White: Offseason Workouts Test Bennett's Players
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com
Release: 09/23/2009
By Jeff White

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- One hundred meters up, the hill at Washington Park leveled off, granting the players a respite before the next round of pain.

"How many is that?" guard Jeff Jones asked when he caught his breath.

"You don't need to know, Jeff," assistant coach Ron Sanchez responded good-naturedly. "Just keep running."

No matter the sport, the off-season is the time when strength-and-conditioning coaches at UVa wield the most influence, and Mike Curtis has stayed busy since returning to his alma mater in early June.

Curtis, a former men's basketball player at Virginia, is charged with getting Tony Bennett's team fit for the coming season. To do so, Curtis employs a variety of drills and workouts, many of them grueling.

As clouds gathered over the city on a recent afternoon, a UVa-owned bus turned left from Preston Avenue into the Washington Park parking lot. Thirteen players debarked.

The park's features include basketball courts and a softball diamond. There's also an imposing hill, at the foot of which Curtis convened his charges, 100 meters from the finish line.


They split into three groups. In the first were Jones, Jontel Evans, Sammy Zeglinski and Mustapha Farrakhan. In the second were Sylven Landesberg, Tristan Spurlock, Thomas Kody, Mike Scott and Solomon Tat.

The third group comprised Assane Sene, Will Sherrill, Jerome Meyinsse, Jamil Tucker and tireless manager Tom Jonke. (Absent was senior guard Calvin Baker, recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery.)

"You got 90 seconds to get up and get down," Curtis reminded the players, who knew the drill.

Moments later, they were off, the first group charging up the hill's steady incline. Then came the second group and, finally, the third. And then the exercise started again.

Thirty seconds up, thirty seconds down, thirty seconds rest.

"That's something that Coach Bennett has done over many years at Washington State and other places that he's been," Curtis said. "The primary goal of that is pretty much to build a little toughness."

The team's first visit to Washington Park had come a week earlier, when each group had run up the hill eight times. This day's workout consisted of 10 repetitions. The players would do 12 a week later and 14 a week after that.

"Eventually we'll get up to 16," said Curtis, former strength-and-conditioning coach for the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies. "The primary objective is not so much from a performance standpoint, but more so from a mental-toughness standpoint."

By the fifth sprint, fatigue started to show on the players' faces, and their breathing was labored. After the seventh, the orange T-shirts started coming off.

Bennett was out of town, but Sanchez and administrative assistants Ronnie Wideman and Brad Soucie stood on the hilltop, stop watches in hand, encouraging and challenging the players.

"Last two minutes here," Wideman yelled.

On the ninth trip up the hill, Zeglinski finally overtook Jones, who'd dominated to that point.

"That a way, Sammy," Sanchez shouted. "I know you got it in you."

Spurlock, a first-year forward, also prevailed for the first time on the ninth sprint. And on the 10th, Evans, a first-year point guard who had yet to cross the finish line first, surged to the front with Zeglinski.

"Get it Bub, get it Bub," Sanchez said, using Evans' nickname.

Evans didn't pass Zeglinski, but they finished in a dead heat and then staggered off to recover. The team's overall effort pleased players and coaches alike.

"That's hard work, man," Jones said to his teammates. "That's what it's about."

"It's tough," said Landesberg, the ACC rookie of the year in 2008-09. "That's more than just a conditioning thing. It builds toughness. Mental toughness.

"Running up that hill is just real hard, so you've got to get it in your head that you're going to do it. You can't let the hill break you down."

Later, in his office at John Paul Jones Arena, Curtis talked about challenge of Washington Park.

"It's quite a workout, and the guys have responded well, and they've done very, very well," Curtis said. "Coach Bennett was surprised. I guess that some of his teams at Washington State and other places have struggled to complete that. But I think the work that our guys put in this summer has kind of laid the foundation for them to be able to complete those type of tasks."

At the bottom of the hill, the players gathered around Curtis before returning to the bus for the short trip home to the JPJ.

"Good work," Curtis told them. "I like the way you made it look easy. Next week we're going to do the same with 12."

