Redemption, revenge -- call it what you want, but at this season's NCAA women's lacrosse championships in Princeton, Virginia got its share of it.
That's right: A Virginia lacrosse team is champion again -- only this time it's the women instead of the men. And it's only fitting that Virginia's championship season can be put to the tune of Queen's rock anthem "We Are The Champions." No, it really can (with some minor pronoun changes, of course). Observe.
They've paid their dues time after time.
The Cavaliers have been at the losing end of championship games on the women's lacrosse field -- and time after time at that. In the past eight seasons (from 1996-2003), they've participated in the NCAA championship game four times, but they've never come away the victors. This season, Virginia again earned its way back to the Final Four.
They've done their sentence, but committed no crime.
Following last season's disappointing overtime loss to Princeton, the Cavaliers served their sentence over the offseason. They bulked up, improved their play and broke in some new players, resulting in a team offense that was nearly impossible to contain and a defense that was equally difficult to surpass. Sure, losing is no crime, but after losing it all in sudden death -- after coming so close to claiming the ultimate prize and then allowing it to slip away -- the Cavaliers likely felt robbed when the scoreboard read 8-7 in favor of the Tigers.
And bad mistakes, they've made a few.
And only a few. Entering the tournament, Virginia had only suffered three losses: A home heartbreaker versus Syracuse, at Princeton and at Duke. But what's interesting about those three losses was the turnover column for Virginia. Speaking simplistically, turnovers are bad. There's likely not a coach in the world who doesn't stress to his players the importance of protecting the ball and limiting turnovers.
A closer look at the Virginia statistics, however, reveals something interesting. In their three losses, the Cavaliers coughed up the ball an average of 13.3 times. In their 17 wins prior to the finals, the average was 16.3. The more turnovers the better? Maybe so for the Cavaliers.
They've had their share of sand kicked in their faces, but they've come through.
I can justify this statement with two names: Cary Chasney and Meredith Lazarus. Season-ending knee injuries to two key offensive players would likely dishearten and dissolve the championship hopes of many teams. For the Cavaliers, those knee injuries didn't spell disaster, they spelled A-p-p-e-l-t -- the Tewaaraton Trophy recipient as the most outstanding player of the nation. Appelt, who notched 90 goals and 121 total points this year, accepted the role of team offensive leader early in the season and maintained her prominence to the jubilant end -- breaking numerous records in the process. She recorded the game-winning goal in each of Virginia's four tournament games.
And they need to go on and on and on and on.
On and on and on and on... That's how Andrea Pfeiffer's play in the cage must have seemed for the Tigers: An unbelievably amazing, stone cold performance that would just never seem to cease -- only four of 35 shots got the chance to reach the net.
Pfeiffer recorded a career-high 20 saves in the game and set an NCAA record for save percentage in a game at 82.6 percent.
They are the champions, my friend.
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