UVa secures No. 3 seed for tourney
O'Connor's squad ends regular season with series victory
By Jay Jenkins / jjenkins@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
May 20, 2007

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. - Having accomplished almost everything as the most prolific closer in ACC history, Casey Lambert relished the moment Saturday as he strode to the mound as Virginia's starter.
After debating countless options and aware that only one of two scheduled games would be played, Virginia coach Brian O'Connor elected to let Lambert audition for a new role.

Even Simon Cowell would have accepted the results.

Just two days after earning his 11th save of the season, Lambert hurled four solid innings, earning the win thanks to a predetermined pitch count and received ample run support as Virginia cruised to an 11-3 victory over Boston College at a rain-soaked Shea Field.

By winning the regular-season finale, the Cavaliers won their seventh league series and improved to 41-13 overall and 19-9 in the ACC. UVa, which had two league games canceled this season, finished a full game behind North Carolina (21-9) and secured the No. 3 seed in the ACC Tournament, an event that starts Wednesday in Jacksonville, Fla.

BC (24-27-1, 12-17 ACC) had its season come to a premature end - the Eagles needed at least one win on Saturday to bypass Wake Forest and earn a berth into the tournament's eight-team field.

The ACC Tournament schedule will be announced today at 5 p.m., but Virginia already knows it will be paired up with UNC, North Carolina State and Georgia Tech.

"In this league, no matter what three teams you draw, it's going to be tough," O'Connor said. "Obviously, we have our work cut out for us ? we just have to worry about the game on Wednesday."

Thanks to Saturday's lopsided victory, the Cavaliers enter the postseason with a newfound confidence and a two-game winning streak. They might also have a new weapon in the rotation.

"It was great to see him give us four strong innings because that is something I was looking at possibly in the tournament," O'Connor said.

It certainly helped the southpaw to be able to take the mound with a two-run cushion - Brandon Guyer belted a two-out homer that narrowly missed being a foul ball down the left-field line off BC starter Terry Doyle.

"When I first hit it it looked like it was going foul," Guyer said of his seventh blast of the season. "I had a 3-2 count, so I was just battling and trying to put it in play.

"He left me a hanging curveball and I took advantage of it."

As Lambert settled into a groove on the mound, Virginia continued its hit party. For the game, the Cavaliers registered 14 hits and scored in four of the first five innings.

"What I was most happy with was the way that we swung the bats," O'Connor said. "We really came ready to play offensively and that has to be there in tournament time."

Virginia also thrived with the long ball - Tyler Cannon and David Adams joined Guyer with home runs. It marked the first time this season that the Cavaliers hit three homers in a game.

"I don't know what happened," said Adams, who finished a double shy of hitting for the cycle. "Balls were flying all over the place. We had three home runs and that's a first in I don't know how long.

"Our hitters did a great job today, and our pitchers were great all weekend. We are just happy to come out of here with two wins."

More importantly, both teams avoided serious injuries in sloppy conditions that forced the cancellation of the second game. Standing water was noticeable in the outfield.

"It was a dirty atmosphere out there," Adams added. "We came out with a win and everybody seems to be OK."

With the game in check after the fourth inning - UVa led 7-1 when Lambert was pulled - O'Connor closed out the contest by employing four relievers, including weekend starter Sean Doolittle.

O'Connor said he would wait for the tournament pairings for the round robin event to announce his starting rotation, one that may now include Lambert.

"I felt like I could have kept going if I needed to, but right now it is all about building the stamina for next week and the regionals the week after, and that is when it really counts."

 

Cavs hammer Heels
Virginia advances to Final 4 in Philadelphia
By Whitelaw Reid / wreid@dailyprogress.com | 978-7250
May 20, 2007

A little more than a month ago, Virginia had one of its most lackluster performances of the season when it was upset at Johns Hopkins. That game now seems like years ago.
UVa, which hasn't lost since, is the hottest team in the country.

On a picturesque Saturday afternoon at Klockner Stadium, Virginia was downright dominant in winning its seventh straight game. Third-seeded UVa defeated sixth-seeded North Carolina, 14-8. The Cavaliers advanced to the Final Four in Philadelphia where they will play second-seeded Duke on Friday night.

"It's a great feeling," said Virginia senior Kate Breslin. "There were a lot of great teams this year. I think going to Philadelphia means a lot to us, especially for the seniors and upperclassmen."

