There is no doubt that the Virginia men's lacrosse team has potential. The question, rather, is whether the Cavaliers will reach their full potential before the clock on the 2007-08 season runs out.
Time is short. Tomorrow afternoon's contest against Dartmouth (5-6, 1-3 Ivy) concludes Virginia's (10-2, 1-2 ACC) regular season.
While each week this season Cavalier players, fans and coaches have all glimpsed minutes and periods of greatness, Virginia has yet to maintain that caliber of play for four consecutive quarters.
Overtime victories against Syracuse, Johns Hopkins and North Carolina were flashes of brilliance, glimpses of the true potential of this team. And, despite losing to Duke, Virginia nevertheless demonstrated it could hold its own with certainly the most experienced -- and arguably the most talented -- team in the country.
But as the wheels came off in the third quarter of the Duke contest, senior attackman Ben Rubeor hoped Virginia had hit its highest and lowest points of the season during the same game.
"Before Duke went on its 10-goal run, I think we were playing some of the best lacrosse we have all year," Rubeor said. "The third and fourth quarters though -- we need that to be the low point in our playing this season."
Rubeor also mentioned that while Virginia came up with several big, game-changing plays against the Blue Devils, the team has lacked consistency all season in the small things that are necessary to win. That failure to execute the small tasks is one of the main reasons Rubeor thinks Virginia was never able to take the lead against Duke.
"We still were only tied with them, and that's still not good enough," Rubeor said. "The best lacrosse that we were playing against them during parts of the game -- that cannot be the best we have to offer at the end of the season when we get to playoff time."
Many teams view the postseason as a clean slate, a chance to start fresh. It is a logical approach considering every team starts 0-0 and every team faces an equal probability of elimination in each round. The Cavaliers, however, have decided not to wait until the regular season is over to make a fresh start. In their minds, tomorrow's Dartmouth game will be the first of many in a long march towards the ACC and NCAA finals.
"From here on out we look at it as if it was a new season," Rubeor said. "We have had some close wins and we have some things that we can look back to and draw upon," Rubeor said. "But at the same time, we can't be content with where we are at this moment."
As the Cavaliers attempt to shake off last week's loss to Duke, junior midfielder Mike Timms will not let anyone forget that last year's Dartmouth matchup was closer than Virginia would have liked, as the Cavaliers squeezed by with a 10-9 victory. Although the Big Green have been on a losing streak recently, they are coming off a big win against rival Yale and are looking to capitalize on the Cavaliers' bruised egos.
"We are trying to get back into the swing of things, and it can be tough to get your head back up and go forward," Timms said. "But we don't have time to put our heads down and stumble through another weekend before the ACC Tournament. We have to be ready Saturday to play another good team"
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