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March 23, 2007
Charlottesville, Va. –
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Game 7
No. 5 Virginia (6-1) vs. No. 3 Johns Hopkins (4-1)
March 24, 2007 1 pm
Homewood Field Baltimore, Md.
Game Overview
Virginia travels north to Charm City to face Johns Hopkins in a battle of the last two NCAA champions on Saturday at 1 p.m. at historic Homewood Field.
The fifth-ranked Cavaliers own the nation’s longest winning streak at six games and are 6-1 overall this spring. Like Virginia, the third-ranked Blue Jays lost in their season opener at home, but have since rattled off four consecutive wins coming into this game.
Something’s gotta give this weekend. Virginia leads the nation in offense with an average of 14.14 goals per game, while the Blue Jays give up nearly half that at 7.40 gpg to rank 13th in the country.
Broadcast Information:
Television: This game is being televised by ESPNU. Scott Garceau calls the play-by-play, while Quint Kessenich provides the color commentary.
Radio: WINA AM 1070 in Charlottesville is providing live play-by-play coverage of this game. Jed Williams calls all the action. He is joined by Doug Tarring, a member of UVa’s 1972 national championship team.
The Series vs. the Blue Jays
Johns Hopkins holds a commanding 54-23-1 record in the all-time series with Virginia. The rivalry between the two schools goes all the way back to two meetings in 1904, well before lacrosse was recognized as a varsity sport at UVa. The series didn’t resume until 1926, the second “official” year of the UVa varsity program (but still 22 years before UVa joined the USILA). The teams have met at least once every season since 1948, the longest current series of any Virginia opponent.
The Cavaliers have closed the gap recently by winning 10 of the last 15 vs. the Blue Jays.
John Hopkins’ 54 wins over Virginia are by far the most wins by any school over the Cavaliers. Maryland, next week’s opponent, is next with 43 wins over UVa.
Virginia has also played more games against Hopkins than any one else (78). Again, Maryland is second with 77 games vs. the Cavaliers.
The Blue Jays have dominated the series in Baltimore, winning 34 of 42 match-ups at Homewood Field (with one tie). Three of the last four games have been barn burners decided by one goal each time (Hopkins won two); the other game was decided by just two goals.
This game features some historical patterns that could bode well for the Cavaliers.
Known as a team that likes the up-tempo pace, Virginia would certainly like to see its nation-leading offense explode vs. the Blue Jays since the Cavaliers are 18-7 all-time when scoring at least 10 goals. In fact, when UVa scores more than 13 goals they have won 11 of 14 games against Hopkins.
The Cavaliers can also be successful if they are able to contain the Hopkins offense because they are 16-6-1 when allowing fewer than 10 goals. The Blue Jays have not reached double digits since an 11-goal game in the 1999 national semifinals, 10 games ago.
Teams Clash for Doyle Smith Cup
Virginia and Johns Hopkins meet once again for the right to claim the Doyle Smith Cup.
The two schools have joined to honor E. Doyle Smith, Jr., for his lifetime of contributions to the lacrosse programs at both schools and on the national level.
Virginia won the inaugural cup last year with a 12-6 win over the Blue Jays in Charlottesville.
Smith served as team manager and statistician for Johns Hopkins under coach Bob Scott from 1963-1968. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1966 and earned a masters degree in 1968. He received the Barton Cup for academic excellence and the H Club Cup for contributions to athletics at Johns Hopkins.
He enrolled at UVa to pursue a doctorate in the fall of 1968, and became the university’s first full-time assistant sports information director, a position he held for 31 years until his retirement in 1999. He served as the lacrosse team’s publicist for four head coaches–Buddy Beardmore, Glenn Thiel, Jim Adams and Dom Starsia.
On the national level, Smith was one of the nation’s foremost authorities on the sport as his name is synonymous with the game’s history and record keeping. He served as the information director compiling the weekly rankings and statistics for the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) from 1973-95 and twice received its Man of the Year Award. The USILA media award bears his name.
In 2000 he was elected to the US Lacrosse Hall of Fame and is believed to be the only individual inducted who never played the game at some level. Smith passed away in June 2004.
History Suggests Rankings Don’t Mean Too Much
One of the characteristics of the Virginia vs. Johns Hopkins series since the late 1980s is the inability to use rankings as a predictor of victory, which the Cavaliers hope will be the case Saturday.
The higher ranked team has lost 13 of the last 20 regular season meetings dating back to 1987. In fact, from 1990-1995, the higher ranked squad lost each time.
The tide has shifted somewhat the last couple years as the higher ranked team has won the last two regular-season match-ups.
This is the first time in six years one of the two teams has not been ranked No. 1 in the polls, a span of seven meetings.
Virginia Offense Leads Nation
The Cavaliers led the nation last season in scoring with an average of 15.8 goals per game. It marked the fourth time since 1996 they had the nation’s leading offense (also led in 1996-97-99).
This season they once again lead the nation with an average of 14.14 goals per game.
