrer that landed in the bleachers in right field.

With the temperature on the field reaching 90 degrees, Ballard started to labor in the fourth. After getting the first two batters out, the Virginia Beach native walked two straight batters.

Sensing the importance of the situation, O’Connor handed the ball and the game over to Doolittle, his top middle reliever.

Doolittle, pitching on three days rest, kept Clemson off the scoreboard until the eighth inning as he ended the fifth, sixth and seventh innings by striking out the final batter, two of which watched a called third strike.

“Doolittle was very aggressive and we got a little tentative there at times,” Clemson coach Jack Leggett said. “He’s very aggressive, so you’ve got to be very aggressive against him. We got a little too picky at different times and he made some good pitches with men on base.”

In the sixth inning, Virginia scored what proved to be the game-winning run. Mike Campagna blasted a single up the middle and after taking a wide turn at first, Clemson shortstop Stan Widmann tried to throw him out. Instead Widmann’s throw sailed into Clemson’s dugout and Campagna was awarded third base.

After Werman drew a walk, Tim Henry drove in Campagna with hit a sac fly to center, giving UVa a 5-3 lead.

“Henry was able to execute the fly ball there and that was a critical run for us,” O’Connor said. “He didn’t pack it in. He had two strikes on him … and he was able to get at least on top of the ball enough to drive it to the outfield and score the run.”

Clemson scored its final run in the eighth as Harvey belted a solo homer to right, but the Tigers could not produce another scoring threat over their final six outs.

Doolittle (3-0) was credited with the win on the mound for UVa and his teammate and fellow southpaw, Casey Lambert, worked the ninth inning for his 14th save.

Virginia ACC Baseball Tournament Notebook
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
May 29, 2005

TENSIONS RUNNING HIGH: Things nearly got out of control in the fourth inning after Clemson slugger Travis Storrer hit a two-run homer off Virginia pitcher Mike Ballard.

After belting the offering from Ballard, Storrer stood at the plate and watched his mammoth home run sail over the head of UVa right fielder Matt Street and into the outfield bleachers at The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.

Storrer then slowly made his way to first, carrying the bat in his hand for part of the trip.

It did not go over well with Virginia’s players or coaching staff.

As Storrer crossed the plate at home, he exchanged words with UVa catcher Scott Headd and looked in the direction of Ballard which created a heated stir on the field between Clemson coach Jack Leggett and Virginia coach Brian O’Connor.

“It was something that I felt their hitter did after he hit the home run,” said O’Connor of the reason for the heated discussion with the opposing coach.

When asked after the game about the incident Leggett declined to address it.

“It was nothing. It’s over with,” Leggett said. “It had nothing to do with the game.”

O’Connor, who did field questions on the matter, said tensions naturally run high in tournament play and that the he and Leggett put the situation “behind them.”

“When you are playing at this level, everybody wants to win. It is competitive,” O’Connor said. “I think you have got two coaching staff’s that are fiery and very competitive. It’s a situation that Coach Leggett and I handled.”

The umpires warned both benches after the on-field incident and after the game the players and the coaching staffs shook hands.

LOVING HIS LEFTIES: When the game was over, a reporter asked Coach O’Connor if he had used three left-handed pitchers on purpose against Clemson, which features five starting hitters that bat from the left side.

O’Connor started Ballard against the Tigers and followed that up by using Sean Doolittle and Casey Lambert out of the bullpen.

“It was not the gameplan coming into the game,” O’Connor said. “It was what was available to us at the time.”

Virginia’s first two starting pitchers in the tournament – Matt Avery and Jeff Kamrath – are both right-handed pitchers.

“It was Ballard’s turn to start, so he’s obviously left-handed,” O’Connor said. “Sean Doolittle is our top set-up guy in the bullpen, and he happens to be left-handed. Casey Lambert’s our guy that’s got fourteen saves and he obviously is left-handed.

“I tell you, what an advantage it is to be a left handed pitcher.”

Clemson had 10 hits in the game and O’Connor said with a southpaw on the mound it kept the runners at first from getting big leads.

“It’s so critical because you control the running game. The other team can get a hit, but to be able to steal a base with these guys on the mound is very difficult.”

