With seven games left in the season, the Cavaliers are all about growth.
With an even record of 6-6, the Cavaliers have shown improvement over last year, but still have plenty of growth potential. It is with a keen focus on this growth that the team will look toward the remainder of the season.
The youth of the Virginia team gives sixth-year coach Jessica Wilk confidence going into the next seven games.
"There are a fair amount of people who have made significant strides from the beginning of the year until now," Wilk said. "A lot of that is due to the fact that we are young, so we are going to try to continue to make improvements as we go. We only have three seniors, and 10 of 25 are [freshman]."
There has been a constant push by the Cavaliers to improve at both ends of the field.
"Our individual defense has gotten much, much better, and our team defense is still an area where we are growing," Wilk said. "We are trying to bring a tougher mindset defensively."
With a tough end to the season against offensive powerhouses, defense may take on added importance as the season comes to a close.
Offensively, the Cavaliers came out hot, but now need to recapture that initial momentum. The team flew out of the gate and scored 11 goals in its first two games, but has since cooled off.
"For the most part, we have done a good job of creating attacking opportunities for ourselves this year," Wilk said. "We are much better at that then we were last year, and I think we are finishing better than we were last year."
The Cavaliers may benefit from home field advantage, as it plays six straight home games before traveling to Durham, N.C. to play Duke in the final game of the season. At this point, the team is 3-3 at home. But, with six straight games, momentum could be the difference between the first and second half of the season.
The Cavaliers -- facing sub-.500 opponents in their next three games against Longwood, Princeton and Radford -- might be able to compound the momentum of playing so many consecutive home games and catapult themselves into what will be at tough stretch of the year.
It would be hard to envision a more difficult final four games of the season. Virginia Commonwealth should provide a tough game but will pale in comparison to the final three. After VCU, the Cavaliers host top-ranked North Carolina, No. 2 Wake Forest and then travel to face No. 4 Duke to end the season.
The team is looking forward to these games with a resolute eye.
"We are looking forward to every game," senior back Katie Jo Gerfen said. "Each game prepares us for the ACC tournament in early November. For now, we are taking it one game at a time and focusing on the U.Va. style of hockey"
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