The Virginia men's lacrosse team not only won its third national championship in eight seasons last spring, but also was the first team in NCAA Division I history to go 17-0, winning by an average of nearly eight goals per game. These impressive statistics have landed the Cavaliers at the top of Inside Lacrosse magazine, Lacrosse magazine and Face-Off Yearbook's 2007 preseason polls, making Virginia the team to beat.
"Being number one simply means that we had a great season last year and all my colleagues want to make my life as difficult as possible," Virginia coach Dom Starsia said. "But we accept that. Other people would like to have our problem and so while we have a long way to go, I really like the group and I think we are headed in the right direction."
The last time the Cavaliers opened regular season play with the No. 1 ranking was in 2004 after they won the 2003 NCAA title. Unfortunately, Virginia did not live up to expectations and failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament that year.
"I was a freshman in 2004 and remember what it was like," senior goalie Kip Turner said. "We are prepared to not let that happen again. With the No. 1 ranking, we know we are going to get everybody's best game and so we need to go into the season knowing that and preparing for it."
Indeed, Virginia's major concern is not holding its high ranking now, but rather holding that position in May.
"Personally and as a team, I like to think that we don't pay too much attention to the rankings," junior attackman Ben Rubeor said. "We just come out and concentrate on one game each week. The rankings are for after the season, not during."
With the season opener less than a week away, Virginia is putting the finishing touches on its game. The recent inclement weather forced the team inside and so while its half-field game is rather sharp, the team has not completely refined its full-field play. Last week's preseason scrimmages against Navy and Georgetown, however, did afford Virginia the opportunity to focus on clearing the ball and field transition.
"Especially in the Navy scrimmage, I thought we found a lot of balance," Turner said. "There are definitely a lot of things to learn from these games and take into next week's season opener."
Saturday's home game against the Hoyas brought a substantial crowd out to the turf field to catch the spring preview. Although no score was kept, Virginia clearly dominated the first half. As the scrimmage wore on though, play became somewhat sloppy and the Cavaliers received an audible reprimand from Starsia.
"We had young guys and a couple kids playing out of position," Starsia said "But you still want them to make lacrosse plays. I understand why they messed up but I don't accept it as a part of what we are doing. I want everybody on the team, even the bottom guy on the roster, to understand that his role is really, really important and we aren't going to accept anything less than a full effort from everybody out there"
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