The Virginia Cavaliers - the newly-named No. 1 team in the nation - head south tomorrow to butt heads with the No. 7 North Carolina Tar Heels (6-2, 1-1 ACC).
The most recent Inside Lacrosse poll places the Cavaliers (6-1, 1-0), a mere two points ahead of Syracuse despite one fewer first-place vote.
Virginia coach Dom Starsia does not believe the Cavaliers deserve the top ranking over a Syracuse team that beat Virginia, 15-13, earlier this season.
"Absolutely not," Starsia said. "When you have similar teams with similar records, you have to go by head-to-head record."
Either way, the Tar Heels will be gunning for one of college's undisputed traditional lacrosse powerhouses. North Carolina is coming off a 12-11 loss to No. 3 Johns Hopkins in which the Tar Heels nearly overcame an 11-6 deficit late in the third quarter.
North Carolina boasts a prodigious offense that now features four players with double-digit goal totals. Surprising freshman Paul Spellman is a solid netminder behind the Tar Heel defense - Spellman has a .590 save percentage and 7.95 goals against average.
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Virginia will combat the Tar Heel defense with an attack squad that sports the top two goal-scorers in the conference and the nation's leader in assists. Freshman Joe Yevoli has scored 20 goals while John Christmas leads the Cavaliers with 25 points - 16 goals and nine assists. Senior two-time All-American Conor Gill has attracted most of the opposing defenses' attention, aiding the immediate breakouts of his freshmen squad mates. Now, the pressure is off Gill to score goals, enabling him to focus on his specialty - setting up goals with sharp passes to the tune of 19 assists.
Against Maryland, Yevoli and Christmas each had a hat trick by halftime but combined for only one goal in the second half. Christmas dismissed the idea that the Terrapins had successfully figured out how to slow the production of these Virginia sharpshooters.
"I was just looking for other people to get involved," Christmas said. "It's been my motto all season."
And indeed one boon for the Cavaliers this season has been the play of its midfielders. A.J. Shannon and Chris Rotelli have been hot of late - Shannon has three consecutive multiple goal games, and Rotelli was named ACC Player of the Week for his two goal, two assist performance last week at Maryland.
All season long, Starsia has preached the constant evolution he expects this year's team to undergo. With many key, young players filling contributing roles, the Cavaliers are wary of mental lapses. Last week's road win in the home of perennially tough Maryland proved a watermark in Virginia's maturation process.
"We need to have some close games to prepare us for the ones down the road," Rotelli said, "especially since we didn't play as well as we could have."
The Cavaliers put their five-game winning streak on the line when they travel to Chapel Hill's Fetzer Field for tomorrow's tough conference matchup. With games against North Carolina and Duke, followed immediately by the ACC tournament, there is no downtime for Virginia. The stretch run officially is underway.
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