SOUNDBITES: “Hopefully, we look up [today] and we have an opportunity to compete for the championship in a tournament and I want our players getting used to winning championships and they’re going to have that opportunity. There is something to be said for bringing out a win on that final day to win a championship and have that opportunity because the following weekend you’re going to have to win a championship to go to Super Regionals, in Super Regionals you’re going to have to win a championship to go to Omaha [and the College World Series], and I want my kids to learn what it takes to win a title.” – said Virginia Coach Brian O’Connor on playing for a title today against Georgia Tech.

QUICK HITS: Virginia third baseman Ryan Zimmerman went 2 for 4 and scored a run against the Tigers. With the two hits, Zimmerman now stands at 90 hits for the season. That ties the single-season record in the program. With one more hit Zimmerman will surpass the 90 hits that he collected last season. … Virginia plans to start RHP Robert Poutier today against the Yellow Jackets on the mound. The freshman, who is 5-1 on the year with the nation’s best ERA (0.39), started against Georgia Tech on April 24 in Charlottesville and earned the win after going five innings, allowing four hits, two walks and just one earned run. Georgia Tech plans to counter with Jason Neighborgall, who UVa beat during its series at home. … In O’Connor’s two seasons at UVa he has been perfect against Georgia Tech, winning three games last year on the road and all three games at home this season. In the three-game homestand, UVa outscored the Yellow Jackets, 15-5.
 

Boland has eyes set on future, title
By Jerry Ratcliffe / Daily Progress sports editor
May 29, 2005

With all the marvelous accomplishments that the UVa men’s tennis team made this season it would have been easy for most coaches to sit back and take a big slap on the back.

Not Brian Boland.

Sure, he’s proud of the Cavaliers. They became the first ACC team to ever make it past the NCAA Quarterfinals. UVa won a school record 27 matches and reached the program’s highest ever ranking, No. 2 in the nation.

But for Boland, that wasn’t good enough as he tried to cool off from the blazing Texas sun in College Station after the Cavs lost last Sunday to eventual National Champion UCLA.

You see, with Boland winning is everything.

“I came here with certain expectations and they weren’t met, so I haven’t had time to enjoy some of the things that we did accomplish,” Boland said only minutes after UVa’s season came to an abrupt end. “We came here with the mindset that we could win a National Championship. It’s going to take a few days, weeks, months to recover.”

UCLA lauded by many

While Virginia’s loss to the Bruins seemed like an upset at the time, a lot of the long-time observers on hand at Texas A&M to watch the championships believed that UCLA had the best collection of talent of any team in the country even though Baylor entered with a two-year unbeaten streak.

Still, the loss will eat away at Boland until he gets his team back in gear again next fall. The promising aspect is that all of his starters in singles and doubles are all scheduled to return.

“There’s no excuses,” Boland said. “UCLA beat us. But we’ll be back for sure. We’ll work harder.”

If that is possible.

Boland already has earned a reputation for his work ethic and his relationship with his players. Both are top of the line and people are noticing.

Papa Stewart weighs in

One respected tennis name went out of his way to point out Boland’s strong points as he heaped praise on the Virginia coach. It was a UCLA alum, who was pulling for the Cavaliers out in College Station: Forrest Stewart.

For the unknowing, Forrest Stewart was a standout for UCLA’s great tennis teams in 1958, ’59, and ’60, the latter two years as National Champions. He has coached tennis independently for 44 years and has known some of the top names in the game during that span.

He just happens to be the father of Virginia’s No. 1 singles player, Doug Stewart, who was roughed up a bit in the team and individual play. But there’s a reason and we’ll get to that.

While Forrest Stewart likes UCLA coach Billy Martin and watches the Bruins from time to time, his allegiance lies elsewhere.

“I’m more involved with Virginia because of the coach [Boland], who has shown a new level of coaching to

intercollegiate tennis,” Forrest Stewart said. “Everybody realizes now that they can’t hide, that they have to come out and try to compete with Brian Boland. To me, Brian is as good or better than Dick Gould.”

Gould is considered the top intercollegiate tennis coach in history. Gould built a dynasty at Stanford over a 40-year period, claiming 17 National Championships while collecting some of the best talent in the world.

For Stewart to mention Boland in the same breath might be sacrilege in some tennis circles, but quite a compliment and perhaps prophetic. Remember that Stewart knows them both.

