Billings takes school record in typical stride

It was shortly after Virginia’s 20-10 win at Stony Brook on Saturday when UVa media relations man Michael Colley approached senior Garrett Billings to tell him he had set the school record for most goals in a game.
“He was pretty nonchalant about it,” Colley recalled. “It was just another day at the office for him.”
And that’s just the type of reaction that anybody who’s ever met Billings would expect.
The soft-spoken Canadian, a very modest sort, said that as the game versus Stony Brook wore on, he began to realize that his goals were piling up.
“I saw the ball was going in pretty well,” Billings said, “so I kept shooting.
“I just think it was the way our offense was playing — so unselfish — and I was getting open shots and they were finding me.”
By game’s end, Billings had scored eight goals, tying the record that was set by Butch McCleary versus Navy in 1958 and Doug Knight against Syracuse in 1996.
Billings added three assists for a career-high 11 points, tied for third in school history. The 6-foot-1, 185-pounder also became the 11th player in school history to score 100 career goals; he now has 101.
Tonight, Virginia (3-0) hosts Mt. St. Mary’s at Klockner Stadium before traveling to play at Syracuse on Friday in a rematch of last year’s NCAA semifinal game that was won in overtime by the Orange.
“I don’t think we’re going to look past anybody,” said Billings, when asked about the possibility of doing so, “but at the same time, at least for myself — all offseason I was thinking about that last game against Syracuse. I’m looking forward to that a lot.”
Until Saturday, the most goals Billings had ever scored in a college game was five — against North Carolina his freshman year. Billings said the last time he scored eight was probably sometime during his middle school days in Langley, B.C.
Coincidentally, his record-breaking performance on Saturday came against Stony Brook, a team featuring several Canadians, including longtime friends Kyle Belton and Jordan McBride.
“I like playing against any of my friends from home,” Billings said. “That always makes playing the game a little bit more fun.”