Cavaliers stand tall
By Whitelaw Reid / Daily Progress staff writer
May 28, 2006

PHILADELPHIA - Syracuse goalie Peter Coluccini sat behind a mic with his coach and two teammates during a postgame press conference at Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday afternoon.

The eye black that Coluccini had been wearing for protection from the sun was completely smudged. His hair was disheveled. Sweat poured down Coluccini’s face.

The redshirt freshman looked like he had just stepped off the set of “Survivor.”

That’s what the University of Virginia men’s lacrosse team will do to you.

UVa, behind an explosive eight-goal first quarter, dispatched Syracuse the way it has everyone else this season - relatively easily.

In front of a record-setting crowd of 49,562 and a national television audience, Virginia showed why it hasn’t lost a game this season. Displaying its usual combination of unselfishness, athleticism and grit, UVa cruised to a 17-10 victory.

Virginia (16-0) advanced to the NCAA championship game on Monday. The Cavaliers will play unseeded Massachusetts, who shocked No. 2 Maryland in the other semifinal.

“It’s a great win for us,” said Virginia coach Dom Starsia.

“I have great respect for John [Desko] and the Syracuse program. Beating them once in a season is a notable feat. Beating them twice is particularly noteworthy.

“It’s exciting to get a win like this and to be playing in the National Championship on Monday.”

Starsia, whose team beat Syracuse, 20-15, in a regular-season game on March 4, said the gameplan was to try and ruffle Coluccini’s feathers.

“We felt like he was playing much better for them,” Starsia said. “We thought if we could get to him early in the game, that would help us dictate the flow of the game.

“We wanted to let them know that we were here and had to be accounted for.”

Virginia definitely did that.

Syracuse actually scored the first goal of the game, less than a minute in, when Bret Bucktooth beat UVa goalie Kip Turner. But, shortly after, the Cavaliers put together a highlight reel for the folks at ESPN2.

Freshman attackman Danny Glading fired a wicked shot from the wing to tie the game. Steve Giannone, Garret Billings, Kyle Dixon and Matt Ward scored in a four-plus-minute span to make it 5-1.

“Usually an offense has one go-to guy,” said a dejected Coluccini. “Virginia has about four or five of them.”

Following Ward’s goal - a running, off-balanced, left-handed shot - Drew Thompson won the faceoff clean. He raced down the field and beat Coluccini for a 6-1 lead.

Syracuse senior Brian Crockett stopped the Cavaliers’ run when he scored to make it 6-2, but Billings and Ward added goals to make it 8-2 after just one quarter of play.

At that point, it didn’t seem out of the realm that Virginia could score 30 goals. However, Syracuse went on a 5-2 run in the second quarter and trailed just 10-7 at the half.

“I said, ‘Guys, they’re going to make a run. Let’s not let that happen. Let’s go on our own run,’” said Ward, the game’s high scorer with four goals. “But playing Syracuse, it’s tough to keep them down for the whole game. They made a run.”

Unfortunately for the Orange, it was their last.

Virginia started the third quarter the way it opened the game - on fire. Ward scored two quick goals for a 12-7 lead and Syracuse was never within four goals the rest of the way.

“We got a little sloppy in the second quarter,” said Virginia senior Michael Culver, “but we were able to tighten it back up.”

Culver had a lot to do with that. The senior defenseman helped put the clamps on former Virginia player Joe Yevoli, one of Syracuse’s top offensive threats. Yevoli finished with just a goal and an assist.

“Coach told me earlier this week that I would be matched up with him,” Culver said.

“I approached it like I did any other matchup. I watched a lot of tape on him to try and get a grasp on where he likes to shoot from.”

When Syracuse did get quality chances, Turner came up with big saves. He finished the game with 10, including four in the final quarter.

Statistically speaking, Syracuse more than held its own, winning the faceoff battle (17 to 13) and tying Virginia on ground balls (28 apiece).

However, Syracuse committed six more turnovers than UVa. The Cavaliers turned many of the miscues into easy fastbreak chances.

