UVa, Maryland get their rubber match

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Published: May 17, 2008

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Dom Starsia has always believed in building his offense with outstanding attackmen, and that’s what he’s counting on in today’s NCAA quarterfinals men’s lacrosse match against Maryland.
Starsia’s second-seeded Virginia squad (13-3) will be taking on the seventh-seeded Terrapins (10-5) for the third time this season, and today’s noon contest at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium (ESPNU) will be the rubber match. Maryland won the first encounter in April, knocking off the then, newly No. 1 ranked Cavaliers in Baltimore, 13-7. UVa won the rematch by an 11-8 score in Charlottesville during the ACC tournament semifinals.
The Cavaliers have been clicking on offense of late as Starsia’s three-pronged all-star attack has slowly returned to health and full speed. Senior Ben Rubeor and juniors Garrett Billings and Danny Glading have rediscovered their scoring touch and are ready for a shootout with the Terps.
“When we’re all up and firing, we’re a handful to cover,” Starsia said of his scoring trio.
In the last two weeks, Glading, who was injured against Towson in mid-March, has been a completely different player in Starsia’s estimation. He finally bounced back from the injury and regained his conditioning. Rubeor, who suffered a knee injury on the first day of practice and missed the first three games, has returned to good health. Billings was also nicked up for much of the season.
“We’re more effective in what we like to do with them at their peak,” Starsia said. “We had them a lot of responsibility. That’s how our program works. We’ve always done that. When you can depend on them, and they’re playing well, it makes us even more effective offensively.”
Starsia believes that when Glading can attack from behind the goal, it opens up the field for everyone else on the UVa offense and makes the Cavs more dangerous.
Still, beating Maryland is no easy task, with everything at stake. The winner advances to next the NCAA Final Four next weekend at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. Today’s survivor will face the winner of Sunday’s No. 3 Syracuse (13-3) vs. No. 6 Notre Dame (14-2) game in the NCAA semifinals next Saturday at Gillette.
“It’s two teams that know each other really well, so I think it will just come down to execution,” Glading said of today’s third contest against the Terps. “We need to shoot high percentage shots because if one of their goalies gets hot, as we saw in the first game, they can make a lot of saves.”
Glading was correct in his analysis. In the first meeting, Maryland goalie Jason Carter made a career-best 15 saves.
“We need to take care of the ball and not settle for shots that are going to be easy saves for their goalie,” Glading said. “We have to move the ball until we get really good shots.”
Starsia agreed that preparing for the Terps wasn’t as complicated as facing a fresh opponent that Virginia hadn’t seen because of the familiarity in having already played twice. The Cavaliers are well acquainted with the Terps and their tendencies, which simplified preparation.
“I don’t think there are going to be an surprises for them or us,” Billings said. “We’ve been generating a lot of shots, so I think as long as [UVa goalie] Bud Petit has a big day and we capitalize on our chances, we should be good.”
Starsia was the first to admit that anyone looking for a brilliant stroke of genius in strategy may be over-thinking the situation.
“This isn’t rocket science,” said Starsia, a veteran of 26 seasons as a head coach. “There’s no elaborate scheme out there that’s going to carry the day. What we need is to do the things well that we have been working on since the beginning: win the ground ball battles, shoot efficiently, and communicate on defense.”
Still, both coaches hinted they may attempt to throw one another a curve or two.
“I heard [Maryland] coach [Dave] Cottle mention that we made some adjustments from the first game to the second game, nothing dramatic, and now it’s their turn to make some adjustments,” Starsia pointed out. “I don’t think you change things too dramatically at this time of year. We may change a couple of little things to give them a couple of different things to think about.”
One thing for fans to look for in the first game of the doubleheader — host Navy plays Johns Hopkins in the second game — is a lot of physical play. Maryland manhandled UVa a bit in the first game and the Cavaliers responded in the second meeting.
“That’s always a theme in a game between Virginia and Maryland,” Starsia said. “For some reason [the Terps] define themselves as a little more blue-collar and we’re more white-collar in our sport. If you go back and look at the rosters, I’d guess they would be remarkably similar.”
Twenty players from the combined rosters of today’s game will face high school teammates in the clash.
“Maryland prides itself on physical play and feels like it can push us around, and frankly they did push us around a little bit the first time,” the Virginia coach said. “We did respond better the second time around. But I don’t expect this to be a game determined by who takes the other guy’s head off. I define toughness as Ben Rubeor taking an extra step to get a better angle for his shot, or by our guys doing the fundamental thing over and over again.”
Groundballs
Maryland is 7-1 at home and 3-4 on the road this season. ...Both the Cavaliers and the Terps are making their 31st NCAA tournament appearance in the sport, tying them for the second-most in NCAA history. ...Only Hopkins has more with 36. ...Maryland leads the all-time series by a 44-37 margin in a rivalry that dates back to 1926, the second year of the UVa program ...The two teams have met at least once every season since 1950. ...This is the sixth consecutive year that they have met at least twice.