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April 14, 2000
#2 Virginia (7-1/2-0) vs.
#5 Duke (8-2/2-0)
April 15, 2000
7:00 p.m.
Kl?ckner Stadium
Charlottesville, Va.
The Series vs. the Blue Devils
Virginia leads the all-time series with Duke by a 42-13 margin. The Cavaliers have defeated Duke and Washington & Lee more than any other team (42 times).
The Cavaliers have dominated the series in Charlottesville, winning 23 of 27 games on their home field. Even more impressive is that since 1953 Virginia has won 21 of the 23 meetings in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers have won the last four games in Charlottesville, including three wins in the ACC Tournament.
The last three regular season games in Charlottesville have been decided by one goal apiece with Duke winning two ’92, ’94), but Virginia winning the most recent game (’98).
The last four games have all been decided by two goals or less. Both games last season were decided by one goal.
The teams split two meetings last year. Duke won the regular season match-up 10-9 in overtime in Durham. Virginia gained a bit of revenge by gaining a come-from-behind 8-7 win over the Blue Devils in the finals of the ACC Tournament in Chapel Hill, N.C.
It is interesting to note that Duke has done a good job of containing an explosive Virginia attack. Last year the Cavaliers failed to score at least 10 goals in either game. No ACC team has held Virginia under 10 goals in three consecutive games since North Carolina did it in five straight games from 1986-89.
Since 1972 Virginia has been the higher ranked team 12 times when the game has been played in Charlottesville and the Cavaliers have won 10 of those games.
McKnight named ACC Player of the Week
Attackman Drew McKnight, who scored five goals and added three assists as the Cavaliers rolled to a pair of victories last week, was named the ACC Player of the Week on Monday.
In a 15-3 win over Radford last week, McKnight assisted on Virginia’s first goal and scored his lone goal of the game with two seconds left in the first half as the Cavaliers held a 10-2 halftime lead.
McKnight led the Cavalier offense to an important ACC road win over #10 North Carolina last Saturday. He led the team with four goals and two assists. In the first half he scored two goals and had an assist as the Cavaliers held a slim 4-3 lead at the break. In the third quarter McKnight scored twice more and had another assist as UVa scored five goals to open a 9-4 lead. Overall he had a hand in six of UVa’s first nine goals as the Cavaliers stretched the lead to a comfortable margin by the beginning of the fourth quarter.
The senior from Virginia Beach, Va., is sixth in the nation (and first in the ACC) in scoring, averaging 5.13 points per game. He also leads the ACC and is tied for eighth in the nation in assists with an average of 2.50 per game. McKnight also averages 2.63 goals per game, second in the ACC.
McKnight is the second Cavalier in a row to claim the ACC weekly honor. Sophomore defenseman Mark Koontz claimed the honor the previous week.
Cavaliers Down North Carolina in Last Game
Virginia broke open a close game with a 5-0 scoring run in a span of 5:26 late in the third and early in the fourth quarter as the second-ranked Cavaliers defeated 10th-ranked North Carolina 13-7 last Saturday in Chapel Hill, N.C. The Cavaliers set a school record by winning their 10th consecutive game away from home with the victory.
Senior attackman Drew McKnight led the Wahoos offensively as he fell just one point shy of career high for points in a game, totaling four goals and two assists. Jason Hard and A.J. Shannon each scored twice for Virginia and senior midfielder Jay Jalbert added his 100th career goal. North Carolina was led by Matt Crofton’s two goals and one assist.
The Tar Heels kept the score close for three quarters behind the play of goalie Kris Blindenbacher, who made 10 first half saves to hold Virginia to a 4-3 halftime lead.
Hard’s second goal of the game, with 28 seconds left in the first half ended up giving Virginia the lead for good in the game. McKnight scored his third goal of the game with 10:42 left in the third quarter but that goal was answered by UNC 2:08 later.
The score remained Virginia 5-4 for over five minutes before the Wahoos exploded for a five-goal run and for eight of the game’s next nine goals. Conor Gill’s goal with 3:33 left in the third quarter started the scoring skein and was followed by goals by McKnight, Jalbert and David Bruce before the end of the third quarter. Shannon’s first goal of the game, with 13:17 to play in the fourth quarter ended the run and put Virginia up 10-4. After a North Carolina score, the Wahoos ran off three more goals as Ian Shure, Shannon and Rotelli tallied goals.
Virginia dominated both the faceoffs, 15-9, and the ground balls, 61-49.
The Virginia defense was stellar once again and allowed the Tar Heels just one goal in seven extra-man opportunities. Derek Kenney allowed just five goals and recorded seven saves before being replaced with two minutes to play by Duffy Birckhead.