“They just take advantage of every mistake that you make,” said Syracuse coach John Desko. “Offensively, they shoot the ball extremely well. We needed to slow them down to start the game, but we didn’t do that, and it left a big hole to climb out of.”

Colucccini said Virginia’s eight-goal outburst to start the game was demoralizing.

“It does a lot to you - mentally and physically - to get down like that,” he said.

While pleased with the win, the Cavaliers didn’t seem like they were ready to pop open any bottles of sparkling apple cider.

“We made a commitment to ourselves last year when we lost [in the semifinals to Johns Hopkins] to get back here,” said Virginia senior Matt Poskay. “I think today we played well enough to take it to the next step. I think Monday we have to take [the last] step.”

 

O'Connor hopes to host Regional
By Jay Jenkins / Daily Progress staff writer
May 28, 2006

Being a native of Iowa, Brian O’Connor knows just what Terence Mann was talking about in the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams.”

Mann agreed that Ray Kinsella, a character played by Kevin Costner, should build a baseball field in his backyard.

“This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray,” Mann said. “It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.”

O’Connor, the coach of the Virginia baseball team, knows that people will come. He saw that in 2004 when UVa hosted a sold-out NCAA Regional.

This afternoon at 3:30 p.m., O’Connor will get word if his team gets another chance to host. The 16 regional sites will be announced on ESPNews, a day before the complete field - which includes 30 automatic and 34 at-large bids - will be announced.

Virginia has made an interesting case. The Cavaliers won 46 games, finished third in the Atlantic Coast Conference in the regular season and are primed to add around 500 more temporary seats to go with those that were added for the final two weekend sets of the regular season. The total capacity at Davenport Field would come close to 3,400.

“Our fans have supported us this year, which is important for the NCAA selection committee to see,” O’Connor said. “We get a great fan base for our games and the chance to be a host site is a great reward for the fans in our community to come out one more time and watch great baseball.”

The 10-member selection committee looks at a number of factors, including RPI, strength of schedule and the financial bid placed by each respective university. This year, 43 schools placed bids to host a regional.

“Our bid is very competitive,” O’Connor said. “It is hard to know for sure because you don’t know what other people did, but I feel good about what we did bid and I hope the NCAA does as well.”

O’Connor spent Saturday riding on a bus home from the ACC Tournament in Jacksonville, Fla. He would have preferred playing in the semifinals of the tournament, but his team dropped back-to-back games after beating Florida State.

“We are disappointed that we went 1-2 in the ACC Tournament, but you’re rewarded a regional host site for what you did all year,” O’Connor said. “We proved in the ACC regular season and in the regular season overall that we are definitely worthy of being one of the NCAA host sites.”

You don’t have to be a genius to figure out the obvious difference in playing in your own stadium. UVa went 62-8 over the past two seasons, including a 31-3 mark this year, at Davenport Field.

“We play a lot better at home and every team does, but we especially do,” O’Connor said. “That’s why it is so important to put yourself into a position to host an NCAA Regional. Your chances are much greater by playing in your own ballpark.”

 

Cavs coast to final
Only unseeded UMass stands between U.Va. and fourth NCAA title
JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER May 28, 2006
MEN'S LACROSSE FINAL FOUR
VIRGINIA 17 SYRACUSE 10
TOMORROW:
Championship, 1 p.m., Virginia vs. Massachusetts at Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia TV:

PHILADELPHIA -- The University of Virginia's seemingly unstoppable march through the NCAA men's lacrosse tournament picked up more momentum yes- terday.

In a semifinal at Lincoln Financial Field, top-seeded U.Va. crushed fifth-seeded Syracuse 17-10 on a warm, sunny afternoon. A crowd of 49,562 -- the largest in tournament history saw the unbeaten Cavaliers move to the brink of their fourth NCAA championship.

"What a special moment for college lacrosse -- just the atmosphere in that stadium," Virginia coach Dom Starsia said. "And what a thrill for a kid and a coach to be able to walk in there and be a part of that."

