Cavs tune up with elite competition

The Virginia women’s lacrosse team clearly isn’t trying to ease into its preseason schedule. With just fall ball knocked out, the Cavaliers will open their spring slate with a trip to Florida to take on not one, but three national all-star squads.

It’s the epitome of an early-season test.

“We’re just really looking forward to playing against someone other than ourselves,” said Virginia defender Jen Holden. “Playing against girls that are obviously very talented will give us an opportunity to see where we are in comparison to them.”

Virginia will take on the U.S. Developmental national team this afternoon, then turn around later today and take on the U.S. Elite team. That’s all the players that made the World Cup squad (the Elite team) and everyone who just missed out on making that squad, who are all fighting for playing time and positions on teams.

Then Sunday morning at 11 a.m., just to round out the weekend, Virginia will take on the best squad that Japan can muster. Not bad for a team that won’t open the regular season until Feb. 18.

“We’d never done anything this competitive as early as January so we thought it was a great test,” Myers said. “It’s going to be a check mark—not necessarily a have we done it all kind of scenario, but just making sure our fitness is right, that we’re connecting the field and that our systems work.”

It certainly won’t be a typical tuneup for Virginia, but Holder, who played on the developmental team for two years in the past, explained that Virginia is ready to take on the all-stars.

“It’s a challenge and we’ll take it for what it is and play as hard as we can,” Holden said.

Virginia will have to adjust on the fly to international lacrosse rules, the most significant of which is the use of eight players by each team instead of seven in the offensive zone. That’ll mean a lot of modifications to the Cavaliers’ system that’s designed for playing with seven, as the rules specify in the college game.

“Everything we’ve done is going to be a little bit tweaked to make room for an extra attacker or that extra defender,” Myers said. “But it should still be a great test of whether we are doing the right things and it’ll definitely point out the things we need to work on.”

A number of faces familiar to the Cavaliers are listed on the World Cup training roster, including former Virginia player Nikki Lieb, who graduated in 2007. ACC players dominate the roster — the team features four former Duke stars, two North Carolina players and a pair of Maryland players, including current star Caitlyn McFadden, an All-ACC performer. The 2008-2009 Developmental team includes former Virginia standout Amy Appelt and the Cavaliers’ goalie last season, Kendall McBrearty.