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March 2, 2007
Baltimore, Md. –
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The Virginia-Syracuse match-up is one of the most highly anticipated games of the entire spring. The two teams clash Saturday in the first-ever Inside Lacrosse Face-Off Classic at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. In addition to the Cavaliers and Orange, the field includes Johns Hopkins and Princeton and features the schools that have won every NCAA championship since 1991. Hopkins and Princeton square off at noon, with the Cavaliers and the `Cuse getting after it at 2:30 pm. Both games will be televised on ESPNU.
Read what head coach Dom Starsia and many of the Cavaliers have to say about the history of the UVa-SU series and recount some of their most memorable moments of the classic rivalry.
Coach Starsia discusses some of the factors that create such intense fan interest in this game annually.
“I think it’s a combination of factors. One is that certainly both of these programs have been at the top of the college game over the past 10 years. The second is the style of play, I think, between the two teams. There is sort of a little bit of a utopian view of the game or how it should be played. Most people feel that Syracuse and Virginia probably begin to approach that style of play and so with that being the case, as a fan, you’re likely to see a fast paced game, up-and-down the field, and lots of scoring opportunities, with two talented teams getting after each other. I think there is excitement there that also contributes to the anticipation of getting together. I am a big fan of (Syracuse coach) John Desko and I do believe that while rivalry is fierce, the participants on both sides have great respect for each other. I think you can feel that as you watch; you are watching a very positive athletic event played fast and furiously and I think it has created a neat atmosphere over the years.”
Coach Starsia lists his top-three memories of playing Syracuse and gives an historical perspective of the start of the rivalry.
“When I first got to Virginia back in 1992, one of the first things I did was to put in a call to (Syracuse coach) Roy Simmons to see if we could get Syracuse scheduled. At the time they were just coming off the era of the Gaits and I really felt like it was going to be a positive development for this program if we could get Syracuse on the regular-season schedule. We couldn’t quite figure it out at the time.
“Then we played a semifinal game in the playoffs in 1994 in which we were down five goals in the fourth quarter and were two men down to start the quarter and came back to win in double overtime. Mike Watson was a freshman and he got the winner. To this day that is probably the most exciting lacrosse game I have been involved in. I am not sure that Syracuse would feel the same way based upon the result.
“That was the impetus for Coach Simmons to say at that point, `let’s try to do this, Dom.’ The very next year, in 1995, was when we began to play Syracuse in the regular season. That first year we played them in a midweek game at Syracuse and the year after, starting in 1996, we were able to find a weekend that we were now been able to settle in on.
“Certainly for me that first game in `94 was really exciting. The the `97 game, the 22-21 game up in the (Carrier) Dome was just unbelievable. If I wasn’t coaching in the game, I would have loved to have been in the stands. If I wasn’t the defensive coach of one of the two teams, I would have thought it was just some great stuff going on. (You) just marvel at the athletes on both teams and the plays that went on, it was really, really something.
“Then in ’99 we beat Syracuse for Virginia’s first national championship in 27 years. It was more meaningful having Syracuse on that other sideline. Those three stand out first for me and foremost.”
Associate head coach Marc Van Arsdale grew up in Geneva, N.Y., about 45 minutes from Syracuse. He was an All-American attackman at Hobart from 1982-85 and played against Syracuse every year. He came to UVa as an assistant coach on Jim Adams’ staff in 1991 before leaving to become the head coach at Penn from 1997-2001. He returned to UVa in July 2001 and was named the Division I Assistant Coach of the Year last December. He saw his first Syracuse game as a youngster more than 30 years ago.
“Probably the first one that sticks out is the first game when Virginia played Syracuse and that moment when Michael Watson scored the goal in overtime and that comeback victory. I thought that was a real sort of climax moment for the Virginia lacrosse program, to sort of get things going in the right way, beating Syracuse when they were number one. That one sticks out as much as any other that I can think of that I was involved with.
“Going all the way back to the first time I ever saw Syracuse play–it’s in the early 70’s and they lost to Hobart 23-6. It was before Syracuse made a push to get good in lacrosse. It’s been interesting to see that change. I think the thing for them from a historical side, I think, is that their rise in the lacrosse world perfectly parallels the building of the Carrier Dome. That building opened in 1982 and their great streak of final fours starts in ’83.
“From Virginia-Syracuse, I think there have been a lot of great games back and forth–the Michael Watson one is the highlight, while the low point is the 2002 semifinals when the Tom Hardy, whose brother Dan we are going to see on Saturday and whose father Bill I went to lacrosse camp with–scored the last two goals of that game to put Syracuse past us.
“For pure excitement–I wasn’t there that day–but the ’97 game (a 22-21 Syracuse win in the Dome) is the one I think that sticks out for everybody, in terms of a `wow’ game and what you think this sport can be. I think (that game) sort of defines what Syracuse and Virginia lacrosse try to aspire to be–up and down the field and a lot of great talent on the field. Maybe that was a little more offense than some people would care for. I think 15-14 might be a little bit more close to what you’d expect than 22-21, but that was clearly a memorable game. I was somebody who wasn’t really involved with either team at the time and I watched it on the side.”
