Neither rain nor lighting nor even sleet was going to keep the Virginia men's lacrosse team from taking revenge against Maryland. Behind a balanced scoring attack that featured goals by eight different Cavalier players, No. 3 Virginia avenged its 11-2 regular season loss last year with a similar 10-2 victory over the No. 4 Terrapins Saturday, improving to 7-1 on the season, 1-0 in the ACC.
"We came out with a sense of urgency and we pushed the ball more than we did against Hopkins," freshman attackman Ben Rubeor, who scored two goals, said. "We kind of determined the tempo today, so I think that allowed us to score more."
Because of thunderstorms moving through the Charlottesville area, the 3 p.m. game time was delayed for over 30 minutes. When the two teams finally emerged from their locker rooms and started the game, Virginia managed to buck its recent trend of scoreless first quarters. Only one minute and four seconds into the game, senior attackman John Christmas, who was held scoreless a week ago at Johns Hopkins, put in a diving goal from the left side.
Senior midfielder Hunter Kass scored a minute later, and senior attackman Matt Ward notched the game winner with seven seconds remaining in the first quarter.
"Me and Matt, once we get our first goal, we start to get loose a little bit," Christmas said. "I can't emphasize how much it works on your confidence to get your first goal."
If it wasn't for the solid play of sophomore Maryland goalie Harry Alford, who had 13 saves, the Virginia margin of victory could've easily reached the double digits.
Although the Virginia offense jumpstarted the win, it was the fifth ranked Cavalier defense that ultimately controlled the game. Junior Maryland attackman Joe Walters, the 2004 ACC Player of the Year, was held to only one goal and was shadowed most of the game by junior defenseman Michael Culver.
"I can't take sole credit for that," Culver said. "That was our whole defense; everyone was helping me out on" guarding Walters.
Indeed, the entire Cavalier defense turned in an outstanding performance, keeping the Terrapins off-guard by switching between man-to-man and zone defense.
Paired with the competitive nature of a border rivalry and the hard hitting flow of Saturday's game, the tension only mounted as the contest wore on. It came to a head with 13 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter when junior Virginia defenseman Steve Holmes and Walters exchanged blows. Walters was whistled for a one-minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, while Holmes received two identical unsportsmanlike conduct penalties, placing him in the penalty box for two minutes.
Virginia coach Dom Starsia held the best insight on the victory.
"Sometimes last Saturday has to happen in order to have this Saturday," Starsia said, referring to the loss at Johns Hopkins. "You could just tell we had a little bounce in our step. We were taking smarter looks, we got the ball out of our sticks quicker, we hit some shots early. It picked us up and gave us the edge today."
The reversal of momentum from last week's loss to Saturday's victory puts Virginia back on track for a possible ACC championship as well a number one seed in the NCAA tournament. The team returns to action Saturday against North Carolina for a 1 p.m. home game.
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