More from Mike Curtis



Sept. 24, 2009
7:12 p.m.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Elsewhere on VirginiaSports.com, I posted a story Thursday afternoon about the men's basketball team's offseason workouts with new strength-and-conditioning coach Mike Curtis.

Curtis and I spoke in his office at John Paul Jones Arena after a recent training session at Washington Park. A lot of his comments didn't make the article, but fans may be interested in what Curtis had to say.

Here's a sample:

JW: Will your offseason program change next year, when the veterans are more familiar with your system?

MC: Every year's going to be different, based on the incoming class. The incoming class is going to go through our training system, that foundational aspect of it, where I go through assessment and look at how they move and look at what things may inhibit their performance, and we address those things first. These guys will have already gone through a year of that foundational training, and we can progress to some different things.

The group had a pretty good foundation of just strength, absolute strength. My goal has been to try to make them a little bit more athletic, try to refine and make their movement more efficient, try to also reduce some of the injuries that we've had with this team in the past.

JW: Talk a little bit about your philosophy.

MC: It's far more important that they stay on the court and can practice and can do the things that Coach Bennett needs them to do for us to be successful strategically, more so than just acquiring strength to acquire strength. I wanted them to enhance their athleticism, but at the same by doing that make them a little more shielded from some of the injuries that we may have had in the past. At the same time, by increasing that aptitude for some more efficiency with their movement, our guys have been running faster, have been jumping higher.

For me, that's more important, because those are the physical qualities of actually playing the game. It doesn't matter so much to me how much they bench-press or squat. It matters to me that they can actually carry out those tasks they have to do when they actually play basketball.

JW: The players look very lean, especially Sylven [Landesberg] and Jamil [Tucker].

MC: We've taken some weight off. For the most part, the guys who needed to take some weight off, because I thought it would equate to a little bit more movement efficiency, those guys have done it.

Sylven's shed a few pounds, Jamil's shed a few pounds. My goal was to have lean basketball players who are functionally strong.

And then there are the guys who've actually needed to gain some weight. Assane [Sene] was 234 the other day, which was up from 228 at the beginning of the summer. So we've put on six pounds of good weight. It wasn't just weight to put on weight. So I know if he's gaining it at that pace, it's muscle, and it's what we need to put on him, not just mass that's going to be mass that he's not going to be able to use and is going to make him slower. We don't need him slower. We need him more explosive.

He's still thin, but as long as we can put it on the right way, if we can put on six pounds, and his jumping increases, his ability to hold positions is better, that's more important to me than putting on 10 pounds or 12 pounds and then he can't move.

JW: How do you assess [freshman forward] Tristan Spurlock as an athlete?

JW: Basketball-wise, his base looks good, but we've got some things that we need to work on in terms of teaching him how to hold positions and move and sit through his hips, so he can have a little bit more leverage when he gets out there and plays. He's going to put on some size, we'll put some size on him later, but I wanted to make sure that the kid could move first. He's still in our functional foundation phase of training where we're trying to teach him how to actually sit in defensive stances and move out of those positions, because he struggled with that a little bit. At the end of the day, a player like him who's going to probably be asked to play multiple positions and have to guard some guys out on the wing, he's going to have to be a little bit more mobile through his hips.

JW: Could you tell that [freshman point guard] Jontel Evans had played high school football?

MC: Yeah, we could. As you can see, he's leaned down. He came in about 200, 202, and now he's down to 188, 189, and he's moving better, a litle more explosive in a basketball sense. He was already explosive, because he was a running back, but this is more from a basketball sense. I just wanted to kind of help him understand what it was from a movement perspective that he needed to refine here, and get out of the football-type of movement mentality and get more into the basketball movement mentality.

JW: [Senior center] Jerome Meyinsse is very solidly built. What's your goal with him?

MC: All I've tried to do is refine his movement. He's big and strong. We're just trying to help him move better. If you've seen him in the past, you know he's a great athlete, but there were some things that I saw in the assessment process in terms of trying to make him a little bit more elastic in terms of his explosiveness.

