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March 5, 2007
Charlottesville, Va. –
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Game Overview
Virginia plays its first game of the season at Klöckner Stadium this evening against VMI. The game is scheduled to face off at 7 pm.
The Cavaliers are coming off an 11-8 win over Syracuse two days ago in the Inside Lacrosse Face-Off Classic in Baltimore. The win was their second in a row after losing the season opener to Drexel.
VMI also dropped its opener but bounced back with a 13-6 win over Presbyterian last Wednesday to even its record at 1-1.
The Series vs. the Keydets
The first meeting in 1949 saw the Cavaliers eke out an 11-10 win in the closest game in the series. The two teams met the following year in Lexington with Virginia winning 14-4. The 10-goal margin in that game is the closest the teams have been since.
The teams didn’t meet for another 38 years before restarting the series in 1988. They then met every year through 1997.
Under Dom Starsia, Virginia is averaging 27.2 goals per game and has won by an average of 21.7 goals.
Given the wide margins of victory, it is no surprise that the Cavaliers have rarely trailed the Keydets. Based on available records going back to 1988, the Cavaliers have only trailed in one game. VMI scored the first two goals in the 1994 tilt (2:19 and 7:30 of the first quarter) and led for 5:33. The Cavaliers quickly tied the score with 7:08 to go in the opening quarter and took the lead for good with 3:51 left in the period.
In 1989 Virginia scored first (14:20 of first quarter), but the Keydets tied it at the 12:51 mark. It remained tied for several minutes before the Cavaliers took the lead for good with 10:31 remaining in the first quarter. That is the only other time since at least 1950 the teams have been tied.
Green Grass of Klöckner Bodes Well
After losing their home opener to Drexel 15 days ago and having their 19-game home winning streak snapped, the Cavaliers play their first game of the season at Klöckner Stadium.
Virginia is riding a 16-game winning streak at Klöckner Stadium dating back to the 2004 season. The Cavaliers have been 7-0 at Klöckner the last two years, their best record ever there.
Overall Virginia is 65-12 (.844) at Klöckner since moving there in 1993.
Improved Shooting Leads to Win
The Cavaliers have done a much better job of shooting since dropping their season opener to Drexel two weeks ago.
After finishing second in the nation in shooting a year ago, their season got off to a rocky start with the 11-10 loss at home to the Dragons. One of the key factors in the loss was subpar shooting. Virginia shot just 21.7 percent (10×46), their lowest in 12 games going back to last year’s 7-6 win over Princeton when UVa shot 15.9 percent.
The Wahoos rebounded against Stony Brook the following week by shooting 35.7 percent (15×42). Midfielder Jack Riley led the way by scoring on four of his five shots, while Danny Glading connected on four of 10.
The shooting was even better on a sunny day in Baltimore last Saturday.
Virginia needed just 28 shots to score 11 goals against Syracuse.
When the Cavaliers shoot at least 30 percent they have had remarkable success recently. Since 1998 Virginia is 66-6 (.917) when shooting 30+ percent.
Big Game on Big Stage
Faceoff man Adam Fassnacht might have been UVa’s biggest hero in Saturday’s win over Syracuse. He came into the game winning only 36 percent of his attempts and was matched up against Jon Jerome, winner of two-thirds of his draws this year.
Playing on a big stage in the Inside Lacrosse Face-Off Classic at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium brought out the best in the Cavalier senior.
He won a career-high 12 draws in 16 attempts for a .667 winning percentage (also a career high) and also scooped up a team-leading 6 ground balls.Fassnacht so dominated Jerome, the Orange switched players in the second quarter but to no avail. Jerome lost six of nine to Fassnacht and his replacement was no better.
Fassnacht’s ability to gain possession enabled the Cavaliers from having to suffer through a famous Syracuse run. Their longest run was four goals in the first quarter and Syracuse scored only two goals in the final 45 minutes.
He won all seven faceoffs in a wild first quarter that saw his team fall behind 6-5 as the Cavaliers withstood the run before regrouping in the second quarter.
Rubeor Joins Century Point Club
Junior attackman Ben Rubeor entered the season with 92 career points. We figured he would reach the 100-point mark early in the season, but not after one game.
In the season opener vs. Drexel he tallied a career-high eight points (4g, 4a) to become the 38th player in school history to score 100 career points.He reached the 100-point plateau in 31 games, one faster than Matt Ward. It is the quickest to 100 points by a Cavalier since Conor Gill reached the milestone in 28 games in 2000 and tied for the sixth fastest in school history.
Rubeor has scored at least one point in his last 21 appearances and 30 of 33 in his career.
His place on UVa’s all-time points list is shown below.
Player, years points
28. Joe Dyer, 1956-58 117
Randy Natoli, 1979-82 117
30. Pete Eldredge, 1969-72 116
31. Kyle Dixon, 2003-06 112
32. Rob Falk, 1990-93 111
33. Ben Rubeor, 2005-pres. 108
Clausen Makes Big Move Forward
First-year defenseman Ken Clausen came to Virginia as the No. 1 defenseman in the country coming out of high school. A smart, athletic player, he had a very productive fall and worked his way into the starting line-up when preseason practice started in January.
Like many on the defense, he had a disappointing performance in the opener against Drexel as the Cavaliers gave up two goals in the final 10 seconds to lose.
Against Stony Brook in the second game, Clausen made a big step forward according to the coaching staff.
He, along with Ricky Smith and Matt Kelly, held an attack that featured a senior and two juniors in check. The Seawolve attack scored four goals but wasn’t really a factor due to the defensive excellence of Clausen and his mates. Owner of an active stick, Clausen also scooped up a team-leading five ground balls in the game.
In Saturday’s win over Syracuse, he held first-team All-America Mike Leveille without a goal for only the third time in his career (31 games). He also shared the team lead with six ground balls.
Attack Stays Potent Despite First-Time Starter
Even with the loss of last year’s Player of the Year Matt Ward, Virginia features one of the nation’s most potent attack units in the country with junior Ben Rubeor and sophomores Garrett Billings and Danny Glading. Overall, they rank 1-2-3 on the team in scoring.
Rubeor is the team’s leading returning scorer; he tallied 58 points last season on 34 goals and 24 assists. He’s at it once again this season with 16 points (8g, 8a) in just three games. He notched a career-high eight points (4g, 4a) in the opener against Drexel and had three goals and two assists vs. Syracuse.
Rubeor is ranked in the top 15 nationally in total points (5th), assists (T7th) and goals (T15th).
Glading notched four goals and added two assists in a dominating performance vs. Stony Brook. He followed that with a goal and two assists vs. Syracuse Saturday.
In his first year as a starter, Billings continues to score with frequency just as he did last year as the fourth attackman. He has tallied six goals and added four assists so far after a 2-and-1 game against Syracuse.
Turner, Defense Key Win over Syracuse
The Virginia-Syracuse match-up is always one of the most anticipated games each year due to the high-scoring nature of the teams.
After Syracuse took a 6-5 lead in the first quarter, Saturday’s game looked like it would be a 22-21 classic all over again.
The Orange scored on six of 11 shots in the quarter and goalie Kip Turner made just one save.
For the final three quarters, however, it was a much different story.
Defensemen Ricky Smith, Matt Kelly, Ken Clausen and Mike Timms held the Orange to just two goals in the final 45 minutes, including only one in the second half.
Goalie Kip Turner finished with a season-high 13 saves.