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May 5, 2002
The University of Virginia women’s lacrosse team was selected for the NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Division I Tournament and will host Temple in a first-round game on Thursday, May 9. The game time is to be determined.
The Cavaliers, 14-3 overall, are making their seventh consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament, and their 17th appearance in the national championships (15 NCAA, 2 AIAW/USWLA). Virginia won the title twice (1991, 1993) and have been runners-up on three occasions (1996, 1998, 1999).
The Cavaliers, who won the school’s 300th game in school history with a 13-10 win over Loyola on April 24, have been ranked in the nation’s top eight all season. They had a seven-game winning streak in the middle of the year and have defeated eight teams that are tournament bound, including an 18-8 win over Temple in Charlottesville on March 30.
Virginia is led offensively by Lauren Aumiller (Baltimore, Md./Notre Dame Prep) , who has 64 goals and 34 assists and 98 points. The Tewaaraton Trophy finalist has scored in every game this year (17) and stands just one shy of the record for scoring in consecutive games in a season. Aumiller leads the nation in scoring (5.76 points per game) and is the only player in the nation to rank in the top-20 nationally in goals, assists, points and draw controls, and she ranks nationally in the top-10 in each category. Her 98 points is the second-highest single-season total in school history and her 64 goals stands just one shy of the record for a single season. Only 13 people have scored 100 or more points in a single season in the history of intercollegiate women’s lacrosse at the Division I level.
Amy Appelt (Garden City, N.Y./Garden City), the ACC Rookie of the Year, has also scored in every game this season en route to smashing the school record for scoring as a first year. Appelt, the nation’s leader in scoring among freshman, ranks in the top-20 nationally in scoring among all players with her 63 points (43g, 20a).
Fellow first-year Cary Chasney (Baltimore, Md./Notre Dame Prep) also blew past the Virginia record for scoring as a first year with her 41 goals and 15 assists and she ranks just below Appelt nationally among scoring as a freshman. A member of the ACC All-Tournament team, Chasney has notched a hat trick in eight games, one behind Aumiller’s team-leading nine.
Co-captain Tiffany Schummer (Annapolis, Md./St. Mary’s) was recently named a finalist for the Tewaaraton Trophy following a stellar regular season that saw her earn national player of the week honors from insidelacrosse.com (Mar 25). Schummer ranks second on the team with 52 ground balls and 35 caused turnovers. An All-ACC selection in 2002, Schummer already ranks in the top-10 in Virginia school history in both caused turnovers in a season and in a career.
Co-captain Gina Sambus (Garden City, N.Y./Garden City), another Tewaaraton Trophy finalist, ranks fifth nationally in ground balls per game. Her 75 is the fourth-highest total in the nation and ranks 12th in Virginia history for a single season. She was also an All-Conference selection in 2002 and is currently a member of the USA National Developmental team.
Virginia head coach Julie Myers has a career record of 98-34 and will look to join the exclusive IWLCA Century Club in the course of the playoffs. She is one of only three coaches to take her team to the national championships in each of the last seven years. In 1993 she became just the third person in the history of NCAA Division I lacrosse to win a title as a player and as a coach, and in 1996 she became the first person to take a team to the NCAA title game after having won an NCAA title as a player.
The full bracket is as follows: (seeded teams host)
#1 Georgetown vs Lafayette;
Duke hosts Vanderbilt
#4 Cornell vs Syracuse;
Loyola hosts Maryland
#3 UNC vs UMBC;
Virginia hosts Temple
#2 Princeton vs LeMoyne;
Notre Dame hosts Ohio State