He is explosive, but he doesn't have the ability to be kind of springy, so we've tried to work on those things that are going to allow him to be able to catch the ball underneath and go straight up and not have to go through that big loading phase. So we're trying to make him better at those things ... and a lot of that has to do with some of the slow-strength type stuff that they have probably been doing in the past.

JW: Before you were hired, how much did you and Tony Bennett discuss your strength-and-conditioning philosophy?

MC: It's always been my goal, when I come in, to let the coaches know where I am philosophy-wise. I've been shaped by a lot of my experiences, the NBA and a lot of the people that I've been around, physical therapists and strength coaches who may not be considered traditional.

So when I came and sat down with him, he understood that I was more performance-based. I was going to do what it was going to take to make these guys better basketball players in a functional sense. Not just to be weight-room strong, it has to translate to what they do. And he was on the same page. He understood that it wasn't just going to be the typical grind in the weight room. It was going to be what type of modalities can we use, what type of exercise can we use that actually will enhance their basketball performance.

So if you come in here and watch a workout, yeah, there are going to be some things that look traditional in terms of weight-training, but then there are going to be other elements of what we do that are going to look like snapshots of basketball. We put dumbbells in their hands or we hook them up to a pulley system, and we're doing basketball-specific movements to enhance those abilities to carry out those tasks that you have to do when you're playing basketball.

-- Jeff White





Groh Weighs In on Wallace
Sept. 24, 2009
12:18 p.m.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- On the weekly ACC football coaches' teleconference, Al Groh spoke at length Wednesday about the injury Dominique Wallace suffered last weekend at Southern Mississippi and how the 230-pound tailback's absence will affect the team.

Wallace, a true freshman from Fredericksburg, suffered a Lisfranc fracture in his foot, the same injury sustained by tailbacks Wali Lundy (2005) and Cedric Peerman (2007) during their careers at UVa.

During his nine seasons as Virginia's coach, Groh has also seen tailbacks such as Antwoine Womack, Alvin Pearman and Jason Snelling sidelined for health reasons.

"It seems that there's one position where we've had issues with one of our top guys every year. I think this is the seventh or eighth year that this has occurred," Groh said.

"Wali got hurt on the third play of his senior season, and it really took him about seven or eight weeks before he was back to what he normally would be. Of course, Cedric lost [the final seven games of the '07 season] with it.

"Now we've got this. Frankly, I'd never heard of the injury till I came here. That is, I don't recall ever being on a team where the injury was discussed. Now we've had three prominent running backs succumb to it."

Groh said the medical staff has looked for threads that link the three injuries. "What type of curvature of the arch each player had. Were they flat-footed? Did they have a nice arch? What kind of shoes were they wearing? What kind of run were they running? And despite all due diligence, it just kind of looks like it's just a bad set of coincidences."

Wallace will have surgery on his foot. Losing him "certainly does change the rotation [at tailback]," Groh said.

"He was becoming a significant part of that rotation ... and acquitted himself very well [against Southern Miss]. It's certainly a testimony to his will and his toughness that he played well over two quarters after being injured. Our trainers have remarked about, from their perspective, how tough he must be in order to do that and still produce very well."

Wallace, because he played in only three games, is eligible to receive a medical hardship waiver. That would give him four seasons of eligibility, starting in 2010.

-- Jeff White

 

UVa Insider, The Column - Doug Doughty/Roanoke Times

So, what happens to Vic Hall when Virginia team doctors clear him to return to active duty?

Hall was the Cavaliers’ starting quarterback in their opening game against William and Mary but was injured in the second quarter.

Hall returned punts after that point but his only action in Week 2 came as the holder on an aborted field-goal try in the first quarter.

Hall was in uniform for the Cavaliers’ game Saturday at Southern Mississippi but did not get on the field.

That confused me.
If Hall had been given medical clearance to participate in the days leading up to the TCU game, was one to believe he had taken a turn for the worse prior to the Southern Miss game?

In answer to my question on Wednesday’s ACC coaches’ teleconference, UVa coach Al Groh offered some clarification.

