UVa rebounds, knocks off Dartmouth

By Whitey Reid

Published: April 20, 2008

According to Will Barrow, the worst part of Virginia’s 10-goal loss to Duke last weekend was having to wait a week to get back on the field.
“You get hit in the mouth like that and all you want to do is play another game,” Barrow said. “After that game, I wished that next Saturday was 10 minutes later. I just wanted to play again and show that we were much better than what we showed.”
On Saturday afternoon at Klockner Stadium, Virginia did just that.
The fourth-ranked Cavaliers, behind four goals from senior Ben Rubeor, closed out their regular season with an 11-7 win over Dartmouth in front of a crowd of 2,157.
Virginia, which will host Maryland in the first round of the ACC Tournament on Friday, didn’t play one of its best games — the Cavs were edged in groundballs, 32-30, and also lost 12 of 22 faceoffs — but seemed to play with more focus than they had in their preceding three games.
“I feel like we’re not quite flowing the way I would like us to,” said Virginia coach Dom Starsia, “but I thought it was a very workmanlike effort and a good win against a team that’s been coming on.”
Virginia (11-2) didn’t begin the game very well. Dartmouth (5-7) jumped out to a 2-0 lead and was able to dictate tempo.
“The first couple of goals that they got were because of groundballs that we sort of mishandled and they made plays on,” Starsia said. “I was concerned about that.”
UVa didn’t get on the scoreboard until less than four minutes remained in the first quarter when Danny Glading scored.
But the goal got Virginia going.
UVa scored five more times over the next 14 minutes to take a 6-2 lead. The Cavaliers led 8-4 at the half and Dartmouth was never able to get within two the rest of the way.
“I thought we played very smartly at the end of the game,” Starsia said. “It was probably as cerebral of a win as we’ve had
in sometime.”
One of the keys to the victory was Virginia’s play on defense. In the loss to Duke, UVa allowed the Blue Devils to penetrate at will. But versus Dartmouth, UVa did a much better job.
“I thought that when we were settled and in the box our defense did a nice job,” Starsia said. “I thought we rode well. That’s the beginning of good team defense – the riding piece of it.
“I tell these guys all the time that defense is a group activity as much as anything else and we can be proud of how we defended today.”
In goal, Bud Petit was solid. Making his third straight start, the fifth-year senior finished with seven saves and showed no signs of the hip flexor injury that had bothered him against Duke.
Offensively, Virginia seemed more prudent in its decision-making, particularly in the second half.
“We needed that game to prepare us for [the ACC Tournament],” said Virginia senior Pete Lamade. “We’ll be playing two teams that beat us significantly in the regular season.”
“We have to play smarter as team. We tend to rush into things a lot, which is good sometimes and bad other times. Playing [Duke and Maryland] we’re going to have to slow the ball down sometimes and not make dumb mistakes. But we played a lot smarter today than we had in the past.”