Two years ago, almost to the day, the then-top-ranked Virginia men’s lacrosse team stood on the University Hall Turf Field in disbelief. The scoreboard: Drexel 11, Virginia 10.
Senior attack Danny Glading scored two goals in that game, including Virginia’s last, when it took the lead 10-9 with 6:43 left in the game. The Cavaliers returned Drexel the favor last season, winning 11-7 at Vidas Field, though the Cavaliers were only able to take control of the game after halftime, when they scored four unanswered goals.
“We had our hands full going down there last year,” Virginia coach Dom Starsia said. “And we expect a tough game this coming weekend.”
Drexel will be without attack Andrew Chapman, who led the Dragons with 39 goals last season, a full quarter of the team’s offensive production. On the attack, Drexel will return junior Colin Ambler, the team’s leader in points (42), with a balance of assists (21) and goals (21). Ambler leads a group of four Dragons in the Colonial Athletic Association’s Preseason All-Conference team, tied with No. 14 Hofstra for the most players from a single CAA team.
“They’ve got a lot of guys back from a year ago, so they’ve got some experience,” Starsia said. “And they’re just a really smart team. They’ve got six offensive guys they’re comfortable with.”
Overall, Drexel was picked to finish third in the preseason CAA coaches’ poll, behind Delaware and Hofstra. On the defensive end, junior defender Matt McCormick, a Preseason Honorable Mention All-America selection, leads a team that showed Virginia an unusual front last season.
“Last year Drexel played 100-percent zone against us, which no other team really did,” Glading said, adding that Virginia does not really “know if it will be like that again.”
The Dragons also will try out a new face in front of the cage against the Cavaliers, as goalkeeper Bruce Bickford graduated at the end of last season. The 2008 CAA Player of the Year and a United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association Honorable Mention All-American, Bickford started all 33 games in the last two seasons, missing only 78:28. Nationally, Bickford ranked fourth in save percentage and fifth in goals-against average last year among all teams.
“In the goal the last three years, [Bickford] has just been a killer,” Starsia said.
In Drexel’s upset two years ago, Bickford made 18 saves, three times as many as both Virginia goal keepers posted combined.
“They’re a very solid defensive team,” Starsia said. “So I think we’re going to have our hands full.”
On the other side of the ball, Virginia brings the preseason, consensus No. 1 squad to Klöckner Stadium Saturday at 1 p.m. Even with such expectations, Glading said Drexel is “not a team we are going to overlook ... We are going to have to come ready to play, and we are going to have to play our game.”
Virginia returns three of its four leading goal scorers, including Glading, Lacrosse Magazine’s preseason Player of the Year. The loss of attackman Ben Rubeor will shift more attention to the midfielders, including sophomores Rhamel and Shamel Bratton.
Even with the balance a deeper and more experienced midfield brings, Shamel Bratton and the rest of the Cavaliers seem to have adopted an uncertain but expectant attitude toward Saturday’s match.
“The first game is usually just getting all the kinks out, seeing who works well together, trying to get the right personnel on the field,” Bratton said. “If we keep good effort on groundballs, and things like that, it doesn’t really matter what’s going on offensively.”
Starsia said he thinks the team understands “more about what is required” of a team expected to compete in the national championship race from the season’s first face-off. And the Drexel game gives both teams a chance to see how their new personnel will work together at game tempo.
“For these early games what you’re really worried about is your own performance since you can’t really prepare too much for the team,” Starsia said.
In terms of specific goals, “we want to get out and play with a lot of energy, push the pace of the game as much as we can,” Starsia said. “Make sure we’re getting the ball up off the ground and win face-offs, so a team like Drexel necessarily just can’t control the ball. We need to shoot smartly and take advantage of whatever opportunities we can create.”
The opportunities presented at face-offs and man-up situations should keep Saturday’s game close. Virginia ranked first in the nation in man-up offense last season, including a 4-for-4 performance against Drexel. The Dragons boasted the fifth-best face-off win percentage last year in large part because of the efforts of face-off specialist junior Ryan West. West converted 60 percent of his face-offs last season, including 12 of 14 face-offs in a regular-season win against Hofstra.
Drexel should challenge various aspects of Virginia’s game and give the team a better sense of itself, as well as provide a well-played lacrosse game that could set the tone for a tough season.
“We are not going to overlook any opponents this year,” Glading said. “Everyone’s good, and there is a lot of parity in lacrosse now.”
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