PressBox: Virginia Ends Denver's Dream Season

Virginia Ends Denver's Dream Season

By Barrett Neale

After three-straight years of NCAA semifinal losses, the Virginia men's lacrosse team is headed to the championship.

Junior attackman Steele Stanwick led the way with five points (three goals, two assists) as the Cavaliers (12-5) ousted Denver (15-3), 14-8, during the first game of Saturday's Final Four at M&T Bank Stadium. The Pioneers had won 12-consecutive games, including their first-ever tournament wins the past two weeks.

Virginia entered this tournament as the No. 7 seed, its lowest seeding since being No. 8 in 2001. After a close 13-12 first-round overtime win against Bucknell, the Cavaliers have outperformed higher-ranked opponents, first last week with a 13-9 quarterfinal win against second-seeded Cornell and again against sixth-seeded Denver.

"It's been unbelievable," Virginia senior defender Bray Malphrus said of the team's tournament play. "I try to stay away from the blogs and all that stuff but I just can't help myself. ... On a Virginia blog, they wrote: 'This season, it's been a nightmare. I can't wait for it to be over. I'm already looking forward to next season.' It's just like, 'Wow, great, this is awesome.' I couldn't be happier with the way we've played the last two weeks."

The Pioneers made history this year, hosting the first NCAA tournament game west of the Mississippi as they beat Villanova, 13-10, during the first round. They also upset a second-seeded Johns Hopkins team during the quarterfinals, 14-9, ending the Blue Jays' eight-game winning streak.

"These are special men," Denver coach Bill Tierney said. "They had a season that no one could have believed even when we got here. The doubters were out there and unfortunately, with the way we played, there will still be some out there tomorrow. As I just told the players, we can't take just one game. We have to congratulate the University of Virginia and the way they played today. They were fantastic and you have to give credit to the players for that."

After the Cavaliers dominated the first three quarters, taking a 13-4 lead, the Pioneers made a run at the start of the fourth quarter, scoring three goals during a 37-second span to pull within six when there were 13 minutes and 10 seconds remaining.

"It was hard to pick up the spirit with that much time left," Denver junior attackman Andrew Lay said of the fourth-quarter run. "It was such a good group of guys and it's been such a great year and it was so hard seeing the look on everyone's faces."

The Cavaliers took a timeout, regrouped and got back on the scoreboard as junior attackman Mark Cockerton scored at the 11:46 mark. They took only three shots the remainder of the game, electing to hold the ball and limit Denver's possessions.

"We were a little bit stuck in the second half there," Virginia coach Dom Starsia said, "trying to find the balance between taking some time off the clock and being a little bit more deliberate perhaps and also keeping up the tempo as best you can."

One of the difference makers in the game was penalties -- the Pioneers committed five, which led to three Virginia extra-man goals. The Cavaliers, on the other hand, were error-free for the game's first 58 minutes, with their lone penalty leading to the Pioneers' final goal.

Junior attackman Alex Demopoulos scored that goal, his only point of the game. The Virginia defense limited him and fellow junior attackman Mark Matthews, the team's two leading scorers. Matthews had only one point, and it was freshman midfielder Jeremy Noble who led the Pioneers' attack with four points (three goals, one assist), as well as a game-high six ground balls.

Jamie Faus, Denver's freshman goalkeeper, entered the game with an 8.22 goals-against average, a 57.0 save percentage and an average of 10.53 goals per game. He made eight saves against Virginia.

"They're very confident in how they're moving the ball," Faus said of the Virginia attack. "They seemed to know where they wanted to get their looks from and they were getting those looks and when they got those looks, they put them away."

Virginia senior goalkeeper Adam Ghitelman made 10 saves and earned his 49th career win. Tierney said he thought the main difference in experience between the two teams was not Final Four appearances, but the youth of Faus compared with Ghitelman's experience. Nonetheless, Tierney said he never considered switching goalies when Virginia jumped out to an early lead.

"You've got a freshman who we've ridden on his back all year long," he said. "He's going to be in plenty of games again. He's a wonderful young man. Our backup's a great goalie, Troy Orzech, but you yank a kid in front of whatever it was, 40,000 people, that's been carrying you all year long, you're losing for life. Never. I'd go to war with that kid every time."

Another difference maker, Tierney said, was Stanwick, who has become an even bigger component of the Cavaliers' offense since senior midfielder Shamel Bratton was dismissed from the team and his twin brother, Rhamel, was suspended indefinitely. Starsia said he tells his players to give Stanwick the ball on every possession.

"He's got great hands and great eyes," Starsia said. "Those are his physical skills. But he's also just a great kid and his real skill is making the people around him better, that he lifts everyone. ...

"Everyone understands that we're going to run a meaningful offense when he touches the ball. When you have somebody like that, that point guard that lifts everybody, if you move smartly, you get the ball back in a better spot, he's just one of those really rare athletes that impacts all the people around him."

Another main component of the Virginia offense is junior attackman Chris Bocklet, whose hat trick allowed him to improve the nation's best active scoring streak to 35-consecutive games. But Bocklet said it was the players who don't often live in the spotlight that had helped the Cavaliers make their tournament run.

"We've just been having these guys that are stepping up every game and in practice too," Bocklet said. "We had Mark Cockerton who put in I believe three and you've got Matt Kuglar who's scoring goals and everyone's doing a little bit of their part. ... We're constantly moving and setting picks for each other and we're just kind of clicking as a team, playing team ball."

Virginia won 13 of 24 faceoffs with the help of seniors Brian McDermott (9-14) and Garett Ince (4-10). The Cavaliers won every second-quarter faceoff, which helped them establish their 9-2 first-half lead.

"When you go up like that and you keep getting the ball back," Stanwick said, "it allows us to stay in the zone. … Everyone did a great job of just holding the ball and taking the great shots and not just the good ones."

Virginia improved its series record against Denver to 5-1 and its all-time NCAA tournament record to 46-29. The Cavaliers will play for the chance to win their fourth NCAA title (1999, 2003, 2006) at 3:30 p.m. on Monday against Maryland, which defeated Duke during the second semifinal game.

Posted May 28, 2011