There have been six instances this year when a team scored at least 20 goals in a game and both Virginia and Delaware have done it twice.
UVa’s 23 goals against Mount St. Mary’s 11 days ago are tied for the most in a game this season. Delaware scored 23 against St. Joseph’s earlier this season.
Good Shooting Leads to Wins
The Cavaliers have done a much better job of shooting since dropping their season opener to Drexel a month 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 in the win over Syracuse in the Inside Lacrosse Face-Off Classic when Virginia needed just 28 shots to score 11 goals against the Orange.
Since the Drexel game Virginia has shot 30-percent or better four times in six games (and just missed with 29 percent last week vs. Towson).
When the Cavaliers shoot at least 30 percent they have had remarkable success recently. Since 1998 Virginia is 68-5 (.932) when shooting 30+ percent.
Rubeor Leads Nation in Scoring, Goals
Junior attackman Ben Rubeor has been tearing it up during the first month of the season. He opened the year with a 4-goal, 4-assist performance against Drexel and hasn’t slowed since.
He has scored at least one goal in every game this season, to run his streak to 10 games in a row with at least one. In addition, he has tallied three goals on five occasions, including a career-high seven in last week’s win over Towson.
Not only has he been scoring goals at a high rate, he has been his teammates score at a nearly similar pace. He has had an assist in six of seven games so far this spring with a high of four vs. Drexel.
Rubeor was named the ACC Player of the Week for his play in guiding the Cavaliers to wins over VMI and Princeton. Against VMI he tied his career high at the time with five goals. He scored twice against Princeton, including the game winner with 25.4 seconds left to play.
The Towson, Md., native torched Towson for seven goals last week, tied for the third-highest total in school history.
Rubeor leads the nation with 38 points (26g, 13a), eight more than Duke’s Matt Danowski.
He also sits atop the goals scored list with 26, three more than Bucknell’s Joe Mele.
Rubeor’s 13 assists are tied with Michael Phipps of Maryland for fifth nationally.
Rubeor, Phipps and Zack Greer (Duke) are the only players in the country to rank in the top 10 in points, goals and assists.
For his career, Rubeor has registered at least one point by goal or assist in his last 25 games and 34 of 37 in his career.
Starsia’s Cavaliers as Underdogs
Virginia began the season ranked first in all the preseason polls, but following the season-opening loss to Drexel the Cavaliers dropped to 10th. They have climbed back to fifth this week in the coaches poll. Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins is currently ranked third by the coaches.
Since the Cavaliers are typically found at or near the top of the polls, it’s not unusual they are the higher ranked team.
However, on the rare occasions when the Cavaliers are the lower ranked squad they have had pretty good success springing an upset as shown by their 26-26 record since 1993 when being the lower-ranked team.
After not playing as the lower ranked team all last season, this marks the second time in three weekends they have been the lower ranked squad. Two weeks ago they vanquished Princeton 7-6 at home.
Virginia has won two its last three games as the lower ranked team since late in the 2005 season. The loss is its overtime loss to Hopkins in the national semifinals in Phiadelphia.
UVa is 13-21 all-time (or at least since 1971) against Johns Hopkins when ranked lower than the Blue Jays, including 3-15 when playing at Homewood.
UVa Has Nation’s Longest Winning Streak
VIrginia comes into this game riding a six-game winning streak and has won 23 of its last 24 games overall.
The Cavaliers’ six-game winning streak is tied for the longest winning streak in the country. Fairfield and Navy have also won six straight.The longest current winning streaks are shown below.
1. Virginia 6
Fairfield 6 (going back to last season)
Navy 6
4. Albany 5
Cornell 5
Quick Starts Set Tone
One amazing aspect of the Cavaliers’ undefeated 17-0 record last season was the explosive play of their offense. They led the nation in scoring with an average of 15.82 goals per game, the most by a Division I team since the 1997 UVa squad averaged more than 18 goals per game. UVa’s 269 goals were the most by a D-I team since UVa tallied 275 times in 1996. Virginia also led the nation in scoring margin, winning by an average of 8.24 goals per game, the greatest margin since the Cavaliers won by an average of 8.50 goals per game in 1997.
Like the man who jumps out of bed and hits the ground running every morning, Virginia was particularly effective in getting off to fast starts. In fact in nearly half the Cavaliers’ games, remarkably quick starts effectively decided the game in the first half.
Virginia scored a whopping 81 goals in the first quarter last year to lead the nation, an average of 4.76 per game. UVa outscored the opposition 14 times in the first quarter last season, including the last 11 games. The first quarter total was also the most goals in any quarter by any team all season.
This season the Cavaliers have continued their hot starts, scoring first five times in seven games. They have scored 36 goals in the opening 15 minutes, their most productive quarter by far.
They are also shooting at a blistering pace in the first quarter–42.4 percent (36×85).
Their 20-goal differential in the first quarter is also their greatest of any quarter so far this spring.
Overall, Virginia has outscored the opposition in every quarter this season.