“That [clearance] was for the role he was in,” Groh said, “which was, specifically, to be the holder. As history proves, despite the fact we had medical clearance on him, there was something a little more difficult [a high snap] than was normally the case on that play.

“His injury inhibited him. So, since that time, we’ve cancelled out all possibilities until we can say that he’s fully 100 percent.”

Clearly, Hall’s roommate and fellow fifth-year senior, Jameel Sewell, is entrenched as the Cavaliers’ starting quarterback. While an 0-3 record might not reflect it, Sewell has gotten better with each game.

Hall could return to the secondary, where he started for two years. That would make sense if three-game starter Chris Cook is hobbled. Cook, listed as “probable” for the USM game with a hip issue, played only one play before he was sidelined with what has been described as a groin injury but may have been a recurrence of the hip injury..

Redshirt freshman Devin Wallace took Cook’s place in Hattiesburg, Miss.

Chase Minnifield hasn’t been an upgrade over Hall as a punt returner, so possibly Hall could resume those duties. He also could spell Sewell at quarterback or play in the same spread formation with Sewell, as he did at one point in the William and Mary game.

Groh said Wednesday that Hall had not received medical clearance yet to return to action Oct. 3 at North Carolina.

“At the present time, we don’t have any options with him,” Groh said. “Our thoughts, as have been expressed, are that Vic offers so much to the team that we would like, at the conclusion of every game, that Vic be tired and dirty.”

IT HASN’T BEEN EASY to say what running back plays what position for the Cavaliers. Fifth-year senior Rashawn Jackson is listed as the No. 1 fullback, but, until the Southern Miss trip, UVa had never played more than one running back at a time.

Jackson was in for the first snap at Southern Miss in a one-back formation, but true freshman Dominique Wallace joined Jackson in the backfield for the second snap (and actually fumbled on a play that lost 10 yards and resulted in the Golden Eagles taking possession).

Groh’s subsequent reference to Wallace as “the starter” indicates the regard in which he is held by the staff and increases the damage caused by his season-ending injury. The good news for Virginia is that Wallace should win an appeal for a fifth season of eligibility and that former starter Mikell Simpson should be close to 100 percent after being kicked in practice – and requiring stitches – prior to the USM game.

Wallace “was becoming a significant part of that rotation,” Groh said Wednesday. “By starting that game, he was about as close to the top of that rotation as a player can get and acquitted himself very well.

“It was certainly a testimony to his will and his toughness [that] he played well over two quarters after being injured. Our trainers have remarked, from their perspective, how tough they think he must be in order to do that and still produce very well. It takes away a player, who, with nine games left, we looked at as really assuming a prominent role.”
 

U.Va. soccer coach hits milestone
Published: September 25, 2009

Coach hits 200 wins
It took a little longer than normal, but Virginia men's soccer coach George Gelnovatch notched his 200th victory Tuesday night when the Cavaliers defeated visiting George Washington 2-1 in overtime.

Gelnovatch is in his 14th year with the program, with a career mark of 200-77-22. His current team is ranked No. 11 nationally.

Senior defender Neil Barlow punched in the winner Tuesday in the 92nd minute.

"Any time a program and a head coach can accumulate 200 wins, it's not an easy thing to do," Gelnovatch said after the match. "This game was a reminder of that."

The team will play host to Clemson tomorrow.

In other soccer news, the Cavaliers will be without Deep Run grad Brian Ownby for the next month. He's in Egypt with the U.S. under-20 national team at FIFA's World Cup event for that age group.

Workouts under way
The season still is a couple of months out, but the first basketball workouts have begun inside John Paul Jones area.

First-year coach Tony Bennett and his staff can't yet practice with the full squad, but they are allowed to work with small groups of players.

He's taking the opportunity to introduce the team to his style of play, which places a premium of ball protection and cutting down on turnovers.

"We're just trying to build patterns and build discipline," he said Wednesday. "The players have to know those things matter. They have to know that taking care of the ball is of the essence."

Full-team practices begin in mid-October, but Bennett wants to be ready to go when that time rolls around.