Favorite Syracuse memories:
Assistant Coach Hannon Wright: “The `94 semifinal at Byrd Stadium, with all my friends, including Drew McKnight (a teammate at Norfolk Academy). We stayed up all night the night before watching lacrosse videos, then went to that game with Drew’s dad. We watched Virginia come back from down 12-7 in the fourth quarter and win it in overtime and everybody jumped on Mike Watson after he scored the game winning goal. I was in 11th grade and that’s when I decided I was going to the University of Virginia.”
Will Barrow: “I think it would have to be the end of the semifinal game last year when we beat them.”Adam Fassnacht: “It’s almost all offense and no defense. It’s always an exciting game to watch. Last year beating them twice, I thought that was pretty special. Going to the Dome is always great. I’m a little disappointed I didn’t get to go the Dome this year. I was really looking forward to finally getting a chance to play in the Dome.”
Foster Gilbert: “It was my freshman year in 2003 and the second game of the season. We were up in the Dome, and Mike Powell gets caught back on D. I was running on the second midfield line with Matt Poskay and Billy Glading. Coach Van (Arsdale) tells me to invert, invert on Mike Powell. I invert on him and he lands a nasty wrap check on me. The ball stays in my stick, I turn the corner, stick a lefty (goal) on him, but they call me in the crease and took the goal back.”
Gavin Gill: “My favorite moment from the rivalry is Michael Watson sticking the goal in overtime in the final four his freshman year and then running away from the whole team because he was afraid to be at the bottom of the pack.”
Danny Glading: “My most vivid Syracuse moment is from the regular-season game last year when Ricky Smith ran the ball down the field, pump faked to an attackman and ran the ball to the top corner (for a goal). That was a very exciting play and kind of optimizes the helter and skelter atmosphere of Virginia-Syracuse lacrosse games.”
Drew Jordan: “Last year beating them in the semifinals and going on to the championship. I think Matt Ward scored a goal and wobbled off the field with a cramp in his leg, which is something I remember from that game.”
Matt Kelly: “I am not sure it is a good memory, but when we played them in the regular season last year, on one of the first plays in that game I was covering Brett Bucktooth and they threw it to him right away and he scored. I was a little worried then since it was our first real big game, it was kind of a wake up call. I will definitely remember that for a while.”
Ben Rubeor: “I would have to say it was last year in the semifinals. Coming out we knew that Syracuse was a very talented team and we had played them earlier in the season and it was a high scoring game and I just think coming out and playing as well as we did in the semifinals to win 17-10.”
Ricky Smith: “There’s has been a ton when I have been playing here, but I consider one of the coolest moments I remember seeing was when I was a senior in high school. I drove up to Syracuse, the year they won it (2003) to see the game in the Dome. There were a couple plays in particular. The first was when Brett Hughes threw a full-field pass to Joe Yevoli at the end of the first half (for a goal). The other was when Johnny Christmas scored the winning goal with (22) seconds left in the game. I thought that was one of the coolest moments I’ve seen in the Virginia-Syracuse game.”
Drew Thompson: “I think the most memorable time for me was going up there after our freshman season. We were 5-8 (our freshman season) and it was an early test in the Dome in 2005. We went up there and had a tough win on the road and it showed us that we bounced back from the year before.”
Kip Turner: “Winning in the Dome in 2005. It was my first trip to the Dome. I am 1-0 in the Dome and I am going to keep it that way; I’ll have it the rest of my life-I have never lost in the Dome.”
Several Cavalier newcomers will be playing the Orange for the first time this weekend, but they know all about the excitement.
Matt Kelly: “I’m from Chicago and before I got here I did not know much (about Syracuse), just kind of from watching the final four on TV. My brothers had gone to Syracuse camp when they were younger. I knew who the Powells were, but I didn’t know who the Gaits were. (Current Syracuse player) Steven Brooks is from Chicago and I knew he was going there when I was in high school. When I got here I found out about the rivalry last year when we were scouting them. I guess it really started in the mid `90s and that game that was 21-20 or something crazy like that. I guess it’s been shootouts every time since.”
Ken Clausen: “I know it’s fast paced and high scoring. It’s two big-name teams that come out and play a high pace game. I watched last year’s (final four) game on TV and I know it’s always a big game and always had big name players on the field.”
Mike Thompson: “Growing up in Richmond, I have been up to a bunch of UVa-Syracuse games in Charlottesville. They have always been full of energy and it’s been great to see UVa pull it out the past couple of years.”
Brian McDermott: “I’m from Homer, N.Y., which is only about 45-50 minutes south of Syracuse. I grew up watching `Cuse sports all my life, especially the basketball team, the lacrosse team and the football team. I went to a lot of lacrosse games at the Dome, but the only Virginia game I saw was two years ago when Rubes (Ben Rubeor) got hurt. That was the only time that I ever watched Virginia play besides the final four.
“I knew nothing about Virginia lacrosse until about three years ago. I started getting recruited a little bit, looked at the program, heard from the coaches, liked the people down here and I was sold.
“My brother and all my brother’s friends, even a bunch of my friends, we all grew up loving Syracuse. You watch them, you root for them, but now they are trying to give me a hard time now, saying if they come to the game they are going to like paint themselves orange, but not for Virginia. They are going to write SU on their chest and all that stuff. My own brother said he was not going to root for me, `I’m a `Cuse boy and that’s who I’m rooting for.’ “