The Virginia men’s lacrosse team greeted Bryant College in its first Division I men’s lacrosse game with a sound 10-4 thumping.
The Cavaliers spread the scoring around; seven different players scored for Virginia. Freshman attack Steele Stanwick started the scoring just more than six minutes in the first quarter. Running across the field in front of the goal and pressing against a defender, he flicked a quick shot through Bryant goalkeeper Jameson Love’s feet. Though the freshman has benefited from playing alongside two seniors on the attack, Stanwick has shown poise and an ability to find the back of the cage.
“He’s got a bright future, I think. He’s just a really smart lacrosse player, again, very poised for a young kid,” Virginia coach Dom Starsia said. “And he fits in very nicely with Danny and Garrett, so it’s been a nice match so far.”
Starsia, however, pulled the three attackmen in the third quarter in part because “clearly they weren’t playing well ... [and] if any part of that is fatigue, you just want to get them out and give them a break.”
The Bryant game was the second in 48 hours for the Cavaliers.
“We ask a lot of those three attackmen that were out there,” Starsia said. “Our [midfielders] didn’t play a lot today.”
Stanwick also scored the game’s last goal, streaking from behind the goal into a hole in the defense and finding the far front corner of the net. In between the bookends of Stanwick’s two goals, junior midfielder Brian Carroll worked his way through the Bryant defense three times during the evening.
Carroll converted his first goal during a man-up situation 3:34 into the first quarter. Sophomore midfielder Shamel Bratton dumped the ball to Carroll in front of the goal, and Carroll turned and fired. Of Virginia’s five man-up situations of the game, the team only converted on Carroll’s first goal.
With this season’s personnel, the Cavaliers may need more offensive production from the midfield, of which Carroll’s hat trick provides a good example of a player that stepped up his game, Starsia said.
“Generally our attack is going to do the majority of the scoring,” Carroll said. “We had a pretty bad shooting percentage last game, and I think if our [midfielders] can start shooting a little better — I think they shot better this game — then the middies will definitely become more involved in scoring.”
Virginia put itself up 4-1 before the end of the first quarter, and when sophomore midfielder Rhamel Bratton found senior attackman Garrett Billings for a laser practically parallel to the cage, the Cavaliers led 8-3 going into halftime.
Both teams struggled to find the net in the second half, as neither team seemed to possess the intensity of the first half and both teams needed their defenses to hold the other team back. For the Cavaliers, their early shooting accuracy combined with solid defense kept Bryant at bay. With 5:00 left in the first quarter and the score at 2-0, Bryant had taken nine shots and made zeros saves, while Virginia had three shots and three saves.
Referring to Virginia sophomore goalkeeper Adam Ghitelman, Starsia said, “Today was, I felt like, a little of a coming-out party for him, It’s probably the best he’s played since he’s been here in Charlottesville, and it’s a day when we needed him to do that.”
Ghitelman tallied 12 saves in all, and “he seemed like he had a big save whenever we needed it,” Starsia said. “You just see that he’s got more confidence right now, a little bounce in his step. If he can continue to build on that, then we’ve got a chance to be pretty tough.”
Graduate Zack Greer, the NCAA career scoring leader who followed his former coach Mike Pressler from Duke to Bryant for his last year of eligibility, was limited to two assists, as the Cavaliers always seemed aware he lurked around the net. In the second quarter, Greer found himself with the ball directly in front of the cage, but four white Cavalier jerseys collapsed around him almost immediately.
Although Virginia may not have executed all it sought against Bryant, Starsia said, “It’s the beginning of a long journey, and I think we’re headed in the right direction.”
Read More
Virginia annihilated 41-14 in a must-win contest versus North Carolina
By Peter Kriebel | 1 hours agoJust about everything that could have gone wrong for Virginia football went wrong.
No. 24 women’s soccer not to be denied in late win over Clemson
By Sam Chun | 6 hours agoThe Cavaliers topped Clemson 1-0 in front of a packed out Klöckner Stadium.
Men’s soccer, totally discombobulated, capitulates early to No. 5 Pittsburgh
By Michael Liebermann | 8 hours agoPittsburgh set a program record for the quickest cluster of three goals.