"We've worked pretty hard in our limited time trying to establish being strong with the basketball," he said. "We're trying to get things established so that when we get time as a team, we won't have to go back."

No plans yet for Hall
Football coach Al Groh has yet to determine how senior Vic Hall will be used when he returns from a hip injury.

Hall played just one snap -- as a holder -- against TCU and did not play against Southern Miss. During those games, Hermitage grad Jameel Sewell established himself as the team's quarterback.

Hall could return as a punt returner, backup or co-quarterback, or move back to the secondary. It's likely that Groh will find a spot for Hall, a player for whom he has an affinity.

"Our thought throughout has been that Vic offers so much to the team that we would like, at the conclusion of every game, that Vic be tired and dirty," Groh said.

Michael Phillips mphillips@timesdispatch.com.

Cavaliers Suffer 2-1 Loss at NC State in ACC Opener
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com Release: 09/24/2009

RALEIGH, N.C. – The No. 14 Cavalier women’s soccer team had its seven-game unbeaten sneak snapped with a 2-1 loss at NC State at the Dail Soccer Stadium. The loss drops the Cavaliers’ record to 5-2-2 overall and 0-1-0 in the ACC.

“This is obviously a disappointing result for us,” said head coach Steve Swanson. “But is a result that we can learn some lessons from. I wish you could take lessons from a game like this when you win it, but sometimes you need a result like this for the urgent lessons to kick in. This won’t break our season, but we need to rebound against a tough Clemson team on Sunday.”

The Wolfpack took an early 1-0 lead in the fifth minute of play as Paige Dugal fired a shot into the upper corner off a cross from Kara Blosser. It marked the first time since the season opener at Penn State that the Cavaliers trailed in a game. Virginia nearly drew even in the 19th minute as Sinead Farrelly’s (Havertown, Pa.) header went off the post. However despite a 9-2 shot advantage, the Cavaliers trailed 1-0 at halftime.

In the second half, the Cavaliers continued to pressure and finally broke through with the equalizer in the 69th minute. Farrelly slid a ball into the run of Kate Norbo (Roanoke, Va.), who slipped a shot from 15 yards just under the diving keeper and inside the far post for her second goal of the season. The Wolfpack scored the game-winner late as Dugal headed in a cross from Tanya Cain in the 88th minute to give NC State the 2-1 lead.

Virginia outshot NC State 21-4 in the contest and had an 8-2 corner kick advantage.

The Cavaliers open a three-match homestand on Sunday when they host Clemson. Game time at Klöckner Stadium is set for 2 p.m.

NC STATE 2, VIRGINIA 1

#14 Virginia (5-2-2, 0-1-0) 0 1 1
NC State (6-2-1, 1-0-0) 1 1 2

Scoring Summary
NCSU. Paige Dugal 6 (Kara Blosser 2, Nadia Aboulhosn 2) 5’
UVa. Kate Norbo 2 (Sinead Farrelly 2, Caitlin Miskel 4) 69’
NCSU. Paige Dugal 7 (Tanya Cain 2) 88’

Shots: UVa 21, NCSU 4
Corners: UVa 8, NCSU 2
Saves: UVa 0 (Jones 0), NCSU 10 (Kern 10)
Fouls: UVa 3, NCSU 6

Weather: 83 degrees, humid
Attendance: 1134

Game Notes: The loss snapped Virginia’s six-game ACC opener winning streak … the loss also snapped the Cavaliers’ 14-game winning streak in the series.
 

