The 1999 NCAA lacrosse championship plaque is on Grounds somewhere right now, but nobody seems to be able to find it. It's not in University Hall in a large glass case flanked by Ralph Sampson paraphernalia, and it's not prominently displayed in Klöckner Stadium where the defending champion Virginia lacrosse team plays its first game of the season tomorrow.
The plaque, the spoils of the Cavs' 12-10 victory in the title game last spring, isn't anywhere that allows a Virginia lacrosse fan to sit and gawk at it. In fact, the large, gold plated wooden slab sits unimpressively in Coach Dom Starsia's office, tucked deep within McCue Center.
Maybe it's better that way.
The title win at College Park last spring is nine months removed, and trophies won't answer the question that is on everybody's mind: does Virginia have the ingredients to win again? Despite the graduation of Tucker Radebaugh, the 1999 ACC Player of the Year, Starsia said the players still are hungry enough and talented enough to repeat.
"That's one of the reasons that they came here," the 1999 ACC Coach of the Year said. "They wanted to play for Virginia, and they wanted to play for a national championship. We've talked to them in the early season about this being the season that will define our toughness."
When the Cavs won the title last May, some observers were surprised, but this season, every opponent will be looking to knock off the defending champs. With the face-off of the opening-day championship rematch looming, Starsia knows a rectangular plaque won't make much of a difference on the field.
"You wind up with us being ranked number one in the preseason, and the expectations of being defending champions, but everybody's going to forget that in about a month once we get into the regular season and head towards May again," he said.
"I haven't found it to be a tremendous burden, and I think that our players would relay the same. I think we're all looking forward to the start of the season and to get this started with a clean slate."
Even with the spotlight of the college lacrosse world shining brightly on the white sticks of Jay Jalbert, Conor Gill, Ryan Curtis and the rest of the Cavaliers, the pressure of defending a championship isn't as suffocating as you might think.
"I think the pressure would have been much, much greater if we hadn't won," Starsia said. "In some ways, the pressure was building every year. We've won a lot of games and we've played a lot of great lacrosse, but we hadn't done this one thing that everybody wanted us to do, what we had been in a position to do. In some ways, winning it in 1999 was an enormous relief. So we're all able to catch our breath."
Another national championship game will be played roughly three months from now, and whether Virginia plays in it or not, another wooden plaque will go to someone. For the Cavaliers, the 2000 season is a test of the squad's mettle and purpose. It is a test the team believes it can pass, given the experience gained from last season.
"We've always been one of the better teams in Division I lacrosse," senior Drew McKnight said, "and it's going to be nice to have that quiet confidence that we can do it and that we know what it takes to win a championship"
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