U.Va. (16-0) will face Massachusetts (13-4) for the NCAA title tomorrow. ESPN will televise the 1 p.m. final. UMass is the first unseeded team since Maryland in 1997 to advance to the championship game.

The Cavaliers won NCAA titles in 1972, 1999 and 2003, and they will be heavily favored to capture another crown tomorrow. At this point, Starsia and his players realize, a loss would tarnish what's potentially the greatest season in school history.

In its three NCAA tourney games, Virginia's average margin of victory has been 7.7 goals.

"The only way for us to end this season exactly right would be for us to win [tomorrow]," Starsia said.

UMass, making its first appearance in the NCAA Final Four, got three goals and an assist from first-team All-American Sean Morris and stunned No.2 seed Maryland 8-5 in yesterday's opening semifinal. The Minutemen held the Terrapins' two first-team All-Americans -- midfielder Bill McGlone and attackman Joe Walters, the ACC player of the year -- scoreless.

Virginia's stars encountered no such resistance from Syracuse (10-5). First-team All-American Matt Ward, a senior attackman, scored a game-high four goals, and first-team All-American Kyle Dixon, a senior midfielder, contributed a goal and an assist. Second-team All-America midfielders Matt Poskay and Drew Thompson combined for three goals and three assists, and second-team All-America attackman Ben Rubeor added one goal and two assists.

"Usually an offense has one go-to guy," said Orange goalie Peter Coluccini, a redshirt freshman. "Virginia has about four or five on the field at the same time."

Syracuse scored first, on a goal by Brett Bucktooth 50 seconds into the game, but by the end of the first quarter the Wahoos led 8-2.

"We needed to slow them down to start the game, and we didn't," Orange coach John Desko said.

The 'Cuse steadied itself in the second quarter and went into halftime down 10-7. But Virginia dominated the second half to collect its second decisive victory of the season over Syracuse, which has won a record nine NCAA championships (Johns Hopkins has won eight). U.Va. defeated the 'Cuse 20-15 in March.

"Beating Syracuse once in a season is a notable feat," Starsia said. "Beating them twice is certainly noteworthy."

The Orange's stars include senior attackman Joe Yevoli, a third-team All-American who began his college career in Charlottesville and starred on U.Va.'s 2003 title team. Senior defenseman Michael Culver, a first-team All-American, smothered Yevoli yesterday. Yevoli finished with two assists and one goal, but two of those three points came in the final 8 minutes after U.Va. had built a 15-8 lead.

"I don't think you want anybody to 'go off' on you," Culver said, "but certainly not Joe."

 

Cavaliers selected All-America
Richmond Times-Dispatch May 28, 2006

PHILADELPHIA - Unbeaten Virginia, not surprisingly, dominated the U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association's All-America teams released yesterday.

Three Cavaliers made the first team: attackman Matt Ward, midfielder Kyle Dixon and defenseman Mike Culver. All are seniors.

The second team also includes three players from U.Va.: sophomore attackman Ben Rubeor, junior midfielder Drew Thompson and senior midfielder Matt Poskay.

On the third team are defenseman Ricky Smith and goalie Kip Turner, both juniors at U.Va. Ward and Dixon were second-team All-Americans in 2005, and Culver was a third-team selection. - Jeff White
 

No. 1 Virginia rolls into final
Early 9-2 run lifts undefeated tournament favorite Cavaliers over Orange
By Kent Baker
Sun Reporter
Originally published May 28, 2006

Philadelphia // With a blazing start and uncanny shooting accuracy, unbeaten and No. 1 Virginia surged into tomorrow's NCAA Division I men's lacrosse final yesterday, subduing Syracuse, 17-10, before 49,562 sun-splashed fans at Lincoln Financial Field.
The team's 16th victory means the Cavaliers will take on unseeded Massachusetts in search of their fourth NCAA crown and first since 2003. The fifth-seeded Orange, whose nine-game winning streak ended, finished with a 10-5 record.

"We talk all the time about trying to get off to a good start," Virginia coach Dom Starsia said. "But that hadn't really been a mark of this team early. That really has evolved the second part of the season."