Cavaliers Welcome BU, BC This Weekend
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com Release: 09/24/2009

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The No. 4 Virginia field hockey team (8-0, 0-0 ACC) welcomes Boston University (3-5) for a 6 p.m. game Friday at the University Hall Turf Field. The Cavaliers will then open Atlantic Coast Conference play at 1 p.m. Sunday against ninth-ranked Boston College (7-1, 0-1 ACC).
On Sunday against the Eagles, Virginia Athletics will hold a pregame tailgate, available to all fans, while supplies last. A postgame clinic for youth 13 and under will also be conducted by Virginia coaches and players.
Virginia has outscored opponents 31-4 in eight games this season and five of those games have been shutouts. High school teammates Paige Selenski and Tara Puffenberger lead the Cavalier offense with seven goals apiece. Junior goalkeeper Kim Kastuk currently leads the nation in both goals allowed average (0.15) and save percentage (.929). She has given up just one goal in 470 minutes this season.
With an 8-0 record, Virginia is off to its best start since the 1997 season, when UVa also started 8-0 and went on to make its first trip to the NCAA semifinals. The 1979 team began its season with a 12-0 record, the best in program history. That team went on to finish 15-4 and play in the AIAW Tournament.
Virginia is coming off a 3-0 shut out over No. 8 Michigan State last Sunday. The Cavaliers scored all three goals in the first half and recorded their fifth shutout of the year. Freshman Tara Puffenberger had a hand in all three goals, assisting on the first one to Paige Selenski before scoring the team's second and third goals in the last 10 minutes of the half. Last Thursday, UVa concluded a five-game road trip with a 4-1 victory against William & Mary. Four different Cavaliers scored against the Tribe: Puffenberger, Selenski, Michelle Vittese and Floor Vogels.
Boston University is 3-5 this season and receiving votes in the latest poll. The Terriers are riding a two game winning streak after defeating Sacred Heart 7-0 and Dartmouth 1-0. The team's other win this season was a 3-2 victory over UMass in overtime. BU has lost this season to some quality teams, including Northwestern (2-1 in OT), Maryland (2-0), Iowa (3-1), Boston College (4-3 in OT) and Northeastern (4-3). Nikki Lloyd currently leads the Terriers with five goals this season. Teammate Allie Dolce has four goals and a team-best five assists for 13 points. In the cage, Amanda Smith has 26 saves and a .605 save percentage.
Junior goalkeeper Kim Kastuk is playing her first season at Virginia after two seasons at Boston University. Kastuk was the America East Goalkeeper of the Year in 2008 and the America East Rookie of the Year in 2007. Ironically, her career-best 13 saves came last season when BU upset then-No. 8 Virginia in penalty strokes.
UVa has never beaten Boston University, with an 0-4 mark all-time against the Terriers. Last season, BU escaped at home with a 3-2 win over two rounds of penalty strokes.
Ninth-ranked Boston College is 7-1 on the season with its only loss to top-ranked Maryland last weekend, 6-2. BC is coming off a 2-1 win over overtime against No. 11 UMass. Junior Janna Anctil notched the game-winner.The Eagles have recorded wins over Vermont (3-0), William & Mary (7-2), Quinnipiac (5-0), Holy Cross (6-2), Boston University (4-3 in OT) and Monmouth (7-1). Senior Chelsey Feole leads the nation with 1.63 goals per game this season. She has 13 scores in eight games. Teammates Kate Gillis and Anctil each have six goals. Goalkeeper Kristine Stigas has 35 saves and a .700 save percentage this season.
Virginia holds a 5-4 advantage in the all-time series with Boston College. The two teams met in Boston last season with the Cavaliers earning a 2-1 win in overtime. Then-freshman Paige Selenski scored both goals, including the game-winner. The last BC win was in Charlottesville in 2007, 2-1. The Cavaliers would later defeat the Eagles in overtime in the 2007 ACC Tournament.
 

Elite Field Set for UVa Ranked Plus One Invitational
Courtesy: VirginiaSports.com Release: 09/24/2009

