Story Links
April 3, 2007
Charlottesville, Va. –
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
Game 9
No. 3 Virginia (8-1) vs. Binghamton (2-4)
April 3, 2007 4 pm
Klöckner Stadium Charlottesville, Va.
Game Overview
Virginia steps out of conference this afternoon at 4 p.m. to face the Binghamton Bearcats at Klöckner Stadium. This is the first time Virginia has ever squared off against the Bearcats, who are the Cavaliers’ lone first-time opponent this season.
Both teams are coming off conference wins in their last game–Virginia downed Maryland 12-8 Saturday, while Binghamton defeated Hartford 16-4 to open its America East schedule. Virginia has won eight in a row, while the Bearcats have won two of their last three.
The Series vs. the Bearcats
This is the first meeting between the two schools. Binghamton is Virginia’s only first-time opponent this season. Bingjhamton has been playing lacrosse on the Division I level since 2002 and is a member of the America East Conference (along with Albany, Hartford, UMBC, Stony Brook and Vermont). Among AE members, Virginia has played Albany, UMBC and Stony Brook.
The Cavaliers gained their first win over the season with a 15-7 decision over Stony Brook on Feb. 24.
Virginia is 17-2 all-time vs. AE schools, including a 12-2 mark vs. UMBC, 4-0 against Stony Brook and 1-0 vs. Albany.
Sharing Common Opponents
Virginia and Binghmaton have two opponents in common this season–Drexel and Syracuse.
The Cavaliers lost to Drexel 11-10 in the season opener, but bounced back to defeat Syracuse 11-8 two weeks later.
Binghamton has lost to both–4-2 at Drexel and 16-10 at Syracuse.
Virginia Offense Third in 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).
The offense is producing at a high rate once again this season (although not at last year’s clip). Virginia is currently third in the nation with an average of 13.1 goals per game. Cornell leads at 14.4, while Albany is second at 13.8.
There have been eight games this year when a team has scored at least 20 goals and both Virginia and Delaware have done it twice to lead the nation.
UVa’s 23 goals against Mount St. Mary’s last month are tied for the most in a game this season; Delaware scored 23 against St. Joseph’s.
Defense Among Nation’s Best
The Virginia offense has been very productive so far this season and ranks third in the nation with an average of 13.1 goals per game.
The defense is determined not to be outdone and has been particularly stingy this spring. The Cavalier defenders–led by close d-men Ricky Smith, Matt Kelly and Ken Clausen, and LSMs Mike Timms and Tim Shaw, as well as stopper Kip Turner-spearhead the nation’s seventh-leading defense. The Cavaliers relinquish an average of 6.7 goals per game. Only Drexel (11) has scored more than nine goals vs. Virginia this season.
Stony Brook, VMI and Johns Hopkins have scored their fewest goals of the season vs. Virginia, while Syracuse and Princeton both have their second-lowest output of the season against the Cavaliers.
Of Virginia’s nine opponents this season, only Drexel and Mount St. Mary’s have scored more against the Cavaliers than their season average.
UVa is one of only three teams (along with Cornell and Navy) ranked in the top 10 in the country in both defense and offense.
Green Grass of Klöckner Bodes Well
After losing their home opener to Drexel at the UHall Turf Field and having their 19-game home winning streak snapped, the Cavaliers have returned to Klöckner Stadium.
Virginia is riding a 21-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 70-12 (.854) at Klöckner since moving there in 1993.
Cavaliers in Mid Week Games
The Cavaliers come into Tuesday’s game with a 12-game winning streak going back to 2001 in reguiar-season mid-week games.
Already this season Virginia has downed VMI and Mount St. Mary’s in midweekers.
The last time the Cavaliers lost a midweek contest was an 11-8 loss to Notre Dame on March 14, 2001 (a Wednesday).
Under head coach Dom Starsia, Virginia is 34-2 (.944) in mid-week games since 1993. After losing his first mid-week game (9-6 to Princeton in 1993), the Cavaliers rattled off 22 wins in a row before the loss to Notre Dame six years ago.
Good Shooting Leads to Wins
The Cavaliers have done a much better job of shooting since dropping their season opener to Drexel in mid-February.
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 five times (and just missed with 29 percent vs. Towson).
When the Cavaliers shoot at least 30 percent they have had remarkable success recently. Since 1998 Virginia is 69-5 (.932) when shooting 30+ percent.
Rubeor Leads Nation in Scoring, Goals
Junior attackman Ben Rubeor has been tearing it up during the first half 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 12 games in a row with at least one. In addition, he has tallied three goals on six occasions, including a career-high seven against Towson, the third-highest total in school history.
Not only has he been scoring goals at a high rate, he has helped his teammates score at a nearly similar pace. He has had an assist in eight of nine games so far this spring with a high of four vs. Drexel.
Rubeor has been named the ACC Player of the Week twice this season, including this week after leading the Cavaliers to a 12-8 win over Maryland in their ACC opener. He scored a game-high five goals–including the game-winner– and had one assist.
Rubeor leads the nation with 49 points (34g, 15a), five more than Duke’s Matt Danowski.
He also sits atop the goals scored list with 34, six more than Zack Greer of Duke.
Rubeor’s 15 assists are tied for eighth nationally.
At his current rate, playing at least 14 games, Rubeor is on pace to score 53 goals and add 23 assists this season.
For his career, Rubeor has registered at least one point by goal or assist in his last 27 games and 36 of 39 in his career.
UVa Has Nation’s Longest Winning Streak
VIrginia comes into this game riding an eight-game winning streak and has won 25 of its last 26 games overall. Following Navy’s loss to Georgetown on Saturday, the Cavaliers now have the nation’s longest winning streak along with Albany.
The longest current winning streaks are shown below.
1. Virginia 8
Albany 8
3. Cornell 7
4. Loyola 5
Stony Brook 5