You'll have to forgive the women's lacrosse team if the players appear a little cocky heading into today's matchup against in-state rival Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.
Not only have the Cavaliers (10-2) won five straight and nine of 10 heading into today's game against the Hokies (5-6), but two of those wins came against top 10 teams - Duke and North Carolina - and two more came against top 15 teams - Maryland and James Madison.
Not only have the Cavaliers garnered a lofty No. 3 national ranking, but in Saturday's 18-6 victory over Duke, Virginia secured its first-ever regular season ACC championship.
"I think our team plays amazing together, and once we get on a roll it's really hard to stop us," freshman midfielder Amy Appelt said. "I feel like if we play like that for the rest of the season we're going to be really hard to stop."
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Appelt's emergence as a team leader has coincided with the team's recent success. In the team's five-game winning streak, the freshman from Garden City, N.Y., has notched 17 goals and six assists. Her last assist in the Duke game and 17th on the year broke the team's single-season record for assists by a freshman.
Lauren Aumiller, who set that assist record in her freshman campaign, undoubtedly remains the team's leader and go-to offensive player. In consecutive games against University of Maryland-Baltimore County and JMU, the junior All-American produced back-to-back six-goal games.
In the Duke game, Aumiller led the Cavaliers with five goals and two assists, inflating her season point total to 82. Her last goal, which put her at 184 career points, tied her with former Cavalier star Jamie Haas for third place on Virginia's all-time scoring list.
Adopting a similar attitude to that of the great UCLA basketball teams of the 1970s, Virginia feels confident its success lies more in preparing to play its best game than preparing for its opponents.
"Our philosophy is going to be the same," coach Julie Myers said. "That's going to be to make sure that we come with our best game plan. And that's going to be to fast break and try to wreak havoc on the other team's attack."
"Instead of focusing on our opponent coming up, it'll be more of what we're going to be able to do," Myers added.
While the Cavaliers will rely on their fast-break offense that has scored in double-digits in every game this season, Virginia Tech will need leading scorer Samantha Sybert to come up big.
Sybert, an All-Big East and All-Region performer last season for the Hokies, again leads the Virginia Tech attack this year. With five games remaining in the Hokies' regular season schedule, the junior midfielder already matched her assist total and improved upon her goal total from the 2001 season. She stands at 11 goals and 16 assists on the year.
In addition to Sybert, the Hokie attack relies on junior defender Kellyn Hentz (11 goals, 18 assists) and sophomore attacker Kate Threadgold (six goals, 16 assists) for much of the team's scoring.
Sophomore goalkeeper Jamie McGraw spearheads the Virginia Tech defense. She has started all 11 games in goal for the Hokies and sports a 9.73 goals against average.
Today's game against Virginia Tech is Virginia's second-to-last match before the team begins postseason play. After facing off against George Mason next Tuesday, the Cavaliers begin the ACC tournament against Maryland. The team plays two out-of-conference games against Loyola and No. 8 Vanderbilt before beginning its quest for a national championship.
Though the first round of the NCAA tournament still rests four weeks away, if the Cavaliers maintain their current confidence-level and momentum, no amount of time can slow them down.
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