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- One of the strongest fields in collegiate tennis will compete this weekend at the Snyder Tennis Center as the second annual UVa Ranked Plus One Invitational runs Friday through Sunday. A field of 31 ranked singles players from 17 schools will be in action.
The tournament boasts eight players who competed in last year's NCAA Singles Championship, including 2009 semifinalist Sanam Singh (Virginia) and 2008 runner-up John-Patrick Smith (Tennessee).
Both of last year's singles co-champions, Singh and Reid Carleton (Duke) return for this year's tournament. They were two of the 11 players in last year's field to go on to play in the NCAA Tournament. Last year's A-3 Doubles Final between Dominic Inglot and Michael Shabaz of Virginia and Smith and Davey Sandgren of Tennessee turned out to be a preview of the NCAA Doubles Championship Final.
Play begins on Friday morning at 9 a.m. Friday's schedule consists of one round of doubles followed by two rounds of singles.
Complete draws are available above.
2009 UVa Ranked Plus One Invitational
Ranked Singles Players Entered
2. John-Patrick Smith (Tennessee)
9. Sanam Singh (Virginia)
12. Austen Childs (Louisville)
14. Michael Shabaz (Virginia)
16. Clay Donato (North Carolina)
20. Boris Conkic (Tennessee)
29. Reid Carleton (Duke)
35. Yoann Re (Virginia Tech)
50. Houston Barrick (Virginia)
52. Lachlan Ferguson (Indiana)
53. James Meredith (Boise State)
56. Lee Singer (Virginia)
58. Jon Peers (Middle Tennessee)
59. Christopher Aumueller (Nebraska)
61. Keziel Juneau (William & Mary)
62. Viktor Maksimcuk (Louisville)
67. Patricio Alvarado (Southern Miss)
70. Eric Quigley (Kentucky)
72. Simon Childs (Louisville)
74. Steve Forman (Wake Forest)
75. David Bendheim (Nebraska)
81. Patrick Daciek (Virginia Tech)
84. Drew Courtney (Virginia)
86. Dylan Arnould (Duke)
88. Thibaut Charron (VCU)
100. Tobias Fanselow (Old Dominion)
103. Ivan Salec (Radford)
110. Stefan Hardy (North Carolina)
112. Steven Rooda (Virginia)
118. Jon Wolff (Wake Forest)
125. Luka Somen (Virginia Tech)

 

Shabaz, Jenkins team up for doubles in weekend tournament
Ranked Plus One Invitational will feature top national players
Andrew Seidman, Cavalier Daily Senior Associate Editor
Men's Tennis / Sports
September 25, 2009 0

Virginia senior Michael Shabaz will team with No. 1 high school recruit freshman Jarmere Jenkins for the first time this weekend. Last season, Shabaz posted a 40-9 overall record with his doubles partner, graduate Dominic Inglot, en route to an NCAA title. Photo by Jason O. Watson.
Thirty-one of college tennis’ top singles players will come to Charlottesville this weekend to participate in the U.Va. Ranked Plus One Invitational. It’s no mistake that nearly one-third of the players are Cavaliers.

“We started the concept a few years ago — to invite each team to bring one player that is ranked, if they have a nationally ranked player, and then they get one non-ranked player on their team,” Virginia coach Brian Boland said.

This is the third year Virginia will host the tournament, Boland said. The singles component features four flights of 16-player brackets. Both No. 14 junior Michael Shabaz and No. 9 junior Sanam Singh are the top seeds in their respective flights. The competition includes No. 2 John-Patrick Smith from Tennessee — whom Shabaz defeated in the NCAA doubles championships last year — as well as familiar ACC opponents, North Carolina’s Clay Donato and Duke’s Taylor Fogleman.

Nine other Cavaliers will compete — four additional ranked players and five unranked ones — including freshman phenom Jarmere Jenkins. The 2008 No. 1 high school recruit in the country made a strong debut in last week’s U.Va. Classic, defeating senior teammate Lee Singer in the finals of the A2 bracket.

“It was a great experience for me,” Jenkins said. “Obviously [Singer] wasn’t on his best day. I felt I played good and caught him on one of his off days.”

Although Jenkins will have another opportunity this weekend to showcase his skills in singles, his individual play may be overshadowed by his first official doubles match with Shabaz as his partner. The tandem enters the tournament already ranked No. 17 in the country, but having not played a single match together.

“We’re looking forward to it,” Shabaz said. “Obviously it’s going to take a little while to get used to everything, but we’re excited to get things going.”

