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CHARLOTTESVILLE, VAAfter a three-game road trip, the team’s longest in 14 years, the Cavaliers return home to face reigning national champion Johns Hopkins Saturday. The 3-2 Blue Jays have suffered two straight overtime losses and could very easily be undefeated. Either way, they figure to be a formidable opponent.
“I think in all the typical sport psychology things, as strange as it may sound, you’d think the advantage would be to Johns Hopkins,” said head coach Dom Starsia. “(They’re) coming off two lossestwo close lossesand they clearly could be undefeated, while (we’re) sitting here at 8-0. I’m sure coach (Dave) Pietramala was able to get their attention (this week).”
The Blue Jays have won two of the last three national championships and done it with a combination of excellent defensive play and production from the midfield. This year they have been more up tempo and are averaging nearly 11 goals per game.
“I’m not sure that they are as interested in sort of (slowing down) the pace of play as you might have said in other (seasons),” said Starsia about this weekend’s opponent. “Like we talked about before Princeton, which is that you just need to be successful at whatever is required out there.
“If Hopkins did feel like they needed to slow the game down a little bit, then we can’t really prevent them from doing that. We need to be successful in a game like that. We’ve been through a lot of different situations already this year and I don’t think anything would catch us completely by surprise.”
Virginia has been one of the few programs that has found a way to beat the Blue Jays consistently the last few years. During its undefeated national championship season two years ago, Virginia downed Johns Hopkins 12-6 at Klckner Stadium, while last season the Cavaliers won 7-5 at Homewood.
Starsia doesn’t point to any dramatic strategy to explain his team’s success in winning the last two.
“It has to do with the respect that we have for their program,” he said. “I always feel like in a game against these guys that our kids are ready to play, and I don’t have to work hard to get their attention. We understand that we are going to have to play really well to win and we’ve been willing to do those things, so hopefully we can keep that train going.”