Virginia Ready for Final Four Weekend

Michael Culver and the Cavs' defense will try to slow down Syracuse on Saturday.

The Virginia men's lacrosse team has rolled to a 15-0 record this season, but the coaches and players won't be satisfied without two more victories this weekend in the NCAA Tournament's Final Four. UVa faces Syracuse in the semifinals on Saturday, a team it defeated earlier this season, 20-15.

"I would tell you that just in passing, and I've said it over time, we never go into a season thinking about being undefeated. With the schedule we play, we just don't think that that's likely to happen," Virgiia coach Dom Starsia said. "So the fact that it has happened [in the regular season] is memorable. I think that's significant. But I think we're now focused on trying to finish this in the final weekend and then we can all sit back and look at the big picture of this thing."

The Cavaliers have won the men's lacrosse title three times, including their run in 2003. The seniors on this team were freshmen then and they would like to bookend their careers with National Championships.

"You certainly don't come to college and think you're going to play. The fact that I got a chance to play, but also to play on a team that was so talented with great senior leadership and win a National Championship was an unbelievable and indescribable feeling and experience for me. I certainly would like to duplicate that this year," senior Matt Ward said earlier this season.

Virginia and Syracuse face off in the second game Saturday - the start time is slated for 2 p.m.

The final full week of the Evaluation period has been very kind to the University of Virginia football staff.

It started on Monday, when UVa pulled out a bit of a surprise when 6-0, 185-pound Chase Minnifield verbally committed to the Hoos over Louisville. Louisville, alma mater of Frank Minnifield, Chase's father and an NFL standout for the Cleveland Browns, was thought as the likely favorite heading into Monday afternoon's announcement. UVa was able to pull out a commitment from the talented speedster.

A running back and cornerback for Henry Clay High School (Lexington, KY) in his junior season, Minnifield is being recruited by UVa primarily as a wide receiver. He plays some slot receiver for Henry Clay and finished with 20 receptions. He had 16 total touchdowns (rushing and receiving) and, on defense, earned all-city and all-state honors for his 6-interception performance last season.

Aaron Taliaferro with his family.

At 3 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, the 6-2, 220-pound Taliaferro publicly announced his commitment to Virginia. He picked the Hoos over Maryland, N.C. State and Virginia Tech. Like Minnifield, Taliaferro is a player said to be high on UVa's target list. As a junior last season, he racked up 19 sacks from the defensive end position. He will play linebacker his senior year for head coach Tommy Reamon.

Shortly before Taliaferro's announcement, some more slightly surprising news broke. Culpeper (VA) standout Terence Fells-Danzer, a very athletic 6-2, 230-pound linebacker recruit, had also pledged to the Hoos. The fact that Fells-Danzer chose UVa over Virginia Tech (both offered) was not the surprise . it was when he committed. Fells-Danzer indicated on previous occasions that he wanted to wait until closer to his senior season to commit.

Fells-Danzer and Taliaferro join Christchurch (VA) star J'Courtney Williams - another player offered by both UVa and Virginia Tech, Williams is being recruited by UVa as a safety but could easily end up at linebacker because of his size - and Woodside (Newport News, VA) standout Jared Detrick to make a formidable linebacker group.

Including the new commitments, Virginia now has nine verbal commitments. The staff hopes to keep the momentum going, and more prospects hope to make their declarations in the coming weeks and months. Pottsville (PA) offensive lineman Brad Hallick is very likely to decide between UVa and Vanderbilt very soon, possibly as early as the first week in June. Stone Bridge (Ashburn, VA) offensive lineman/defensive lineman Andrew Nuss hopes to decide somewhere in the middle of the summer.

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Thread of the Week

Subject: If you could choose the ideal schedule for UVa this fall ...
Posted by: Battman on Fri May 26 2006 10:18:25 AM
Message: ...what would it be?

This combines topics we've had previously: Some people complain about when we have our scheduled games (day and month), and some people don't like our out-of-conference schedule. So take your best shot at the dream schedule, choosing which teams we play out of conference, and the dates of all games. I know we would all like to go further and alter the division set-up, and maybe give Tech our FSU game, but let's say we have to stick with who we play in the conference and division. So how would you set up our schedule?

Would Mike Groh like another shot at Michigan and Texas? Draw up your dream schedule on the football board.

My take:

9/9: Virginia Tech (away)
9/16: East Carolina (away)
9/23: Notre Dame (home)
9/30: Duke (away)
10/7: North Carolina State (home)
10/14: Illinois (home)
10/21: FSU (away)
10/28: North Carolina (home)
11/4: Maryland (home)
11/11: Wyoming (home)
11/18: Central Florida (away)
11/25: Miami (home)

No byes; I don't think bye weeks really help, unless a key person's been mildly injured. Mercy on that basis never seems to come our way, so Forget it, let's roll for the entire season.

Sit out til 9/9 for a variety of reasons: It's an extra week of practice (like a bye before playing VT), U.Va. reveals nothing on the field before meeting Tech, and hopefully Tech plays a game to show more of what they are doing. Most importantly, play Tech early. Both teams benefit from getting the game out of the way and potentially rising in the ranks after that. Take it easy afterward by playing East Carolina. U.Va. fans can enjoy the beach and take in the game in the same weekend.