“Brian is the hardest worker I’ve ever seen,” Stewart said. “He’s respected and loved by his players as well as the parents he deals with. I’ve often said that 80 percent of the kids who play college tennis are dissatisfied with college tennis after expecting so much before they go to the college.

“They’re either dissatisfied with the level of coaching or their teammates or something else,” Stewart said. “But that is not the case at Virginia. Everybody gets along well with one another and it’s a very loyal group. That makes it enjoyable for all.”

Stewart, who resides in Southern California, had never heard of Boland when the Virginia coach began to call the household.

“Brian kept calling the house and wanted to talk to Doug and I kept saying, ‘Who is this guy that keeps calling?’” Stewart said. “He is very persistent, very polite. I knew if he was persistent in calling that he would have the same kind of persistence as far as the success of the team. So, Doug committed to go there when they had no players.”

Forrest Stewart believes it takes 10 years on average to build a program. In only three years, Boland has taken Virginia to the Elite Eight in the tournament and a No. 2 national ranking with a young team.

Doug Stewart was the No. 1 ranked juniors player in the United States in high school and wanted to play at Stanford, which didn’t offer enough scholarship money. Forrest called Duke, but said the coach there had never heard of him or Doug.

When one of Duke’s players told the coach he should recruit the younger Stewart, then Duke tried to work it out to where Doug’s trip east would include visits to both Duke and Virginia, where the prospect had already agreed to visit.

“I think Boland pulled a fast one on the Duke coach,” laughed the elder Stewart. “I don’t know what happened because Brian won’t tell me.”

But Doug Stewart ended up at Virginia in a recruiting coup that has proven huge dividends.

He competed in the NCAA singles the past three seasons, reached a No. 12 national ranking this season and won 20 matches for the Cavaliers.

“Doug’s had some bad moments this season because he doesn’t have enough time to put into tennis,” Forrest Stewart said. “He has the toughest major in college but he’s an excellent student in engineering and I’ve always told my kids that education is the most important thing.”

Doug’s brother graduated last weekend from Princeton, magna cum laude, and his younger sister will attend Princeton and play tennis next fall.

With all that said, the praise and the deeds will roll off Boland’s ego-less back. He probably will be miserable all summer because the Cavs fell short of his expectations.

“Yes, there were a lot of good things that happened to us this year, but we didn’t accomplish our goal and I can’t get away from that,” Boland said. “I am proud of the guys. They fought hard all year, they worked hard for us, they continue to become better tennis players and better people. I enjoy being their coach.”

But he won’t truly enjoy it all until the day he walks out to center court and accepts the National Championship trophy. Then, he’ll want to do it again and again.

7th-seeded Cavs reach ACC final
Virginia will try today to win the ACC baseball tournament for only the second time ever.
The Roanoke Times

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - On the eve of the ACC baseball tournament, Virginia baseball coach Brian O'Connor described first-round opponent Clemson as the hottest team in the conference and "one of the hottest teams in the country."

Now, it seems, there's another team that meets that description. Seventh-seeded UVa ran its winning streak to nine games Saturday by beating second-seeded Clemson 5-4 in an ACC semifinal at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.

Virginia (41-17) will meet top-seeded Georgia Tech (41-16) in the championship game at 1 p.m. today. The Yellow Jackets advanced with an 18-2 victory over defending champion Florida State in a game that was ended by the mercy rule.

In a switch from previous years, double elimination is not in effect for the championship round. UVa's only other appearances in the final came in 1982, when the Cavaliers lost to North Carolina, and in 1996, when they beat Florida State.

"I want our players getting used to winning championships and they're going to have that opportunity" today, O'Connor said.

Like the Yellow Jackets, Virginia went undefeated in its bracket. UVa only needed to win one of a possible two games with Clemson (39-21) on Saturday to reach the championship game.

The Tigers (39-21) entered the tournament with nine straight victories but lost to Virginia 8-1 in the first round Wednesday.

After taking a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning Saturday, the Cavaliers scored three runs in the third on a bases-loaded, two-RBI single by Scott Headd and a two-out, RBI single by Tom Hagan. It was the sixth hit in three tournament games for Hagan, a junior left fielder who graduated from Cave Spring.