Virginia entered the game having outscored its opponents in the first half by 131-49. And boom, it hit the Orange with a 9-2 blitz that carried one minute into the second period. After that, Syracuse battled uphill valiantly but in vain.

"They're very impressive and they take advantage of every mistake you make," Orange coach John Desko said. "We needed to slow them down to start the game, and we didn't. You have to keep your composure and hold on to the ball against these guys."

"They are great shooters and when they get those goals early it does a lot to you mentally and physically," said Orange goalie Peter Coluccini, a redshirt freshman. "Most teams have one go-to guy, but Virginia has about four or five on the field all the time. It's disheartening for a goalie."

Syracuse, which overcame a slew of injuries and an early 1-4 record, broke through first on a goal by Brett Bucktooth 50 seconds into the game, but by the time it scored again, the Cavaliers had a 6-1 advantage on goals by six different players.

Virginia went on to add three more goals in another streak anchored by Matt Poskay and the Orange was suddenly down by seven.

"I think we played one of our best games today," All-American attackman Matt Ward said. "Especially coming out that way. We came out firing."

But the Orange still had some juice left. Syracuse dominated the second period, scoring five goals to the Cavaliers' two, and by the intermission had rallied to within 10-7.

The turning-away point came in the third quarter. A double penalty against Virginia gave Syracuse a two-man advantage. No score followed. A minute later, another Cavalier penalty gave the Orange another chance to score in a man-up situation. Again, no score.

Down the stretch, it was almost all Virginia, which is in the midst of the first unbeaten season in school history.

Part of the Cavaliers' motivation was a gut-wrenching loss in the semifinals here last year. In a thriller, Johns Hopkins ousted Virginia, 9-8, in overtime in a game delayed by a thundershower.

"We made a commitment to ourselves when we lost that game to get back here and finish the job," Poskay said.

"We decided after that that we were going to be better," Ward added. "Each practice that we had this year was about like a game for us."

Ward, the team's scoring leader, finished with four goals and freshman Garrett Billings chipped in with three as the Cavaliers slightly edged their national-best 15.8 goals per game average.

 

UVa.'s Ward doesn't let injury stop him
After fracturing hand in ACC tournament, he has 4 goals; Terps' offense is shut down
By Kent Baker and Gary Lambrecht
Sun reporters
Originally published May 28, 2006

PHILADELPHIA // In the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, Virginia's leading scorer, Matt Ward, took a blow to his right hand and suffered a fracture.
"I got a broken third metacarpal in my right hand," Ward said yesterday after scoring four goals to lead the Cavaliers into the NCAA Division I championship. "But I wasn't going to let a hand injury keep me out of the NCAAs."

He ran into another health problem in the third quarter yesterday against Syracuse - cramps. But that didn't hinder his style, either. After experiencing pain and going to the ground, he arose to score a goal seconds later.

"It was a problem because it was hot, but I'd go to the bench and get some fluids when I had to," said the senior from Oakton, Va. "That last one went away, and I ran off the field."

Ward is now within three goals of cracking the ACC's all-time top 10 list.

Shutting down Terps
UMass senior defenseman Jack Reid said the Minutemen's stellar defensive effort in their 8-5 win over Maryland, in which the Terps matched their season low in scoring, came down to trust. Reid covered Maryland senior attackman Joe Walters primarily, but had plenty of help.
"We were trying to keep [Walters] uncomfortable the whole day," Reid said. "We were switching off [Maryland's] picks constantly. We didn't care where our short sticks [matched up]. We were just worried about staying on the gloves [of Maryland's shooters]."

By the fourth quarter, the Terps were reduced to taking desperation shots, while the Minutemen maintained leads of two and three goals. Freshman goalie Doc Schneider made seven of his 15 saves for UMass in the fourth period. Most of them were routine.

"Doc had an unbelievable game. He wasn't going to let them score by shooting junk," Reid said.

As for Walters, Minuteman long-stick midfielder/faceoff man Jake Deane said: "I know he's a great player, but I thought he looked a little sluggish. I expected a lot more."