Tonight’s Expected Starting Line-up
Virginia’s roster this season features seven returning starters and 21 other lettermen from last season which gave head coach Dom Starsia and his staff the luxury of not having to do too much tinkering to settle on a starting line-up.
Starting on attack this afternoon are expected to be Drew McKnight, Conor Gill and Ian Shure.
McKnight, a senior, has been a mainstay in the lineup since his arrival in Charlottesville three years ago. He is having an explosive season offensively so far and is the sixth-leading scorer in the country averaging 5.13 points per game. He also leads the ACC in scoring (21g, 20a, 41 pts). The Virginia Beach native is tied for 17th nationally (and second in the ACC) in goals (2.63/g) and is eighth in the country with an ACC-leading 2.50 assists per game mark.
Gill proved himself last year by winning the ACC Rookie of the Year Award and being named the MVP of the NCAA Tournament. Gill continues to be a steadying presence on the attack and has contributed 14 goals and 16 assists this season.
Shure missed all of last season due to a knee injury, but has returned to full strength with 12 goals this season. He is a gifted offensive player who saw limited action as a freshman in 1998, scoring just two goals.
Jay Jalbert returns to anchor what is a very deep midfield. Faceoff specialist Jason Hard and highly regarded freshman A.J. Shannon join Jalbert on the first unit. Fifth-year player David Bruce, a converted attackman, and junior Hanley Holcomb form the nucleus of the second unit. Freshman Chris Rotelli rounds out this group. The third midfield consists of Jamison Mullen, Will Quayle and Aaron Vercollone. David Jenkins, Brenndan Mohler and Nick Russo also see plenty of action in the midfield, primarily in defensive midfield roles.
Hard and Jenkins continue to alternate as faceoff specialists, while Peter Ragosa is the top long stick middie once again. Richard Reid also sees considerable time at long stick middie.
All three starting defensemen from the end of last season are back. Ryan Curtis, the nation’s top defensemen, headlines the returnees. He is joined in the starting trio by Mark Koontz and Court Weisleder. John Harvey is the top sub, but freshmen Ned Bowen and David Burman figure to see action during the season.
Derek Kenney returns in goal after starting last season as a freshman. He is currently being backed up by local product Duffy Birckhead.
Cavaliers at Kl?ckner Stadium
Tonight’s game vs. Duke is Virginia’s fifth of the season at Kl?ckner Stadium-an overtime loss to Syracuse followed with wins over Princeton, Johns Hopkins and Radford.
Kl?ckner Stadium has been very good to the Cavaliers since they first began playing games there in 1993 as their 31-6 record at Kl?ckner attests.
Duke’s lone win at Kl?ckner was a 9-8 triumph in 1994, which, curiously enough, was the first time the two teams met at Kl?ckner. Since then, the Cavaliers have won four straight from the Blue Devils at Kl?ckner.
North Carolina is the only team to defeat UVa more than once at Kl?ckner. The Tar Heels, who have never won during the regular season at Kl?ckner, have beaten the Cavaliers in the ACC Tournament twice. No team has won two regular season games over Virginia at Kl?ckner.
In what the Cavaliers hope is a good sign for tonight is their invincibility under the lights at Kl?ckner. Virginia has won all eight night games at Kl?ckner.
McKnight Joins Exclusive Club
Drew McKnight has been a remarkably consistent scorer throughout his career, scoring between 19 and 25 goals and assisting on between 20 and 24 more goals.
This season, however, McKnight’s scoring has exploded. He leads the ACC in scoring, averaging 5.13 points per game (41 points). He also leads the ACC in assists (2.63/g), and ranks second in the ACC in goals scored (2.50/g).
McKnight has scored 21 goals and added 20 assists for 41 total points and barring something unexpected should easily surpass all of his previous offensive highs.
He is only four away from tying his career highs in goals and assists (21 goals, 20 assists.)
He is one of only six members of Virginia’s ’80-80 Club’-players who have scored at least 80 goals and recorded at least 80 assists in a career and is bearing down on becoming only the fifth player in school history to record both 90 goals and 90 assists (the ’90-90′ Club).
The members of the ’80-80′ club are listed (chronologically) below. McKnight’s place on UVa’s goals, assists and points lists is listed to the left.
| Who? | Goals | Assists |
| Tom Duquette | 107 | 92 |
| Kevin Pehlke | 138 | 101 |
| Tim Whiteley | 85 | 159 |
| Doug Knight | 165 | 84 |
| Michael Watson | 142 | 98 |
| Drew McKnight | 87 | 86 |
Scoring Comes From Unlikely Sources
Head coach Dom Starsia and his coaching staff were no doubt looking to midfielders Jay Jalbert and Hanley Holcomb to be the Cavaliers’ big guns in the offensive zone this season. But so far, the Cavaliers have gotten most of their offense from some unlikely sources.
