Virginia lacrosse coach Dom Starsia knows his players are tense. He knows what it feels like to put on a jersey early in the season and step from the safety of the practice field to the midfield line in front of hundreds of fans. He also knows that now is not the time to let those nerves take over.
"Some young players are tighter in games than scrimmages because they've never experienced that [kind of environment] before," Starsia said. "These games are more about the personality of your team than anything else, but you don't want to overlook their significance. All these games are important."
Though they may seem more like warm-ups before the heart of the schedule kicks in, Starsia has learned from experience what can happen if players take these early season games too lightly.
In 2004, the team came out flat, dropping four of their first five games to teams like Denver and Air Force. Though they eventually bounced back and reached the ACC title game, any loss of momentum early in the season can spell trouble.
"Last year, we didn't take care of business in early season games, and that hurt us later on," Starsia said.
Fortunately for Starsia, the team is coming off a dominant 16-7 win over Drexel -- a victory that helped alleviate some early season jitters.
Saturday, the team hopes to notch their second win in as many games against Manhattan College, a relatively unknown team from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
"We don't run across each other all the time, so we're going into this one a little bit blind," Starsia said. "It's one of those games where you tell the players the preparation is more about us than anything else. We'll try to bring some excitement and some energy that maybe we didn't have against Drexel."
Faced with the standard early-season dose of nerves and common mistakes, Starsia emphasized that he is not worried this soon in the schedule.
"I want us to be a little sharper, but you're not supposed to be perfect in February," he said.
Starsia did seem pleased with his talented crop of freshmen, a group he hopes will gain experience over the course of the year.
"We've got a terrific class," he said. "Three freshman middies are getting playing time, and there are a couple of injured guys in the class that we think are players. I see a bright future for all the guys in the freshman class."
One player making his notable debut Saturday will be attackman John Christmas. The senior, who was named a second-team All-American in Virginia's 2003 championship season, battled through injuries in 2004 and was eventually moved to midfield towards the end of the year.
"I'm pretty anxious to get back on the field again [against Manhattan]," Christmas said, "but we're going to treat the game like any other game."
Even though Manhattan might not be on par with some of Virginia's traditional rivals like Syracuse, Maryland and Johns Hopkins, Saturday's game is just what the team needs at this point in the season. With a group of freshmen seeing their first NCAA action, seniors returning from injury and a coach testing out the waters of a new season, the Cavaliers will take all the experience they can get.
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