Not semi-tough
After Maryland's loss, Terps coach Dave Cottle, who is 1-4 in the national semifinals dating to his days at Loyola College and 0-3 in College Park, leaned dejectedly against a wall outside the team's locker room.
"You play games. You win some, you lose some; you've got to accept what happens," he said. "I don't want to crawl into a hole. I've got to figure out how to do this better."

Et cetera
Virginia led the way with three first-team selections as the U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association team was announced yesterday. Ward, midfielder Kyle Dixon and defenseman Michael Culver made it, as did Walters and Maryland midfielder Bill McGlone; Hofstra's Chris Unterstein (attack) and Brett Moyer (defense); and attackman Sean Morris and Reid of UMass. Cornell midfielder Joe Boulukos, Johns Hopkins midfielder Paul Rabil and Princeton goalie Alex Hewit also made the team. ... UMass and Maryland combined for 13 goals, the fewest ever in a semifinal game.

Cavaliers ride strong start into the finals
There was no semifinal disappointment this time for UVa, which will play UMass for the D-I title.
By Doug Doughty
981-3129

PHILADELPHIA -- Even when it seems as if the Virginia men's lacrosse team is being tested, the scoreboard invariably reflects the contrary

On Saturday, Virginia faced a Syracuse team that had won nine straight games and the Cavaliers cruised to a 17-10 victory in the Division I semifinals.

Top-ranked UVa will attempt to put the icing on an undefeated season when it meets unseeded Massachusetts (13-4) in the championship game Monday at 1 p.m. at Lincoln Financial Field.

The Minutemen, playing in the Division I men's final four for the first time, dispatched second seeded Maryland 8-5 in Saturday's first semifinal.

A record crowd of 49,562 saw Virginia score eight goals in the first quarter and go ahead by 9-2 before the Orangemen went on a 4-0 run and cut the deficit to 10-7 at the half.

"Being up [three goals] at the half is not the worst thing in the world that could happen," said UVa defenseman Michael Culver, named first-team All-American earlier in the day.

One week earlier, the Cavaliers had seen Georgetown rally from an early 4-0 deficit to close to 8-5 at the half. Virginia had blown that game open with a nine-goal third quarter, winning 20-8.

Against Syracuse, UVa goalie Kip Turner stopped midfielder Kenny Nims from point-blank range to start the second half and the Cavaliers increased their lead to five, 12-7, on a pair of goals by senior attacker Matt Ward.

The Orange (10-5) cut the deficit to 12-8 and had a two-man advantage late in the period, but wasted that opportunity and trailed 15-8 before Joe Yevoli scored his only goal of the game with 7:01 left.

Yevoli, who graduated from Virginia last spring, started on the Cavaliers' 2003 championship team, then redshirted last season. He subsequently enrolled at Syracuse as a graduate student.

Another UVa defenseman had covered Yevoli in March, when he had three goals and one assist in a 20-15 Syracuse loss in Charlottesville, but Culver drew the assignment Saturday.

"I felt like Joe had been carrying the ball about 50 percent of the time over the last half of the season," UVa coach Dom Starsia said. "I felt like Yevoli had become the quarterback of their offense, so I wanted to put our best defenseman on their attackman.

"We tried to downplay the whole Yevoli thing. We felt like we had already been through that in March, but it was still out there."

Yevoli's lone goal came while a penalty was running out and Virginia (16-0) was in a zone defense. One of his two assists came at the end of the half, on another of the rare occasions when UVa was in a zone.

"The man thing was to limit his touches," said Culver, who saw Yevoli take only three of Syracuse's 40 shots. "You never want a guy to go off on you -- particularly Joe."

Ward, who joined Culver and midfielder Kyle Dixon on the All-America first team, led the way with four goals for UVa. Freshman Garrett Billings from British Columbia had three.

"Usually, an offense has one go-to guy," said Syracuse goalie Peter Coluccini, who had 10 saves but allowed 15 goals. "Virginia has four or five of those guys on the field at any given time. That can be disheartening for a goalie."

Or a goalie's coach.