Clemson fought back with three runs in the fourth but Virginia extended its lead to 5-3 on a seventh-inning sacrifice fly by Tim Henry, much-needed insurance when Kris Harvey hit his 22nd home run of the season for Clemson in the eighth.

Harvey, son of ex-major leaguer Brian Harvey, started on the mound for the Tigers and did not survive the third inning. Freshman Sean Doolittle, the Cavaliers' first baseman and cleanup hitter, pitched 3 innings in relief of starter Mike Ballard and improved his record to 3-0.

Casey Lambert, victimized in a regular-season loss at Clemson, added to his school record with his 14th save of the season.

Georgia Tech will be looking to avenge a regular-season sweep by Virginia. UVa will start freshman Pat McAnaney, who is 7-0 and has a 1.56 ERA, mostly in midweek games against nonconference opposition. UVa is 6-0 against Georgia Tech during the past two seasons.

The NCAA will announce today which teams will host NCAA regional tournament action. The full pairings will be announced Monday.

Another Virginia reel
Clemson’s sixth loss in past eight games against Cavaliers ends its ACC tourney dance
By JON SOLOMON
Staff Writer

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Kris Harvey struggled again as a pitcher. Clemson failed to produce enough timely hits. And Virginia remained a pest Saturday.

The result was second-seeded Clemson’s second loss at the ACC Tournament to seventh-seeded Virginia, 5-4, and elimination from the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.

The Cavaliers seek their second ACC title when they play top- seeded Georgia Tech today at 1 p.m.

Coaches and players said they expect to hear Clemson’s named called when the 16 NCAA regional sites are announced today at approximately 3:40 p.m. The announcement will be on ESPNews and ESPN2’s Bottom Line.

Clemson (39-21) entered Saturday rated No. 6 in the unofficial Ratings Percentage Index model by boydsworld.com. Tulane (49-9), Texas (45-13), Mississippi (42-17), Georgia Tech (40-16) and Baylor (38-20) were rated higher.

The 64-team bracket is announced Monday at 11:30 a.m., during a 30-minute selection show on ESPN2.

With Saturday’s victory, Virginia coach Brian O’Connor improved to 6-2 against Clemson in his two seasons.The Tigers are 24-8 since April 8, and three of the losses came against Virginia (41-17).

The Cavaliers are the lowest-seeded team to reach the championship since eighth-seeded N.C. State did it in 2001.

Virginia jumped on Clemson’s Harvey for four runs on six hits and two walks in 2Ð innings.

“They weren’t really hitting the ball hard,” said Harvey, a junior who anticipates turning pro next month after being drafted. “I just left it in the zone enough where they could get enough.”

Once a weekend pitcher, Harvey was Clemson’s fourth starting option this week. He threw 28 of his 57 pitches for balls and failed to last four innings for the fourth consecutive start.

Harvey is 0-3 with a 13.06 ERA in his past four starts, including 10 walks in 10Ð innings. Freshman David Kopp relieved and allowed one unearned run in 5ð innings.

“Harvey’s a good pitcher for us and been doing well for us and had a great career and had a chance to go out there,” coach Jack Leggett said. “Kopp, he’s a freshman, and was ready to go for the second game if we needed it.”

Virginia’s winning run was courtesy of a two-base throwing error from shortstop Stan Widmann, who committed four errors at the tournament.

After a sixth-inning single, Virginia’s Mike Campagna took a wide turn around first base. Widmann caught the cutoff throw, wheeled and threw the ball into Clemson’s dugout, allowing Campagna to take third and eventually score for a 5-3 lead.

“I’d like to have him take a bite out of that thing, eat it, no play,” Leggett said.

While Clemson’s pitching (3.09 ERA) and hitting (.298 average) statistics were solid at the ACC Tournament, the defense committed eight errors in four games, leading to six unearned runs. Other miscues were made in the outfield.

On Saturday, Clemson went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position; Virginia went 4-for-9.

“Championship baseball is won with two-out clutch hitting,” O’Connor said.

The Tigers pulled within one, 4-3, with back-to-back two-out hits in the fourth inning. Harvey hit a two-run single, and Travis Storrer homered.

But Clemson went 1-for-8 with runners on base during the final five innings. That futility included five strikeouts (three looking) and two double plays.

