Ryan seeks a better effort

Sitting a spot above Maryland, a recent power, in at least one national poll would lead you to believe that Virginia coach Debbie Ryan would awake all smiles.

That is not the case. Not yet at least.

Virginia, despite a 13-2 start, the best since 1992, and a No. 15 ranking faces a tough slate ahead and appears in dire need of better chemistry.

The Cavaliers, after a lackluster 16-point win over lowly St. Francis (Pa.), rank in the middle of the ACC in scoring offense (No. 6) and scoring defense (No. 7) and have the worst shooting figure in the league, connecting on just 39.8 percent of their shoots from the field.

“Obviously, you would want to have something like the Georgia game heading into ACC play,” Ryan said, while noting Virginia’s previous win. “You have to give St. Francis a lot of credit. They made us play the way that we did, but at the same time, we did contribute to that a little bit, mentally.

“I do think that we want to want to be playing a little better when we head into the Wake Forest game and then on into [North] Carolina. We will see.”

As bad as it may sound and look at times, Virginia is riding an eight-game winning streak after the victory over St. Francis. That is not important, however, to Ryan.

“That doesn’t really mean anything to me. One game is one game,” she said. “One game does not make the next game better nor does it make it worse. You have to understand that each game is in and of itself. Each game has to be treated that way.

“We had an opportunity against [St. Francis] to be better than we were against Georgia. They had the opportunity to step up and play even better and that didn’t happen, so that is why it is so disappointing.”

Ryan’s players learned that winning a pivotal game does not produce an ensuing win after upending Tennessee on the road. Four days later, Virginia fell at Old Dominion, one of the team’s two losses to date.

“Everybody talks about riding the wave and there is no such thing. It is all mental,” Ryan said. “If you want to play the game today, play the game today and if you don’t, sit down. There is no in between. It is just like if we went out to the [on-campus outdoor courts at the] Dell and played; if you feel like playing, you go out there and play your butt off or you don’t.

“There isn’t any in between. It is not like because we won Friday night that we are going to play well [the next game]. That is obvious.”

Luckily, Virginia’s schedule should get the attention of the players. The Cavaliers will play three of their next five games on the road, a stretch that includes a road date at No. 2 North Carolina on Jan. 16.

“We have definitely have had a lot of lessons in this preseason, but in the ACC you have teams coming at you every single night so it is important that we use our past experiences to help us know how to prepare,” Virginia sophomore Jayna Hartig said. “We know we have to bring it in practice because what you do in practice carries over into the games.

“We would have liked to have used all these opportunities to help us fine tune things and really work on stuff, but I think you can turn every situation into a positive. If you can learn from the situations then you can overcome them. I think we are going to be fine going into ACC play if we pick it up.”