"They're very impressive," Orange coach John Desko said. "They take advantage of every mistake. You've got to keep your composure against these guys and hold onto the ball, but they don't let you."

The victory helped ease the pain the Cavs suffered in the 2005 semifinals. Eventual champion Johns Hopkins beat UVa 9-8 after scoring with 1.4 seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime.

UVa senior Matt Poskay said: "We made a commitment to ourselves when we lost that semifinal game last year to get back here and finish the job this time."
 

Virginia Is One to Beat, in Case You Missed It
By PETE THAMEL
PHILADELPHIA, May 26 — The University of Virginia enters the N.C.A.A. Division I Lacrosse Final Four this weekend with the trappings of one of the sport's great teams.

The top-seeded Cavaliers (15-0) have not only gone undefeated, but have won by an average of more than 8 goals a game. As blowout has piled upon blowout, comparisons have been made to Gary and Paul Gait's 1990 Syracuse team, considered the sport's consummate juggernaut.

But Virginia's brilliance has been overshadowed by the controversy that continues to swirl around Duke, which lost in the national championship game last year. Three Duke lacrosse players have been charged with raping a woman who was hired to dance at a team party, and the case has created a national firestorm. For lacrosse, a sport always looking for coverage, this long-awaited publicity blitz has come for all the wrong reasons.

"I thought it was one of the most harmful events I've witnessed in my 32 years of coaching in college," Virginia Coach Dom Starsia said. "Words were lumped together like elitist and white and upper class that don't apply any longer. It was painful to have to listen to all that."

The Final Four is the sport's annual showcase, its yearly chance to sparkle on national television as the game tries to make a tricky transition from suburban phenomenon to mainstream sport. And the hope among lacrosse players, coaches and fans is that this weekend's games can help repair the game's tarnished image.

The torrent of negative publicity has not shown up at the box office. A record crowd is expected at Lincoln Financial Field this weekend; nearly 44,000 tickets have already been sold. That pace of ticket sales puts it more than 6,000 ahead of last year, said Lee Stevens, the tournament director. With a walk-up crowd similar to last year's, Stevens said, he expected a crowd of more than 50,000.

The fans will see second-seeded Maryland play unseeded Massachusetts in the first semifinal Saturday, followed by fifth-seeded Syracuse and top-seeded Virginia. The winners will play in Monday's national title game. (Cortland State and Salisbury play in the Division III final Sunday, followed by Le Moyne and Dowling in the Division II title game.)

"This weekend is very well-timed," Princeton Coach Bill Tierney said. "The game has had a great, great year on the field."

The N.C.A.A. is doing all it can to ensure that the Duke story does not overtake this weekend's events on the field. On a conference call with the teams coming to Philadelphia this week, university officials were told to tell their athletes and coaches not to discuss the Duke situation. An N.C.A.A. moderator made a request along those lines to members of the news media before Friday's news conferences.

The Duke men's team's season was canceled in March in the wake of the allegations, and the program's future remains uncertain. Even with the focus turning for the moment to the field, the specter surrounding the Duke program will linger here.

The suspension of Duke's season cost Virginia two games on its schedule. The Blue Devils, who lost by a goal to Johns Hopkins in last season's championship game, were the top-ranked team in the preseason.

But Starsia said the Duke situation helped his team keep its perspective.

"I don't think anyone really noticed we were undefeated because of all the stuff happening at Duke," Starsia said. "We're a small community, lacrosse. We didn't feel any pressure because if we lost a game, we realized there's a lot worse things that could happen to us."

Starsia said he had not given thought to whether, if his team won the national title, its season would have an asterisk because of the canceled games that might have given the Cavaliers their toughest competition. While Starsia took a more reserved approach to the question, Massachusetts Coach Greg Cannella was more direct about whether the Minutemen's first Final Four deserved an asterisk because the Blue Devils were not in the field.

"Are you kidding?" he said. "No. No. No."