Virginia freshman Sean Doolittle struck out five batters in 3Ð innings of relief. Harvey’s eighth-inning home run snapped Doolittle’s run of 28Ð consecutive scoreless innings dating to April 1.

“We got a little too picky at times,” Leggett said. “We actually hit the ball pretty good at times but had nothing to show for it.”

Come Friday, the stakes are higher.

“We’ve just got to put it behind us and get ready to play next weekend,” Leggett said.

Hopkins foils Virginia in OT
Cavaliers appeared headed to final before Jays forced late tie
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
May 29, 2005
NCAA LACROSSE
HOPKINS 9 VIRGINIA 8

PHILADELPHIA -- For the University of Virginia men's lacrosse team, heartbreak followed elation in quick succession yesterday. With U.Va. seemingly headed to the NCAA title game after a late goal by junior attackman Matt Ward, top-seeded Johns Hopkins scored with 1.4 seconds left in regulation to tie the game.

In overtime, fourth-seeded Vir- ginia took three shots, but none got past Hopkins goalie Jesse Schwartzman. Finally, with 50 seconds left in the four-minute period, the Blue Jays claimed a 9-8 victory. From 12 yards out, senior midfielder Benson Irwin scored in transition to end a game that neither the ESPN2 audience or the near-record crowd of 45,275 at Lincoln Financial Field will soon forget.

"There are games, and there are games," U.Va. coach Dom Starsia said.

Hopkins (15-0) advanced to meet second-seeded Duke (17-2) for the NCAA title tomorrow at noon. Virginia, which was seeking its second national championship in three seasons, finished 11-4.

"This group has been through a lot, and to fight like that at the end against that team, it's hard not to feel a little bit upset with how this thing played out," Starsia said. "But somebody's going to lose a lacrosse game. Somebody's going to lose any athletic event."

After the lowest-scoring first half in any NCAA semifinal, Virginia trailed 2-1. After three periods of inept play on offense, the Cavaliers trailed 6-3, and only the spectacular play of sophomore goalie Kip Turner (18 saves) had kept them in the game. In the fourth period, however, Virginia abruptly came to life.

Ward, who finished with a game-high four goals, scored off a pass from senior attackman John Christmas to make it 6-4. Then, at the 12:59 mark, freshman attackman Ben Rubeor's goal made it 6-5. With 8 minutes left, Ward scored again to pull U.Va. to 6-6. At 4:45, junior midfielder Matt Poskay gave the Cavs their first lead, at 7-6.

Then Mother Nature intervened. The teams had been playing in rain and heavy winds since the start of the fourth quarter, but officials stopped the game at 4:21 p.m. when lightning flashed near the stadium. The teams retreated to their locker rooms, and the game didn't resume for 46 minutes.

It took Hopkins only 20 seconds to pull to 7-7, on All-America midfielder Kyle Harrison's goal with 4:25 left. The momentum seemed to have swung back to the Blue Jays, but U.Va. won the ensuing faceoff. After each team turned the ball over, U.Va. took possession and ran off two minutes before taking a shot. It came off the stick of Ward, who beat Schwartzman with a bounce shot that put Virginia up 8-7.

Only 12.9 seconds remained. Had U.Va. senior Jack deVilliers controlled the next faceoff, Hopkins never would have had a chance to force overtime. But deVilliers, who won only 7 of 20 draws yesterday, lost this one to Greg Peyser, who picked up the ball and ran unchecked into Hopkins' offensive zone.

Peyster spotted Jake Byrne. A sophomore attackman, Byrne caught Peyser's pass, coolly faked out a defender and then bounced a left-handed shot through the legs of Turner.

"That's going to run through my mind for a little while longer," Turner said.

For the first time since North Carolina won the NCAA title in 1991, a team other than Princeton, Syracuse, or Virginia will be crowned. Princeton failed to qualify for this year's NCAA tourney, Syracuse lost in the first round, and now U.Va. is out. Hopkins is trying to win for the first time since 1987.

In yesterday's opening semifinal, Duke hammered No. 3 seed Maryland 18-9 to advance to its first NCAA title game. Freshman attackman Zack Greer scored four goals to lead the Blue Devils.

Greer now has 57 goals for the season, an ACC record. Virginia's Doug Knight scored 56 in 1996.

Maryland, which upset Virginia and then Duke to win the ACC tournament, finished 11-6. The Terrapins have won two NCAA championships, but none since 1975.

