No cause for alarm around Virginia
Losing is a rarity for Virginia, which has lost just 19 times since 2005. Which is why the No. 7 Cavaliers were itching to return to the practice field Monday and Tuesday after Saturday’s 12-11 loss to No. 6 Johns Hopkins.
“I think we were anxious to get back on the practice field,” coach Dom Starsia said Tuesday. “That’s usually how it works. When you come off a loss, everybody’s anxious to get to it. I know for me, you kind of sit around and stew a little bit on Sunday, and you’re always glad to be back with the team on the practice field. And we had a spirited workout. So it was good.”
Virginia may have fallen in the rankings after the setback on Saturday, but the team is still 7-2 with victories over high-quality opponents like No. 8 Cornell, No. 11 Delaware and No. 18 Drexel. And with upcoming contests against No. 4 Duke, No. 5 North Carolina, No. 9 Maryland and No. 16 Penn, the Cavaliers are assured of running through a schedule that will earn points with the NCAA tournament selection committee in early May.
“I do think that we understand that we play a pretty iron[-clad] schedule,” Starsia said. “We never talk about going undefeated although when we’re in the middle of this thing, our intent is to win every game. But I think we’re able to take a somewhat mature outlook on this and think that Hopkins is a good team, we played them on their field, and we can take away some things from that and know that it doesn’t torpedo our playoff chances completely. But what we need to do is take the things we can learn from that experience and try to do them better the next time around.”
That process begins Saturday when the Terps (6-2) visit Klockner Stadium. The last meeting between these two Atlantic Coast Conference rivals in Charlottesville, Va., entailed 85 minutes of play through seven overtimes before Virginia prevailed, 10-9, on a Brian Carroll goal on March 28, 2009.
Starsia recalled that the women’s lacrosse team, scheduled to play after the men, was forced to wait a long time. So when a few of his players grumbled about having to wait for a women’s game to end earlier this season, Starsia pointed out the irony to his players.
“We’ll talk about all those things because I do think that Virginia-Maryland lacrosse is a special moment for these kids, and there have been so many great games over the years,” he said. “I know I will remember some of those kinds of things.”
