Top-ranked Virginia ready for Johns Hopkins

To the naked eye, the 9-0 Virginia men’s lacrosse team seems to be clicking on all cylinders, but UVa senior Garrett Billings sees room for improvement.

“I’d like to see our midfield and attack have a good game together,” said Billings, who leads the team with 22 goals and 10 assists. “It seems like it’s been an alternating kind of thing. If everyone could play well, we would be pretty hard to handle.”

Tonight in Baltimore, No. 1 Virginia (9-0) will face another stiff test in the form of No. 7 Johns Hopkins. The game is slated to faceoff at 8 p.m. and is being televised nationally by ESPNU.

Already this season, UVa has posted impressive wins over two of the top four teams in the country — Syracuse (at the Carrier Dome) and Cornell.

“I would tell you that our kids are excited about the game and have been very good as we prepare ourselves,” said Virginia coach Dom Starsia. “If there is one characteristic that has distinguished itself to this team to date it has been our ability to be ready on each of these game days. We’ve played a lot of games and I give our kids a lot of credit for that.”

Johns Hopkins has won two of the last four national championships and finished as runner-up another year.

However, the Blue Jays are only 3-2 this season, including a loss to Syracuse last week.

Hopkins has a bit of a different look. For four years, the Blue Jays relied heavily on All-American midfielders Paul Rabil and Stephen Peyser and attackman Kevin Huntley, who have since graduated.

“I feel like they have a little bit more of a balanced attack that we’ll have to be ready for,” Billings said.

Virginia won the lone meeting between the schools last year, a 13-12 thriller at Klockner Stadium.

Ground balls

Virginia is one of three undefeated teams left in Division I, along with No. 14 Hobart and No. 3 Notre Dame. … UVa has won the last three regular-season matchups against the Blue Jays and will be attempting to win four in a row for the first time ever. The Jays have handed the Cavaliers their first loss of the season 17 times. … Virginia is tied for second in the nation in defense (6.0 GPG) and third in offense (14.0 GPG).