Breslin was once again huge for Virginia (18-3). She was the game's high scorer with five goals and added two assists. The Manhasset, N.Y., native also had four draw controls.

Sophomore Ashley McCulloch, who has been coming on strong during Virginia's streak, added three goals and two assists.

But it was the play of Virginia's defense - and the team's success on draw controls - that proved the major difference. UVa held UNC to just one goal in the first 30 minutes, jumping out to a 7-1 lead at the half.

"Our defenders did a great job and Kendall [McBrearty] made some [big] saves," said Virginia coach Julie Myers. "I think that was really a lot of momentum when [we] were able to do that.

"Their teamwork, their hustle, their intensity really set the tone for a great game for us."

The first half was a mirror of the second half of the ACC Tournament championship game when Virginia held UNC to just a goal and McBrearty made numerous highlight-reel saves.

"I think the two games were very similar," agreed Virginia senior defender Jessy Morgan. "They run a lot of picks and we had concentrated in practice on knowing how to switch on those picks and watching their crease rolls. We were confident that we could stop their attackers."

Virginia started the second half as strong as it did the first, scoring three of the first four goals to take a 10-2 lead.

At that point, UNC seemed completely demoralized. However, the Tar Heels responded by scoring four goals within a 6-minute span to cut the lead to 10-6 with 14:41 remaining in the game.

"We could kind of feel the momentum swinging," Myers said.

That's when Morgan, with UNC in full attack mode, intercepted a pass and stopped the surge.

Virginia went on to score four straight goals - two by Breslin and one each from Blair Weymouth and Megan Havrilla - to ice the game.

UNC coach Jenny Levy said it's tough to spot a team such as Virginia an eight-goal lead and expect to win.

"You can't get in a hole against these guys," Levy said. "I think if some goals had fallen earlier for us it might have been a different game, but credit Virginia. Credit their defense and their goalkeeper, and their kids on offense for making really nice plays."

Virginia's players are looking forward to their rematch with Duke. UVa lost in overtime to the Blue Devils, 19-18, in the regular season.

"I am very excited to play Duke," Morgan said. "It was a heartbreaker to lose like that. We want to go out and win because it's the Final Four, but [also because] it is Duke. We respect them a lot and I feel like it's going to be a great game."

McCulloch, who has eight goals and four assists in her last three games, believes the team has undergone a metamorphous since the loss to Johns Hopkins on April 14.

"I think after that we realized that you have to play each game and can't ever let down," McCulloch said. "I think each game we've been preparing really hard and we've just been sticking to the game plan and playing really well. So far it's worked out."

Added Myers: "I'm incredibly proud of what the girls have been able to. They've worked very hard to get to this point."

 

Virginia cruises into NCAA semifinals
Breslin shines as Cavs near fourth title game appearance in 5 years
Sunday, May 20, 2007 - 12:07 AM
By JEFF WHITE
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

CHARLOTTESVILLE - For the University of Virginia women's lacrosse team, the trip to the NCAA tournament's final four was supposed to be a harrowing journey. The Cavaliers made it look like a Sunday drive.

Third-seeded U.Va., which opened the NCAAs by routing Ivy League power Princeton 19-10, whipped No. 6 seed North Carolina 14-8 in the second round yesterday afternoon in front of 862 fans at Klockner Stadium.

"Clearly our matchups were tough, but I think that it served our team very well," Cavaliers coach Julie Myers said. "I think we got more out of the last two weeks of practice, because of our matchups, because of the respect we have for both of those programs."

The Cavaliers led 7-1 at halftime yesterday. Carolina finally got its offense on track and cut the Cavs' lead to 10-6, "and I thought we had them on their heels a little bit," said Myers' counterpart, Jenny Levy. But U.Va. answered with a 4-0 run to effectively seal the victory.

"We let up a little bit, but I don't think any of us lost our composure," said senior attack Kate Breslin, who scored a game-high five goals and added two assists.

Next up for Virginia is another ACC foe: Duke. In their regular-season meeting, the Blue Devils rallied to beat the Cavaliers 19-18 in overtime at Klockner Stadium on March 31, a loss that senior defender Jessy Morgan yesterday called "a heartbreaker."

The rematch comes Friday night on a bigger stage: the NCAA final four in Philadelphia. Virginia (18-3) will meet the second-seeded Blue Devils (16-3) around 8:15 p.m. at the University of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field. A victory over Duke would send the Wahoos to the NCAA championship game for the fourth time in five years.

