The state of Maryland will play host to this weekend’s biggest collegiate lacrosse game as No. 1 Virginia travels to Baltimore to take on No. 9 Johns Hopkins Saturday night.
The game features two impressive lacrosse teams that have both won two championships in the last six years. The Blue Jays (11-6) are coming off a disappointing loss to No. 2 Syracuse. While Hopkins rallied late in the game to cut the Orange’s lead to three, Syracuse held on to win 14-11.
The Cavaliers, meanwhile, have been able to remain undefeated this season by getting up early on opponents. Outscoring teams 65-23 in the first half, Virginia has been able to work the clock in the second half to limit its opposition’s number of possessions. The Cavaliers will look for their leading scorers — senior attack Garrett Billings (22 goals, ten assists) and freshman attack Steele Stanwick (18 goals, 11 assists) — to jump start their offense in the early periods. Virginia has scored at least 10 goals in each of its nine games this season.
The Blue Jays will have to guard more than just Stanwick and Billings, however, as 21 different Virginia players have scored a goal this season, and underclassmen have scored 51 of the Cavaliers’ 126 goals. With a strong contribution from the team’s freshmen and sophomores, the Cavaliers have been able to go deep into their roster during games.
“We [seniors] are just trying to take these guys in, and they are helping us out,” senior defenseman Matt Kelly said. “Each week in practice, a lot of the younger guys are preparing us for the games, pretending to be the other team and whatnot. It kind of goes both ways.”
Virginia will also use its ground-ball skills against the Blue Jays to maximize its time of possession. The Cavaliers out-average the Blue Jays 44 groundballs a game to Hopkins’ 30.
Defensively, the Cavaliers will need to concentrate on Johns Hopkins’ attack duo of sophomore Kyle Wharton (13 goals, six assists) and junior Steven Boyle (11 goals and five assists). The defense has been able to stop opponents and get the ball back to the offense with ease this season, as Virginia has posted a clearing percentage of .855. Sophomore goalkeeper Adam Ghitelman also has started the year exceptionally well, allowing only 6.29 goals per game with a .596 save percentage.
With a balanced offensive attack and a solid defense, the Cavaliers have a chance to make a run to the national championship. The path to the finals, however, will not be easy. In the next four weeks, Virginia plays games against No. 10 Maryland, at No. 8 Duke and at No. 11 North Carolina.
With their upcoming tough schedule and key game this week, fatigue and injury may be possible concerns for the Cavaliers. One positive about the remainder of the schedule is that Virginia will only play one game per week, after having started the season with nine games in four weeks.
“There are some things I’ve been really pleased with; one of them is our fitness level,” head coach Dom Starsia said. “We’ve been good in the second half of all these games. We just haven’t been able to go hard in practice because we’ve had so many of these games to prepare for. There are just some things that we need to do a little bit better, and getting back to the practice field will help with that.”
This Saturday’s game against the Blue Jays is going to be a lead-in to a very demanding end of the season for the Cavaliers as they look to continue their winning streak. The game against Johns Hopkins can be seen on ESPNU at 8 p.m. Saturday.
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