Although a proven offensive player, Drew McKnight has almost surely surpassed what was expected of him. He has found the back of the net 21 times already and is on a pace to easily surpass his career high of 25 goals established last year.
Fifth-year midfielder/attackman David Bruce has been a reserve throughout his career, never scoring more than 11 goals. He moved to the midfield for his final season and the move has paid off. Using the knowledge gained over the previous four years, Bruce has tallied 15 goals. It took him just five games to surpass his previous career high for goals. Bruce has made opponents pay in 2000 with good positioning around the crease that has enabled him to score almost all of his goals from in close.
Ian Shure missed all of last season due to a knee injury and saw limited action as a freshman two years ago. But playing at full strength, Shure has contributed 12 goals so far (on just 32 shots).
A.J. Shannon, a highly regarded freshman from Canada, leads UVa’s rookies wtih nine goals while running with the first midfield. He has scored twice four times-Syracuse, Rutgers, Stony Brook and North Carolina.
Faceoff specialist Jason Hard has been more involved on offense this season than in the past and has scored nine goals. Like Bruce, it took him only five games to exceed his previous career high (five in 1997).
Jalbert not made as much noise offensively so far this season, but he is showing signs of warming up. He is second on the team with 16 goals, and has scored 13 in the last five games. He scored a season-high four goals vs. Stony Brook and Radford.
Holcomb has had a particularly tough time this season, scoring just three times. He had his best offensive performance last week with two goals against Radford.
Defense Stiffens in Second Half
Virginia has found itself in several tight contests at halftime so far this season, including games against Princeton and Syracuse.
The Cavaliers fell behind to Syracuse 9-5 in the season opener and then blanked the Orangemen in the third quarter. The shutout that period enabled Virginia to claw its way back into the contest, eventually knotting the score and forcing overtime.
UVa got off to a slow start offensively (and defensively) against Princeton and fell behind 4-2 after 15 minutes of play. But the Cavaliers used an 11-2 run in the second and third periods to build a 13-6 lead at one point. Entering the fourth quarter with a 13-8 lead, the Cavalier defense pitched a shutout in the fourth quarter and handed the Tigers their first loss of the season.
Virginia held a 10-5 lead at halftime against Rutgers and used a third quarter shutout of the Scarlet Knights to push the lead to double digits.
UVa has had at least one shutout quarter in every game this season except against Johns Hopkins. Overall Virginia has posted eight shutout quarters this season. The Cavaliers have also had some long stretches where they haven’t allowed a goal-22:28 vs. Syracuse, 15:26 vs. Princeton, 26:11 vs. Rutgers, 35:01 vs. Stony Brook, 45:35 vs. Maryland and 39:37 vs. Radford.
The Cavaliers have allowed nine goals in both the second and third quarters and 14 in the fourth quarter. Most of the fourth quarter goals have come when the game’s outcome had pretty much been decided.
UVa Defense Proves Stingy
Virginia is allowing just 7.25 goals per game this season and is fourth in the nation in scoring defense.
Since allowing 13 goals in the opener to Syracuse, Virginia hasn’t allowed more than eight goals in a game. The current seven-game streak of allowing fewer than 10 goals is the longest since the 1986 squad put together an eight-game stretch of allowing fewer than 10 goals.
The Virginia defense is also proving adept at limiting the opposition’s shot opportunities lately. In the last five games, Virginia has held the opponents to fewer than 20 shots three times, while allowing an average of 21.0 shots per game.
UVa’s man-down defense has also been outstanding. So far this season Virginia has relinquished just 11 goals in 43 extra-man opportunities (.256). In the last four games Virginia’s opponents have scored on just three of 18 extra-man situations. Last week, Virginia was whistled for seven penalties against North Carolina, but the Tar Heels were able to score just once in a man-advantage situation. The Tar Heels’ difficulty in scoring with a man advantage proved fatal to their chance to win. In fact, North Carolina took just five shots when it had the man advantage.
McKnight Becomes 20-20 Man
Senior attack Drew McKnight is the 27th Cavalier in the last 30 years to score 20 goals and record 20 assists in a season. As one of the nation’s leading attackmen, his offensive ability has never been questioned.
But considering some of the offensive standouts-Tom Duquette, Kris Snider, Roddy Marino, Kevin Pehlke, Tim Whiteley, Doug Knight, Michael Watson, Tucker Radebaugh-that have worn the orange and blue throughout the years, perhaps it is interesting to note that McKnight got to ’20 & 20′ as fast as anyone. It took him just eight games to reach 20 goals and 20 assists, the same amount of time it took Tom Duquette in 1970, Mike Caravana in 1982, and Doug Knight and Michael Watson in 1997. Since 1970, no Cavalier has gotten to 20 & 20 as fast as this group.
