Sports

Forgivable?

There are many strategies that are preached to David when playing Goliath on the gridiron.?Just keep hanging around for three quarters ? at the end anything can happen.? ?Slow the tempo of the game down and keep the offense off the field.? ?Don?t give up the big play on defense.? ?Take advantage of the opportunities given to you.? ?Lace the other team?s pregame meal with arsenic.? We?ve heard them all.Saturday at Scott Stadium, none of those things happened.

Men

Women

The Virginia women?s volleyball team started its season off on the right foot this past weekend, winning all three matches on the way to claiming the crown at the JMU Days Inn Invitational in Harrisonburg.

Cavaliers host four-team Virginia Soccer Classic

Here is a secret most University students don?t know: The most riveting sports game this weekend may not take place at Scott Stadium.

Six good reasons

I?m a fan ? but I?m very much a realist. I know Southern California is ranked third in the Associated Press poll and second in the USA Today/Coaches poll.

USC brings shower of accolades to Virginia

If Virginia fans don?t have an exact grasp of how good the USC team that Virginia will face Saturday is, let Virginia coach Al Groh put it in simple words.?They have clearly been in a league of their own during the decade of 2000 on,? he said.Over the last six seasons, USC has won two national championships, three Rose Bowls, two Orange Bowls, six straight Pac-10 titles and 70 of 78 games, including a 44-6 record in Pac-10 play.?This is the most talented college football team since when I had to do pre-draft work on the Florida State teams in the middle 90s ? Warrick Dunn, Peter Warrick, Marvin Jones, [Andre] Wadsworth, Reinard Wilson, Samari [Rolle] ? those guys,? Groh said.

No. 11 Virginia sets sights on opening weekend

The Virginia field hockey team opens the 2008 campaign with things old and new.Home games against long-time, in-state rival William & Mary at 2 p.m Friday and against Providence, an opponent the Cavaliers have not faced seen 1992, at 3:30 p.m Sunday at the Turf Field open another season in the young Virginia career of coach Michele Madison.Though the NCAA Tournament sits on the far side of a demanding schedule, the No.

Cavaliers continue quest for perfection

While most University students have been slowly easing themselves into the routine of classes and extracurricular activities, the women?s soccer team has already played two exhibition games and one regular-season game.

Men

The Virginia men?s basketball team travels to Montreal this weekend for a set of three exhibition games against opponents from the area.

Former Cavaliers successful in Olympics

Amazing. Priceless. Interesting. Weird. Star-struck. All of these are adjectives used by former Virginia athletes to describe their experience at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Enough is enough

Saturdays have gotten much more complicated for me.For quite literally my entire life, every Saturday in the fall has been filled with the pomp and circumstance of game day, either at Scott Stadium or huddled around our TV if the Orange and Blue was on the road.

Season kicks off with strong start

For the eighth straight year the Virginia women?s soccer team enters the season ranked in the top three in the ACC, a women?s soccer powerhouse conference.

Basically, a Cruddy System

Imagine you are hiking and you come to a hill. The path goes right over the hill to the other side. Most hikers wouldn?t think twice about going up and then down the hill to the other side.

Veteran leadership key to Virginia

The Virginia women?s field hockey team is looking to veteran leadership to steer an underclassmen-dominated roster.Coach Michele Madison is in her third year coaching at Virginia and 20th year overall after coming from Michigan State.

New players hope to bolster rebuilding efforts

Rebuilding year. It?s one of those taboo terms college coaches avoid like the plague. After a disappointing 12-8-2 season in 2007 that included a 1-5-2 record in ACC play, however, the Cavaliers? 2008 season has been all but labeled as such.

Sign of the times

If you are even the most casual of sports fans, you are probably planning to go to Saturday?s football game.

Nine current or former Virginia athletes play role in Beijing Summer Olympics

Nine current and former Cavaliers contributed to a total of three gold medals and two bronze medals in this summer?s Olympic Games, and all return home with memories to last a lifetime.

Women

?I think every year and every season our expectation and our goal is to win the ACC Tournament and win the national championship,? senior goalie Celeste Miles said, following the Cavaliers? last exhibition game.Goals and expectations are, of course, a constant theme in sports ? either for an upcoming game, or even a whole season.

Everything to gain

The USC football team?s laundry list of achievements during the last six years is simply mind-numbing.Six straight finishes in the top four of the Associated Press poll, six straight BCS bowl games, six straight PAC-10 championships, six straight seasons with 11 victories ? oh, and let?s not forget about the two national titles in 2003 and 2004 and a near-third in 2005.

Soroye back for fifth year; Mikalauskas, Harris out

Three recent developments have left the Virginia men?s basketball team looking even more unfamiliar several months after Sean Singletary graduated and moved on to the NBA.Virginia fans received both positive and negative news Aug.