The Minutemen (12-4) are one of the weekend's compelling storylines, having reached the Final Four for the first time in 17 postseason appearances. Syracuse (10-4) has won nine straight after starting the year 1-4. The Orange have returned to the Final Four after missing it last year, snapping a 22-year streak of Final Four appearances. Maryland is in its 18th Final Four, but has not won a title since 1975.

And, for a weekend at least, those around the sport say they hope such on-field successes will be the prominent lacrosse stories in the news.

"I think everyone is really looking forward to getting back to the sport and away from the sensationalist cable news image of the sport," said Bob Carpenter, publisher of the magazine Inside Lacrosse. "People want to see the goals and fast breaks and be out in the sun having a good time."

 

At 5-10 and 205 pounds, Matt Ward doesn't have the ideal physique. But to U.Va., he represents a . . .
BODY OF WORK
BY JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER May 27, 2006

Danny Glading was a sixth-grader when he first heard about the ninth-grader starting for the nationally ranked lacrosse team at Landon School in Bethesda, Md. He was surprised when he finally saw Matt Ward in person.

"I thought he'd be a little bigger," Glading, now a University of Virginia freshman, recalled with a smile. "The way that people described the way he played, he was kind of the opposite body type from the way I thought it would be. But he uses what he has to his advantage."

Ward, the best player in the D.C. area as a schoolboy, now may the best player in Division I. With 58 points, on 33 goals and 25 assists, the senior attackman is the leading scorer for top-ranked U.Va., which meets Syracuse in an NCAA semifinal this afternoon in Philadelphia.

He's tenacious, competitive, relentless. He does not, however, cut a dashing figure in uniform.

On his 5-10 frame, Ward carries about 205 pounds, and he won't be confused for a bodybuilder.

"You look at him, and he doesn't have that great body," Cavaliers coach Dom Starsia said. "We joke to him and about him all the time. He doesn't have great definition, a little portly perhaps, but he can do everything."

Good athlete?

"I think he's a great athlete," Starsia said. "He can hit a golf ball a mile, and I hear he's a great tennis player, and he was a very good football player. He ain't much to look at sometimes, but he gets it done."

Ward, who's from Oakton in Northern Virginia, played middle linebacker at Landon, and "he plays attack like a middle linebacker," Starsia said. "He'd like to take a piece of you with him to the cage."

An outstanding tennis player as a boy, Ward ultimately concluded that his temperament wasn't well-suited to that sport. He didn't handle setbacks well.

"I loved throwing my racket," he said. "I don't think there are many things more enjoyable than throwing your tennis racket into a fence."

Lacrosse proved the perfect outlet. Ward twice was named The Washington Post's high school player of the year, and he made an immediate impact at U.Va.

As a freshman in 2003, Ward started and helped Virginia win its third NCAA title. He led the Cavaliers back to the final four in 2005, when they lost in overtime in the semifinals, and now has them in sight of another NCAA crown.

"Winning as a freshman was nice," said Ward, a second-team All-American last year, "but certainly winning as a senior would be much more fulfilling. It's your last hurrah, and a freshman you're there kind of enjoying the ride."

Ward, a three-time all-ACC pick, ranks fourth in career goals at U.Va., with 130. He's tied for eighth at Virginia with 199 career points.

As important as all those goals and assists has been the leadership he's supplied.

"He's just one of those athletes that has great presence," Starsia said. "I think his stepping in the door and starting as a freshman is probably the least surprising part of the whole thing. I think he probably had no different expectation for himself."

Ward graduated Monday with a commerce degree, and he's headed to law school, probably at the University of Baltimore. He said he'll probably concentrate on sports law.

"Sports has been such a big part of my life from Day One," Ward said. "It's something I don't want to give up."

That's obvious. Late in the second quarter of the ACC championship game April 30, Ward broke a bone in his right hand. Despite temendous pain, he finished that game Ward contributed a goal and an assist in the second half -- and the injury hasn't slowed him in the NCAA tournament.

In victories over Notre Dame and Georgetown, Ward totaled seven goals and six assists.

"For someone that driven right now, having his last go at the championship, I don't think anything could hold him back from playing," Glading said.