Levy is a U.Va. alumna and played with Myers there, so she may be biased. But UNC's longtime coach said she expects Virginia to beat Duke.

"I think the team that won today [at Klockner] is going to get to the final game," Levy said.

Since losing April 14 at Johns Hopkins, U.Va. has won seven straight by an average margin of 6.4 goals. Yesterday, sophomore midfielder Ashley McCulloch complemented Breslin's tour de force with three goals and two assists.

This is not the same U.Va. team that got blown out 16-7 at North Carolina on March 17. Virginia hammered the Tar Heels 12-6 in the ACC championship game and dominated them again yesterday.

"I just think their defense is playing a lot better," Levy said.

The Cavaliers' superiority on draw controls - they won 17 of 24 yesterday - also contributed to Carolina's demise. So did the play of junior goalie Kendall McBrearty, whose 14 saves included several spectacular stops.

"Our defenders did a great job - they were able to stop [the Heels] on the crease - and Kendall made some huge saves," Myers said. "As great as our defense was playing, they were still getting good looks at the cage, and we were coming up with saves."

 

Virginia Men's Tennis Rolls into NCAA Semifinals with 4-1 Win Over USC
Cavaliers become the first-ever ACC team to reach the National Semifinals
May 19, 2007

ATHENS, Ga. - The Virginia men's tennis team made school and conference history Saturday, becoming the first ever Atlantic Coast Conference school to reach the semifinals of the NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament. The Cavaliers downed Southern California 4-1 in a quarterfinal matchup at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex and advance to meet Georgia in the semifinals Monday.

"I thought we played well overall today," said Virginia head coach Brian Boland, "I feel like we are getting better each match we play and we are excited for another challenge on Monday."

Virginia took a 1-0 lead in the match after winning a tight doubles point. USC took an early edge as Jamil Al-Agba and Garrett Snyder topped Ted Angelinos (Athens, Greece) and Lee Singer (Laguna Niguel, Calif.) 8-4 at No. 3 doubles. Virginia drew even as Dominic Inglot (London, England) and Houston Barrick (Brentwood, Tenn.) capped an 8-4 win over Dejan Cvetkovic and Gary Sacks at the No. 2 position. The opening point then came down to match at No. 1 doubles between the team of Somdev Devavrman (Chennai, India) and Treat Huey (Alexandria, Va.) and the team of Robert Farah and Kaes Van't Hof. Neither team could break serve in the entire match and entered a tiebreaker to decide the doubles point. The USC team took a 6-4 lead in the breaker, but Huey and Devvarman fought off the two match points against them and then won the next two points for an 8-6 win in the tiebreaker.

"The doubles point could have gone either way, but we played great tennis," Boland said. "Dom and Houston have gelled and are really playing well at No. 2 and Somdev and Treat came up big again when we needed them."

In singles, the Cavaliers extended their lead to 2-0 as Huey topped Cvetkovic 6-3, 6-1 at the No. 2 position. The win was Huey's 12th consecutive singles win, as he improved to 35-6 on the year. USC cut the lead to 2-1 as Robert Farah defeated Marko Miklo (Bratislava, Slovakia) 6-1, 6-4 at No. 4 singles. Devvarman increased the lead to 3-1 as he finished off a 6-1, 6-2 win over Al-Agba at the top position. The win was Devavrman's 37th singles win of the season, drawing him within three of Brian Vahaly's school record of 40 set in 2001. Inglot clinched the victory for Virginia with his 7-6, 6-3 win over Van't Hof at No. 3 singles, as he improved to 3-0 in NCAA Tournament singles matches.

"After a close doubles point, we did a good job of taking the momentum into singles," Boland said. "Somdev and Treat led us today at the top of the lineup like they have all season and Dom is playing some great tennis right now at No. 3."

With the win, Virginia (30-3) records its first ever 30-win season. It was also the Cavaliers' 16th consecutive win, tying the school record set during the 2005 season.

The national semifinal match between the Cavaliers and the Bulldogs will be Monday at noon at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. Georgia defeated UCLA 4-0 in its quarterfinal Saturday.