U-Hall, Reynolds Coliseum once were hoops palaces
JENNINGS CULLEY
POINT OF VIEW
May 29, 2005
Jennings Culley
Contact Jennings Culley at jculley @timesdispatch.com

In a sports world where everything must be bigger and better, you come to expect change.

Basketball arenas without luxury boxes are scrapped, and new, plusher facilities are built. Or multipurpose stadiums are bulldozed, and separate parks for baseball and football rise from the rubble.

It's a sign of the times.

Two recent news items serve as a reminder that our sports venues are not forever.

One referred to the University of Virginia's aging U-Hall. The other was headlined "N.C. State's Old Arena Burns."

Aging? Old? The words made an ol' geezer feel ancient.

It doesn't seem that long ago (1949) that Washington and Lee's basketball team traveled to Raleigh to help State christen its new field house, the William Neal Reynolds Coliseum.

And really, could it have been 40 years since Adolph Rupp brought his Kentucky Wildcats to Charlottesville for the grand opening of U-Hall?

Back then, the two facilities were "jewels" on the sports horizon. Young fans today may not fathom that. But when college basketball surged in popularity after World War II, good arenas were hard to find.

University of Richmond played its home games at Blues Armory downtown (until the Benedictine High gym was built). City Auditorium on Cary Street was good for concerts, speeches and an occasional boxing or wrestling match. But not basketball.

Other colleges played in cramped gymnasiums with wooden bleachers.

The Southern Conference tournament (before the split) was played in Raleigh's Memorial Auditorium. Even that wasn't big enough once Everett Case came to State and built a championship program.

When the Atlantic Coast Conference was formed, the Southern tournament moved to Richmond, where a car barn was converted into the Arena. The ACC tournament set up shop in the Reynolds Coliseum, dubbed "The House That Case Built."

Truth is, N.C. State had launched plans for a coliseum while Case was still an Indiana high school coach. The idea of a large indoor facility on campus came from an alumnus (David Clark) after the rainout of a farmers exposition in 1940. Construction began in 1942 but was halted during the war.

When work was resumed in 1948, basketball enthusiasm was soaring, and Case persuaded the school to increase the seating from 9,000 to 12,400. With the foundation set and some steel up, the structure couldn't be widened. So it was elongated, leaving deep end zone seats and faulty sight lines.

It wasn't attractive. Students called it the "Big Barn." Players complained of a blue haze from cigarette smoke that hung over the court. But it was the largest facility of its kind from Atlantic, N.J. to New Orleans, and it impacted basketball in the Southeast.

Reynolds Coliseum fostered the growing interest in ACC basketball. It was the site for the holiday Dixie Classic, the ACC tournament and NCAA playoffs and the home for Wolfpack teams that won national championships in 1974 and 1983.

Through the 1950s and '60s, many colleges built arenas, and across Virginia, major municipalities sprouted coliseums with seating for 10,000 or more.

The University of Virginia got into the act, building University Hall, a combination field house-auditorium. The $4 million structure was unveiled without much fanfare on Dec. 2, 1965. The Cavaliers weren't up to ACC standards and were whacked 99-73 by the Wildcats. It was 1971 before the Cavs ended a string of 16 seasons without a winner and brought its program to national status.

U-Hall was a plush, bright, roundhouse-type structure. One quadrant had chair seats for use as an auditorium; the other sections had bench seats. Most seats were far removed from the court.

Over the years, floor seats were added and the sound system improved to give a true basketball aura. As decades passed and the Cavaliers became national title contenders, U-Hall was a vibrant venue for college basketball.

But now it's aging, soon to be replaced by the Johns Paul Jones Arena.

N.C. State moved its basketball home to RBC Center five years ago, leaving Reynolds Coliseum to women's basketball and minor sports.

The face of sports keeps changing.

Just in time, Jays prevail
Erwin's shot beats UVa., 9-8, after Byrne's goal forces OT
By Gary Lambrecht
Sun Staff
Originally published May 29, 2005
 

PHILADELPHIA - After all the wild swings of emotion and momentum, after a lightning delay slowed a great fourth-quarter comeback by Virginia, after Johns Hopkins had avoided another crushing final four defeat with time nearly expired, the Blue Jays lived to play one final day because a defensive specialist decided he could score.

