RATCLIFFE ON: UVa’s win well worth the wait

For 12 long months, Virginia’s men’s lacrosse team waited for Sunday afternoon to roll around. For the past year, the Cavaliers have been chewing on a first-round upset loss to Delaware in the NCAA tournament and it had eaten away at their collective souls ever since.
Last May, they entered this event ranked third in the country, coming off a national championship the year before. They were playing at home where they were nearly unsinkable and hosting a 15th-ranked team that nearly didn’t make postseason. Clearly they were emotionally destroyed by an unexpected 14-8 defeat, a setback that ended their dreams of a possible repeat.
Getting the job done
When sixth-ranked UMBC, billed as the hottest lacrosse team in the nation with 11 straight wins, came to rain-soaked Klockner Stadium on Sunday, needless to say Virginia was ready. Perhaps it wasn’t so evident in the early going when the Cavs appeared a little rusty after coming off a two-week break between games and exams.
But they did what they had to do, erased 5-2 and
7-5 deficits to pull out a
10-9 victory that advanced the Cavs to this weekend’s NCAA’s final eight (against Maryland) in Annapolis. In the process, Virginia buried some old bones left around from last year’s debacle.
Atonement for Cavs
The day Virginia reported back to practice from the recent exam break, a week ago Sunday, coach Dom Starsia intentionally brought that particular skeleton out of the closet as a source of motivation.
“I told them that we are a different team, a completely different group, and that it’s a different situation, a different year,” Starsia said.
He also reminded them of all the really good things this team had accomplished during the season, beating Syracuse at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium, beating Princeton on the road, breaking home attendance records in a win over Johns Hopkins and a loss to No. 1 Duke.
Then there was gaining revenge against Maryland in the ACC semis here, before another loss to Duke in the conference tournament championship.
“But in lacrosse,” Starsia reminded the youngsters, “people remember what you do in May. And for the last 12 months we’ve had to explain that Delaware game.”
The coach understood how that upset happened and made peace with it, but it wasn’t that easy for the players.
“I used Ben (Rubeor, the senior attackman and team captain) as an example,” Starsia said. “I said I’ve listened to Ben have to tell people, ‘yeah, we lost to Delaware,’ all year long. Sunday, I told the team we’ve been waiting 12 months to be right here, the week before the first round of the playoffs. This is the one we’ve been waiting for.”
Starsia is known as a fiery guy who knows how to get his team’s attention. Certainly his message did just that even though he admittedly never felt comfortable during this close call over UMBC. A superstitious man to some degree, Starsia has a rule that he never peeks at the scoreboard clock late in games, a habit dating back to early in his career.
Usually his team is up and trying to safely run out the clock, however, with the last goal of the game coming with 6:50 remaining (an extra man goal by junior attackman Garrett Billings), there were plenty of anxious moments down the home stretch. So many in fact, that Starsia had to break his own rule and constantly check the clock to make sure his defense was organized against a solid UMBC offense.
This Virginia team is accustomed to close games, having won three in overtime (Syracuse, Hopkins, North Carolina) and several others at the wire. Having been pushed in the postseason opener may have been a good thing in Starsia’s eyes.
He said two weeks ago, after a late rally fell short against Duke (11-9) in the ACC title match, that his team’s best lacrosse was in its future. Offensively, his three attackmen (Billings, Rubeor and Dan Glading) were the healthiest they have been since early season.
If the defense continues to come together, the coach believes his team might get that third shot at Duke in the national championship game in Foxboro, Mass., in two weekends.
“We had been rotating four defensemen but when Tim Shaw underwent hernia surgery two weeks ago, Ryan Nizolek went into the starting lineup and I think that helped settle us down,” Starsia said.
While Virginia, now 12-3, bolted to a 9-1 start behind freshman goalie Adam Ghitelman, the team has responded to veteran Bud Petit in goal since the loss at Maryland in late March.
“Bud’s got a certain urgency about him that only a kid in his fifth year can have,” Starsia explained. “He’s one of our emotional guys and he’s helped bring us together on that end of the field.”
Now, the only thing that stands in Virginia’s way of a return to a Foxboro Final Four (say that fast 10 times) is age-old nemesis Maryland.
It’s no secret that the Terps attempt to physically intimidate the Cavs, something that worked at College Park when they manhandled the Wahoos. But UVa caught on and answered the bell in beating Maryland in the ACC semis.
Time for the rubber match and greater things.
“As they say, familiarity breeds contempt,” Starsia said with a smile. “We know the Terps well enough to be contemptuous.”