Player's death raises question about season ahead

In 2006, the Duke men’s lacrosse team elected to cancel its season in the wake of a scandal involving several of its players at an off-campus party.

After events early Monday morning in Charlottesville — which entailed University of Virginia men’s lacrosse player George Huguely being charged with murder in the death of women’s lacrosse player Yeardley Love — the question is whether both Virginia squads consider the same option.

Late Monday night, there wasn’t a definitive answer, as university officials and those connected with the programs said the focus was on helping others who were grieving the loss of Love.

Monday, they said, was too soon to consider the potential effect on the teams’ on-field future.

A source close to the men’s team said he didn’t know what was going to happen with the rest of the season, calling the situation “way too fresh.”

Men’s team coach Dom Starsia and women’s coach Julie Myers were not available for comment.

Back in 2008, the men’s lacrosse team lost Will Barrow to suicide, a tragedy that occurred, however, during the offseason.

The current nightmare has blindsided both teams, and occurs as each had been preparing for postseason play.

“I have no idea what happened in this whole situation,” said former Virginia player Ben Rubeor, during a brief phone conversation. “I’m going to wait until I hear facts.

“I will say that I’m extremely saddened by Yeardley’s death. She was an awesome girl. We all really cared about her.”

At a press conference on Monday, Virginia Athletic Director Craig Littlepage was asked how the teams would handle this situation. He said it’s too early to know, but that they’ll reconvene in the days ahead and have those conversations.

This season, the No. 1-ranked Virginia men’s team is the odds-on favorite to the win the NCAA tournament, which starts May 15. The women’s team, which is ranked No. 5 in the nation, begins NCAA play May 16.

Littlepage said that continuing to play may prove to be therapeutic and help the players deal with their grief.

“It’s not unusual that young people will want to get back to something normal” after a tragedy like this occurs, he said.

When asked how the teams were coping with the situation, Littlepage said that “student-athletes across the board are devastated ... we’re just torn apart by the news of Miss Love’s death.”

Virginia administrators met with the teams Monday morning to inform them of the situation and to urge them to “lean on each other, support each other,” Littlepage said. UVa will be

offering counseling to friends and teammates affected by the situation.

Back in 2006, Starsia was frank about the incident at Duke. It could have happened at any school, he said, expressing his sympathy for former Blue Devils coach Mike Pressler, who was fired.

“We’ve talked to the team about these kinds of things, obviously, but I know that when these things happen, they’re going to find their way to me, and we’re going to need to figure out a way to deal with them,” Starsia said during an April 2006 interview about the challenges at Duke.

Daily Progress staff writer Brian McNeill contributed to this report.