Senior defensive midfielder Benson Erwin has earned his keep by hounding opposing scoring threats. Yesterday at Lincoln Financial Field, before 45,275 in the NCAA men's lacrosse tournament semifinals, Erwin went on the offensive and created the biggest moment of his career.

With 50.7 seconds left in overtime, Erwin took a pass from midfielder Paul Rabil in transition, stopped 10 yards from the Virginia goal and bounced a shot past Cavaliers goalie Kip Turner to lift the Blue Jays to a pulsating 9-8 victory.

Top-seeded, unbeaten Hopkins won its school-record 15th game of the season and now must beat second-seeded Duke (17-2) tomorrow to claim its first national championship since 1987. The Blue Devils advanced to their first final with an 18-9 drubbing of Maryland in the other semifinal.

And Hopkins can thank Erwin for ending the suspense and a near-collapse by the Blue Jays, who were on the verge of taking control midway through the second half - despite running into a hot goalie in Turner (18 saves) - before finding themselves down by a goal twice in the fourth quarter.

"It was a real surreal experience for me. It was actually a lucky shot. I just closed my eyes and threw it," said Erwin, who scored his fourth goal on his eighth shot of the year after Hopkins goalie Jesse Schwartzman (11 saves) started the sequence with his second save in overtime.

"Jesse made a great save and had a perfect feed out [to defenseman Tom Garvey]. There were a lot of guys running on and off the field. I was about to run off the field myself before I saw we had [a] numbers [advantage]. There was no one on me. [Rabil] just looked back and it was a great feed. Fortunately, it went in."

The Blue Jays had no shortage of heroes. They can look to sophomore attackman Jake Byrne, whose second goal rescued Hopkins from defeat with 1.4 seconds left in regulation. That came 11 seconds after Virginia junior attackman Matt Ward had appeared to win the game with his fourth goal of the day, giving the Cavaliers an 8-7 lead.

They can look to senior midfielder Kyle Harrison, who disappeared for lengthy stretches. But, after a 46-minute lightning delay that occurred after a 4-0 Virginia run had given the Cavaliers a 7-6 lead with 4:45 left in regulation, Harrison reappeared 20 seconds into the resumption of play and beat defenseman Steve Holmes before tying the score at 7.

They can look to junior midfielder Greg Peyser, who won the crucial faceoff and fed Byrne before he beat Virginia middie J.J. Morrissey on the left wing and, from 5 yards out, slipped a shot between the legs of Turner.

"The hardest part for me was to catch the ball, because you're so nervous about shooting it and gathering yourself," said Byrne, who had drawn a short-stick defender in Morrissey. "I just knew I had to do something quick."

The Blue Jays were tested in every way. They endured a tremendous first half by Turner, who stuffed their efficient offense by himself at times. They endured a physical Virginia defense that harassed them all over the field. They endured a weird change in weather. As a storm front blew in at the start of the fourth quarter, the Cavaliers seemed to feed off it.

"I believe you make your own breaks. A lot of [past] heartbreaks helped us win today. A lot of maturity helped us win today," said Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala, noting that seven of Hopkins' nine goals came from seniors.

The first half was all about defense and Turner. For the first time in semifinals history, the first quarter ended scoreless. When the Blue Jays took a 2-1 lead into halftime, they were a frustrated bunch. Then, when senior attackman Kyle Barrie, Byrne and senior midfielder Joe Malo (two goals) scored unanswered goals to make it 5-1 with 10:01 left in the third period, Hopkins appeared to be on its way.

But the Cavaliers scored twice, first after a great dodge by senior attackman John Christmas, then on a man-down goal by Morrissey after a great save by Turner, and it was 5-3.

"At one point, I was standing on the sidelines thinking we've made too many mistakes to deserve to win here, but then we collected ourselves at the end and got it going and we made a run," Virginia coach Dom Starsia said. "It's been a heck of a year."

The Blue Jays finished a heck of a day in a way that reflects their identity under Pietramala. Hopkins is 4-0 this year in overtime, including a double-overtime win over Duke. In five seasons under Pietramala, the Blue Jays are 20-4 in one-goal games, 9-2 in overtime and have won 48 consecutive games when taking a lead into the fourth quarter.