It is the most common preseason story in sports -- a battle between two players for a starting position.
Only in the rarest of cases does a team enter a season knowing exactly who will line up on the field on opening day. The Virginia women's lacrosse team is no exception. Despite coming off a championship season and returning nine starters, the Cavaliers have a battle for one of the most important positions on the field -- goalie. Junior Ginger Miles and freshman Kendall McBrearty currently are battling for the opportunity to take over between the pipes for graduated goalie Andrea Pfeiffer.
There appears to be an open competition for the starting role. Both Miles and McBrearty spent an equal amount of time in goal during last month's Charles Street Challenge, a series of scrimmages hosted by Loyola College. Both players played a half each in all three scrimmages.
After that competition, Virginia coach Julie Myers stressed the importance of using the entire preseason schedule to make her decision.
"We open [on March 4th], so we still have practice opportunities," she said. "We were looking at a lot of things, but on a day like today we hope the players would separate themselves."
McBrearty, a native of Alexandria, Va., is one of only four freshmen on Virginia's roster. In high school, St. Stephen's/St. Agnes in Northern Virginia, McBrearty was named a U.S. Lacrosse All-American in her senior season. McBrearty also helped her team win four Independent School League titles.
Miles, the older of the two players, has seen action in both of her seasons with the Cavaliers. She has appeared in 14 games for Virginia and allowed 19 goals. Last year, she played in the first round of the NCAA tournament. In that appearance, Miles did not allow a goal to be scored as the Cavaliers defeated Mt. Saint Mary's 19-2. On her career, Miles has a save percentage of .490.
Regardless of who wins the starting job, both McBrearty and Miles will be playing behind a strong defensive unit that returns all of the starters from last season. With that experience on the defensive side of the field, the Cavaliers have reason to be confident despite the uncertainty of who will be starting.
Virginia's season starts this weekend with a trip north to Syracuse to battle the Orange, a team that beat Virginia a year ago. Syracuse is ranked No. 12 in the nation and won its opener 17-4. Whoever is in goal for the Cavaliers will have to face some intense pressure, but the Cavalier defenders feel they can help their goalie.
"Whether it be Ginger or Kendall that's in the goal, they're both going to be new to the big game situations, so [the experience of the defenders] is really important," senior Elizabeth Pinney said. "Hopefully, we can make it easy for our goalie."
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