 

Will JoePa make it to Hooville?
By Jerry Ratcliffe / jratcliffe@dailyprogress.com | 978-7251
May 20, 2007

Scattershooting around the ACC, while thinking Virginia football should be a lot of fun for the next decade ...
Only a couple of weeks after announcing a two-game football series with Southern Cal, our spies have learned that Virginia has been working hard for some time on a two-game series with Penn State.

The two schools are soon expected to officially announce a series for the 2012 and 2013 seasons with one of the games slated for Charlottesville and another for State College, Pa.

We've always been in favor of a series between the two schools, which have split the last four games played between one another, with Al Groh and George Welsh going each 1-1 against the Lions.

The question is, will Joe Paterno still be coaching Penn State when the series renews? JoePa will be 83 on Dec. 21 and shows little sign of hanging up his whistle.

Paterno and Florida State's Bobby Bowden (who will turn 78 on Nov. 8) are the two winningest coaches in major college football history, Bowden leading by a few wins. Most likely, unless a health issue arises, the last to retire will hold that title forever.

Just as Bowden's son, Tommy, the head coach at Clemson, joked a couple of years ago about the two and the record: "The first one to die, loses."

One-liners ...

Ralph Sampson's son, Ralph Sampson III, unofficially visited Tubby Smith's Minnesota program a week ago. The younger Sampson is 6-foot-11 and a junior from Duluth, Ga., where the 7-4 former UVa star now resides. ... UVa East, and we really mean east, finds three former Wahoo coaches and three former Wahoo players as members of the Rhein Fire in NFL Europa: head coach Rick Lantz, quarterbacks/receivers coach Gary Tranquill and line coach Larry New along with safety Jermaine Hardy, defensive tackle Brennan Schmidt and kicker Connor Hughes. ... By the way, former Cav lineman Brian Barthelmes is playing for the Amsterdam Admirals. ... We were wowed by the fact that 92,138 fans showed up for Alabama's spring football game, dwarfing Ohio State's showing of 75,301 and Penn State's 71,000 (the only three schools in the country to draw 50,000 or more to their spring games). Now that tells you how much their fans love football.

... Recent state Sports Hall of Fame inductee Gene Corrigan told us that if the University of Virginia ever starts a hall of fame that the first two people that should be inducted would be Jim West, a long-time assistant athletic director who did everything, and Dr. Frank McCue, the former long-time team physician. ... What did it mean to Boar's Head Director of Racquet Sports Ron Manilla, to see son Dom's college playing career end back home in Charlottesville last week when ODU lost to host UVa? This columnist was standing beside Manilla when the original pairings were announced by ESPN and couldn't help but notice tears of joy streaming down the popular Manilla's cheeks upon learning that Dom would be coming home.

ACC meetings

The league held its annual spring meetings at Amelia Island, Fla., this past week and one of the biggest issues that was shot down by the basketball coaches was a proposal to play an 18-game ACC schedule rather than the present 16.

The league's coaches unanimously opposed the increase of two more conference games in a league that is considered the most competitive in the country.

While the Big East and Big Ten are increasing from 16 to 18 conference games next season, primarily for financial reasons, and the Pac-10 already plays 18 league games, the ACC will remain at 16 at least for four more seasons. That's when the conference's TV contract comes back up for renewal and guess who is in favor of more conference games?

Yep, the TV folks want more league games because those games attract higher ratings.

ADs like more league games, too, because they don't have to pay the high guaranteed money in order to attract high-profile nonconference opponents to come to play.

But this time, the coaches won.

Other issues at the ACC meetings included discussion about the future of the league's championship football game site, which will be held in Jacksonville, Fla., for the third straight time this December.

The ACC is expected to put the game up for bid and the main suitors are likely to be Jacksonville, Charlotte, N.C., Orlando and Tampa, Fla.

Orlando and Tampa have weather on their side, the fact that there's no ACC team that will return there for a bowl game, and there are other attractions for the family. The biggest case against either team is location, a long way to go for most ACC fan bases.

Jacksonville has the experience of hosting the game, and again, one argument is the distance and an average of $80 per ticket, considerably more than the SEC championship game. Weather is a 50-50 proposition.

Charlotte has the location and, even though weather questions come up, the city has produced a 10-year study that revealed the average temperature there the first Saturday in December varies by only four degrees from that in Jacksonville, which shoots down that argument. The ACC is getting a ton of political pressure from within the borders of North Carolina to give Charlotte a chance as it lies a mere hour and a half from league headquarters in Greensboro.