Jenkins will have to fill the void as Shabaz’ double partner left by 2008 graduate Dominic Inglot — which could prove to be quite a difficult task, considering last year’s pair won the NCAA doubles championship. Shabaz, though, said he is optimistic his new partner will be able to step in immediately for an already experienced Virginia team that returns five of six singles starters and two intact doubles teams from a year ago. Jenkins, whom Shabaz referred to as a “natural doubles player,” has already gained experience against national competition before coming to Virginia.

“I played in the four junior grand slams, and I actually competed on the World Team Tennis,” Jenkins said. “I’ve also played [former Cavalier] Treat [Huey], so I was familiar with the team.”

Jenkins managed to beat Huey — a 2007 graduate who played alongside Virginia great Somdev Devvarman during his Virginia doubles career ­— in the doubles portion of the tournament.

Jenkins and Shabaz, meanwhile, will use this weekend to try to prepare for an even more prestigious tournament in October.

“We have Jarmere and Michael playing next week in the All-American, automatically in the main draw,” Boland said. “To prepare them for that, we certainly would want to play them this week.”

Though it seems Shabaz and Jenkins will use this tournament mostly as preparation for the All-American tournament, Boland said this weekend’s matches are important for the team as a whole.

“It’s a very balanced draw all the way around,” Boland said. “It’s a great opportunity to get a lot of matches against some great competition, and I think it’s going to be another great weekend to play at home.”
 

Cavaliers take on Tigers Friday night
After close game against George Washington, Virginia resumes ACC play against Clemson
Matt Diton, Cavalier Daily Senior Writer
Men's Soccer / Sports
September 25, 2009 0

Senior forward Chase Neinken, who has appeared in five games, has taken four shots but has no goals. He will look to finish his chances against Clemson. Photo by Bennett Sorbo.
After winning their Tuesday night match against George Washington, the Cavaliers return to conference play this weekend as they welcome the Clemson Tigers to Klöckner Stadium.

Virginia (5-1, 1-1 ACC) enters the contest riding a three-game winning streak, including an impressive win last Friday against then-No. 2 Wake Forest. Virginia, however, must look to regain the form that netted its upset of the Demon Deacons, after delivering a lackluster performance against George Washington. Virginia allowed the Colonials to take the match to overtime and only a goal from senior midfielder Neil Barlow saved the Cavaliers from defeat.

“It was a good performance by the team to grind it out in overtime,” freshman forward Ahkeel Rodney said, “But those Tuesday night games, the competition isn’t as good as ACC games.”

Barlow, along with sophomore midfielder Tony Tchani, have been the offensive catalysts this season, and the Cavaliers will look to them again to defeat Clemson. Both players lead the team with three goals each; Barlow also leads the squad with two assists and eight total points.

Virginia fans can also expect junior goalkeeper Diego Restrepo to put forth a successful performance against a weak Clemson attack. Restrepo leads the ACC with a .52 goals against average, while the Tigers rank last in the ACC in scoring with .67 goals per game.

As hot as the Cavaliers have been the past three games, the Tigers enter the match just as cold. Clemson (0-5-1, 0-2 ACC) is winless in the regular season and has not won since an Aug. 26 exhibition against USC.

If Clemson is going to escape hostile territory with a victory, senior forward Nathan Thornton will have to help carry his team. Thornton leads the Tigers with two goals, one assist, five points and 18 shots on goal. Offensive production as a whole has been a problem for Clemson, as the Tigers have been shut out in three matches and held to one goal in two others. They rank last in the ACC in total goals scored and total points.

One positive for the Tigers, however, has been the play of senior goalkeeper Joseph Bendik, who ranks second in the ACC in saves.

Despite Clemson’s weak showing thus far this season, Virginia knows it cannot take its opponent lightly.

“It’s an ACC game and you never want to lose, especially at home,” coach George Gelnovatch said. In a game the Cavaliers should win, they know their biggest obstacle may be their own complacency.

“As coach is stressing we can’t take it lightly because it’s an ACC game,” Rodney said. “We have a good record and we’re doing good right now, so they’ll probably come out strong and want to make an upset. We just can’t let down.”