By Eric Ast Cavalier Daily Senior Writer
When a team wins a championship, at some point after the trophy has been hoisted and the celebration has subsided -- and in some cases before the champagne has even dried -- the thoughts of the coaches, fans and players move to whether they'll be celebrating once again next season.
While assessing a team's chances of repeating a championship win, the most immediate questions are which players the team is losing and who will be coming in to replace them. In the case of the 2004 NCAA champion Virginia women's lacrosse team, the answer to both of those questions should put a big smile on the face of any Cavalier lacrosse fan.
The team that upset two-time defending champion Princeton in last season's NCAA Championship will return nine of 10 starters from last year's squad, including 2004 National Player of the Year senior Amy Appelt. Juniors Cary Chasney and Meridith Lazarus, who were starters in 2003 but missed last season with injuries, also will return. It is for these reasons that the Cavaliers are ranked preseason No. 1 by Lacrosse Magazine.
"It's good to be the team that everyone wants to beat," Appelt said. "I think it all depends on how you leverage it. We are the best team from last year, and I think we are going to be better."
In addition to returning preseason Player of the Year Appelt, who tallied 90 goals and 121 points last season, the Cavaliers will return four preseason All-Americans in first-team selections: junior Nikki Lieb and senior Elizabeth Pinney, as well as second-team selections Chasney and Lazarus.
In addition, the Virginia attack, which has led the nation in scoring the past three seasons, is returning ACC Tournament MVP senior Ashley Haas, as well as junior Tyler Leachman to complement Appelt. The Cavalier defense welcomes back seniors Ashley Dodson and Molly Urlock, who helped bolster a solid defense last year.
"We're so lucky we have so many people coming back," Pinney said. "But this year's team is different from last year's team -- even if we had the entire team back. It's a different year, a different situation."
A couple major reasons why it's a different situation this year is the departure of other team members such as goalkeeper Andrea Pheiffer, last season's NCAA Tournament MVP. Former captain Morgan Thalenberg, Lacrosse.com's National Unsung Hero of the Year, has also departed. Pheiffer put forth one of the greatest individual goalkeeping efforts in NCAA tournament history, saving 22 of 26 shots against Princeton to help propel Virginia to the upset of Princeton. How the Cavaliers respond to the loss of a strong team leader and an anchor in goal will determine their success this year. For a team with a lot of experience, leadership shouldn't be as big of a question as goalkeeping. At this point, who will fill Pheiffer's cleats is still up in the air.
"There is a competition," head coach Julie Myers said. "We have two goalkeepers, Ginger Miles, a third year, and Kendall McBearty, who is a first year. They're fighting their way through it and we haven't made any decisions yet."
McBearty is part of an incoming freshman class of four that includes attacker Megan O'Malley, midfielder Claire Bordley and defender Alice Hughey. With so much depth returning from last year's team, it should be a learning year for most of this class, while McBearty could have the most impact.
On a team with clear individual talent, Meyers' prediction for the make-up of this year's squad says a lot about their chances to repeat.
"It's not going to be one or two kids that jump to the front, but the whole team that rises together," Meyers said.
A team with so much ability and a team-first approach is going to be tough to stop this season. It shouldn't surprise anybody if this time next year the focus is on what it will take to win three in a row.
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