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March 13, 2007
Charlottesville, Va. –
Game 5
No. 6 Virginia (4-1) vs. Mount St. Mary’s (0-2)
March 13, 2007 7:30 pm
Klöckner Stadium Charlottesville, Va.
Game Overview
Sixth-ranked Virginia returns to action a little more than 72 hours after gaining a hard-fought 7-6 win over then seventh-ranked Princeton to face Mount St. Mary’s tonight at 7:30 pm at Klöckner Stadium.
The Mount, winless in two games this season, hits the road for the first time tonight and has been outscored 33-7 so far.
After dropping its season opener, the Cavaliers have been on a roll lately, winning their last four contests.
They are fifth in the nation in scoring with an average of 12.6 goals per game. Meanwhile, The Mount meanwhile has scored just seven goals all season. Led by goalie Kip Turner and defenseman Ricky Smith, the defense is ranked seventh allowing an average of 6.4 goals per game.
The Series vs. the Mountaineers
This is the third year in a row the teams have met during the regular season. Virginia gained a 16-5 win last year that was made possible by an eight-goal that turned a 3-2 UVa lead in the first quarter to an 11-2 bulge going into the fourth. Drew Garrison and Steve Giannone tallied three goals apiece as UVa got balanced offensive production with 10 different players scoring goals.
The teams clashed for the first time in the first round of the 2003 NCAA Tournament with UVa gaining a 19-8 win in Charlottesville.
Curiously, Virginia won by 11 goals twice in the series and gone on to win the national championship each season (2003, `06). The other time the teams met (2005) Virginia advanced to the final four.
Mount St. Mary’s has been playing lacrosse since 1970 and has been a Division I program since 1989. The Mountaineers are one of nine lacrosse-playing members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (along with Canisius, Manhattan, Marist, Providence, St. Joseph’s, Siena, VMI and Wagner). Among MAAC members, Mount St. Mary’s, Manhattan and VMI are the only schools the Cavaliers have played. Virginia is 1-0 against Manhattan and 14-0 vs. VMI, including a 20-0 win last week.
Rubeor Named ACC Player of the Week
Ben Rubeor was named ACC Player of the Week after leading the Cavaliers to back-to-back wins last week, including a 20-0 victory over VMI on Monday and a 7-6 victory over Princeton on Saturday.
Against VMI, Rubeor matched his career-high with five goals. He scored the first goal of the game after just six seconds elapsed to get the Cavaliers off to a quick start. All five of his goals came in the first quarter as UVa built an 11-0 lead. He also grabbed one ground ball before being substituted for at the end of the opening quarter.
The Towson, Md., native notched the game winning goal Saturday against Princeton with 25.4 seconds left in the game. He shared the team lead with two goals and one assist as UVa came back from a two-goal deficit three different times to get the win.
He is currently second in the ACC in scoring, goals and assists this season.
Invincible Under the Klöckner Lights
Virginia hopes to continue a trend against Mount St. Mary’s tonight. The Cavaliers have never lost a night game at Klöckner Stadium.
Earlier this season (last week in fact), the Cavaliers gained a 20-0 win over VMI.
Last season Virginia posted a 16-5 win over The Mount in its only home night game of the season. The previous season the Cavaliers were 4-0 at home under the lights. Overall the Cavaliers have won 18 consecutive night wins since moving to Klöckner in 1993.
Johns Hopkins was the first to fall–14-9 on a cold Friday night in March 1996, the first of four night wins at Klöckner that season.
Five victims have been ranked in the top 10, including two #1s (Maryland 1996, Johns Hopkins 2004).
Virginia averages 15.9 goals per night game, while winning by an average of 9.4 goals, in night games at Klöckner.
Clausen Vacuums Ground Balls
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. He also shared the team lead with six ground balls.
He was very active in the standout defensive effort against Princeton Saturday that resulted in a 7-6 win for the Cavaliers. He shared the team lead in ground balls with faceoff man Adam Fassnacht with five. It was the fourth game in a row he led the team’s long sticks in ground balls (curiously all wins).
Clausen is second on the team, behind Fassnacht, with 23 ground balls. He is tied for fifth in the ACC in ground balls with an average of 4.6 per game and leads all conference rookies in the category.
Turner, Defense Key Wins over Syracuse, Princeton
Goalie Kip Turner and his defensive mates have turned in tremendous defensive efforts recently to help the Cavaliers gain impressive wins over Syracuse and Princeton the last two weekends.
In the win over Syracuse, the Orange took a 6-5 lead into the second quarter and many in the NCAA regular-season attendance record crowd of 20,180 were thinking they were going to see a repeat of the wild 22-21 game the teams played in 1997.
However the Cavalier defenders had other ideas. Defensemen Ricky Smith, Matt Kelly, Ken Clausen and Mike Timms joined Turner to hold the Orange to just two goals in the final 45 minutes, including only one in the second half, to lift UVa to an 11-8 win. The Orange failed to score for the final 20:35 of the game.
In last Saturday’s tight win over Princeton, the visiting Tigers started quickly and scored four of the first six goals of the game. Virginia’s offense clawed its way back in and tied the score at 5-all at halftime. In the second half the UVa defense was stellar, allowing only one goal. At one point the Wahoos pitched a shutout for 32:45.
During this time Turner was especially hot, making six of his 10 saves in the second half. Several of his stops were point blank stuffs, including a stuff of Mark Kovler with 1:39 left and the score tied at six.
During the team’s four-game winning streak Virginia’s opponents are shooting just 18.3 percent (21×115), and averaging just over five goals per game.
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