It’s hard to pick a column topic — especially when it is your last. Instead of a rant or a player profile, I decided to do something different. Considering so many people around Grounds have shaped my experience here, I thought it appropriate to have members of the community help write this piece.
The question is simple: What is your most memorable sports moment from this past school year?
I asked faculty, students, student-athletes and administrators. Here are their answers:
Dean of Students Allen Groves: “That’s easy: the seven-overtime, 10-9 men’s lacrosse victory over Maryland. The athletics department had given me a field pass, so I was on the sideline for what would end up as the longest game in Division I lacrosse history, culminating in a come-from-behind U.Va. victory.”
Third-year Engineering Student Brendan Hesselbein: “For me, it has to be the UNC-U.Va. football game this past fall. U.Va. looked like a high school football team for the first 58 minutes of the game and somehow Verica got in the zone. He drove them right down the field for the tying touchdown and luckily the extra point got through the uprights. But the best image of that game was Cedric Peerman willing his way into the end zone and reaching the ball across the goal line.”
Fourth-year College student Chad O’Hara: “Our team won the co-rec Inner-tube Water Polo championship this past year. We competed as Webb [dormitory’s] first-year team and we played together all four years. For our first three years, each time we were bounced in the semifinals by a grad school team and each time we told ourselves that next season would be our year. Each time, it wasn’t. When our fourth year rolled around, we were all busy and stressed from school, one of our core players took the semester off due to Lyme disease and another player had to miss the entire regular season. Nonetheless we used our veteran composure to survive the first couple rounds and by the championship game we had rounded into form, winning in our fourth and final effort as a team. This was my most memorable sports memory.”
Athletics Director Craig Littlepage: “I have a tie for the most memorable sporting event. The two events that are most memorable for me are the football team’s 31-0 win against Maryland and the ACC co-championship in men’s track and field this past weekend.”
Dead of Admission Greg Roberts: “My favorite moment was taking my 5-year-old son, Luke, to a baseball game against Miami on a beautiful spring Saturday. My second favorite was going 1-for-20 against Zach Rowen in a pick-up basketball game at the AFC.” (Dean Roberts rarely shoots below the University’s acceptance rate. It was an off-day).
Women’s lacrosse defender Katie Shannon: “Virginia women’s lacrosse team beating Duke in the NCAA semifinal back in 2007 [was the most memorable of my career]. We came back from being down 13-4 with 17 minutes left on the clock — greatest comeback in NCAA playoff history I believe. From this year, rushing the field after our football team beat UNC ... and after beating Florida State first year!”
Third-year Commerce student Kevin Dowlen, President of Hoo Crew: “My most memorable moment of the U.Va. sports year was the seven-overtime lacrosse game. The real thing that stuck out to me was how the goalies on both teams were making saves in the fifth and sixth overtimes. As a former goalie, I know how nerve-wracking that situation is, and it takes some guts for [Brian] Phipps from Maryland and [Adam] Ghitelman from U.Va. to keep making those saves that late in a sudden-death game. [Brian] Carroll’s lefty rip shot in the top corner will stick with me forever.”
Politics Prof. Larry Sabato: “Politics and sports have a lot in common, and never more so than when there has to be a coaching change. A large electorate ordered a coaching change in Washington last November, while a small electorate — John Casteen and Craig Littlepage — engineered the switch of U.Va. basketball coaches recently, but both transitions were handled skillfully and had popular support. Barack Obama and Tony Bennett have qualities in common: youth, energy, poise under pressure and great expectations. Let’s hope for the country and the University that both work out well. Personally, I won’t be satisfied until our Bennett belts out a rendition of, ‘I Left My Heart in San Francisco,’ but most people will be happy with a winning season.”
Fourth-year College student Leah Bernick: “1) The Bob Chapel Pick-Up Soccer League: A group of crazy drama major kids get together on Nameless [Field] on Friday afternoons all year for pick-up soccer. Crazy fun. 2) This past Saturday’s Lacrosse game — very fun! Especially the fourth quarter. Lacrosse games in general usually rank on my favorites of the year, and Saturday’s game was fun and fast-paced, very celebratory and [played] in beautiful weather — a great last home game for me!”
Women’s basketball guard Monica Wright: “I would have to say that the most memorable sports moment for me was when the women’s basketball team beat Tennessee at Tennessee after they won the national championship. Also, when the baseball team went on a 19-game winning streak was very memorable.”
No doubt, all of these moments will be remembered for a while. Hopefully for the 2008-09 school year, though, the best is yet to come.
Thank you to those who contributed to this column. Thank you to those who have contributed to my experience here at U.Va. And thank you, the reader. The past four years have been a pleasure.
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