Bruce Records Three Hat Tricks vs. Nationally Ranked Teams
When David Bruce decided to return for his fifth year this season he wasn’t sure what his role would be for head coach Dom Starsia. He missed all of the 1998 campaign due to a knee injury and played on the second attack unit last season. With Drew McKnight, Conor Gill and Ian Shure penciled into the starting attack this season, Bruce volunteered to move to the midfield despite never having played there in college before, to get more time.
Whatever Bruce lacked for playing in the midfield, he makes up for with good overall knowledge of the game. And he’s put his four years of college experience to good use so far this season.
Finding himself in the right place at the right time, Bruce has capitalized on virtually all of his scoring chances this season.
In the season opening loss to Syracuse, Bruce scored three times, with all three scores coming from point-blank range.
Bruce’s scoring parade continued in the win over Princeton as he scored three times for the second game in a row. All three goals came in just over a nine-minute span in the middle of the first half and helped erase an early deficit.
He scored three goals against Johns Hopkins for his third hat trick of the season.
He is third on the team with 15 goals. It took him just five games to exceed his previous career high of 11 goals in 1997.
Eleven Cavaliers Earn Preseason Recognition
Virginia’s roster this season features 11 players who have been named to various preseason All-America squads.
Defenseman Ryan Curtis, last season’s Schmeisser Cup winner as the nation’s top defenseman, returns to anchor the Cavalier defense. Lacrosse magazine listed him as its Player of the Year and one of five ‘Players to Watch’ this spring. Curtis has also been named to preseason All-America teams by Face-off, Inside Lacrosse, College Lacrosse USA and the Baltimore Sun.
Joining Curtis as a Lacrosse magazine ‘Player to Watch’ is midfield Jay Jalbert, winner of the 1999 McLaughlin Award as the nation’s outstanding midfielder. And like Curtis, Jalbert has cited by Face-off, Inside Lacrosse, College Lacrosse USA and the Baltimore Sun as a preseason All-America.
Two of UVa’s starting attackmen-senior Drew McKnight and sophomore Conor Gill-have been selected preseason All-Americans. McKnight, the Cavaliers’ leading active scorer (77g, 78a), was also named one of nine ‘Sharpshooters’ by Inside Lacrosse magazine. Gill, the ACC Rookie of the Year and MVP of the NCAA Tournament a year ago, will be looked upon to quarterback the attack again this season.
Junior Hanley Holcomb joins Jalbert in the midfield to give head coach Dom Starsia two preseason All-Americans in the midfield. Holcomb, who possesses one of the hardest shots in the nation, found the back of the net 27 times last season.
Long stick middie Peter Ragosa, one of the nation’s most underrated players, has been cited by Inside Lacrosse, College Lacrosse USA and Face-off for preseason recognition.
The Virginia face-off duo of Jason Hard and David Jenkins were both recognized for their face-off ability by the preseason pickers. Both were also among 11 of the nation’s top face-off specialists selected by Inside Lacrosse.
Defensively, junior John Harvey and sophomore Mark Koontz were named to the preseason squad presented by Inside Lacrosse. Koontz was also named to Face-off’s preseason squad.
Goalie Derek Kenney, who last year became the first freshman to start in goal for the Cavaliers in 20 years, has also been named to several preseason All-America squads.
Five Seniors Named Co-captains
Five members of Virginia’s senior class this season have been named captains for the 2000 season-Ryan Curtis, Jason Hard, Jay Jalbert, Drew McKnight and Peter Ragosa.
Curtis and Jalbert were recipients of prestigious national awards last season for their play as the Cavaliers won the national title. Curtis won the Schmeisser Cup as the nation’s top defenseman, while Jalbert was awarded the McLaughlin Award as the nation’s outstanding midfielder.
Hard teams with David Jenkins to give Virginia the top face-off unit in the country. Hard finished sixth in the nation in face-off winning percentage last season and is third in the country this season.
This is the second year in a row McKnight has served as a team captain. One of the more overlooked members of the nation’s most potent offense, McKnight has cracked UVa’s top 10 in assists (eighth with 87) and points (ninth with 173). He needs just seven goals to move into the top 10 on UVa’s career goals list.
Ragosa, considered by many as the nation’s top long stick middie, has helped spearhead Virginia’s defensive efforts throughout his career. He was tied for 46th in the nation a year ago in ground balls, averaging 4.4 per game (70 in 16 games).