Players get an easier game than the week before, and a chance to retool as needed before Notre Dame. Notre Dame is good, but is one of the most consistently overrated teams out there. This is another chance, like the game against VT, to take a step up. I'm looking for payback for '89, too. Best of all, have them play here; we can play them in South Bend later.

From there, I alternate between an easier team and a tougher team for most of the rest of the schedule. I'm not saying Illinois is all that weak, but compared to FSU, they are still a primer. I'd also consider Michigan for stealing that Kickoff Classic from us, but my payback factor is higher with Illinois. But whomever, they would play in our stadium.

With no bye weeks once we start play, I at least lined up two easier teams before Miami. Central Florida would be our chance for that elusive win in the state of Florida, and a chance to take a respite from a mid-Atlantic November. I'd hope it would be cold when Miami shows up. I like the idea of Miami as the season-ender every year, home or away.

Subject: Here's mine
Posted by: Woohoo! on Fri May 26 2006 10:40:57 AM
Message: 9/9: Three Team Rotation (Mich/ND/Penn State) (H and H)
9/16: Three Team Rotation (W&M/UofR/JMU) (Always in C'ville)
9/23: Clemson
9/30: Three Team Rotation (WVU/Cuse/Pitt) (H and H)
10/7: North Carolina State
10/14: Duke
10/21: UNC
10/28: FSU (Always seems to be close to Halloween)
11/4: Vanderbilt (H and H)
11/11: Maryland
11/18: Miami
11/25: Tech

First game in front of 100K + people every other year. By week five you should know what your team is made of. UNC and FSU, big rival games, sandwiched by hopefully two very winnable games. Tough stretch run against three teams you love to hate. May get a break every now and again with Maryland.

9/2: Georgia (away)
9/9: Rutgers (home)
9/16: Duke (away)
9/21: Georgia Tech (away)
9/30: Notre Dame (home)
10/7: Bye
10/14: Miami (away)
10/21: Wyoming (home)
10/26: UNC (home)
11/4: FSU (away)
11/11: NC State (home)
11/18: UMD (home)
11/25: VT (away)

So what do you think? Join the discussion!

Hot Spot

The Sabre's Baseball Message Board has become a hot spot in recent weeks as the Cavaliers rolled to the best regular season in school history. UVa opened double elimination bracket play of the ACC Tournament 1-1 this week, meaning it has a win-or-go-home game today with Florida State. Join your fellow Hoo fans on the Baseball Message Board today for the 4 p.m. game.

License Plate section is up in Wahoowa!

A few weeks ago, SabreMail made a request for anyone who had license plates that reflected your status as a Hoo fan. The responses have started to trickle in and the Plates Photos are up and running the Wahoowa! section of the site. The Wahoowa! section of the Sabre is dedicated to all things associated with UVa Fan-dom. There are various fan-related areas including desktop wallpaper, Fan of the Week photos, V-Sabres Worldwide, and more. If you have suggestions for new and interesting things in the Wahoowa! section, please email us at [email protected] with the header: Wahoowa! suggestion.

We'd like to keep adding photos to the section so if your license plate shows that you're a Hoo fan, let us know so we can include you in our gallery. All you need to do is snap a picture of your license plate and email a jpeg version of the photo to [email protected] with the email header: License Plate Photo.

DMB at the JPJ ticket swap

For anyone out there heading to the Dave Matthews Band concerts at Charlottesville's John Paul Jones Arena this fall, there are some Sabre-ites out there looking to swap seats. Since the venue limited people to purchasing 2 tickets at a time, pairs of friends may not be seated close together at all. If you want to try to swap your tickets to get closer to your friends, just visit our Ticket Exchange messageboard and see if anyone has tickets that they are willing to swap with you!

Around the World of Wahoo Sports ...

J.R. Reynolds averaged more than 12 points per game for an All-Star Touring Team.

• Reynolds Gains Experience With Traveling Team: University of Virginia guard J.R. Reynolds averaged 12.7 points a game with the Upstate Basketball Touring Team from New York during a recent seven-game trip to Nassau in the Bahamas. The team was comprised of college players and won all seven of its games on the trip, including two victories over the Bahamian National Team.
• Three Cavaliers Advance to Round of 16 at NCAA Individual Championships: Three members of Virginia men's tennis team advanced to the round of 16 of the 2006 NCAA Individual Championships on the second day of play Thursday at the Taube Tennis Center. Somdev Devvarman reached the round of 16 of the NCAA Singles Championship, while Rylan Rizza and Nick Meythaler advanced to the round of 16 of the NCAA Doubles Championship.
• Wigger Moves Into Top-20 at NCAA Golf: Virginia junior women's golfer Leah Wigger shot even par 72 during the third round of the NCAA Championships to move into the top 20 on the leaderboard. After three days Wigger is tied for 17th at 6-over 222.
• Aisha Mohammed Signs With Virginia: The University of Virginia women's basketball team has received a National Letter of Intent from Aisha Mohammed. One of the top junior college players in the nation, the All-American will attend UVa and play basketball for the Cavaliers next season.

To read the full stories or gather more information on Virignia athletics, check out Virginiasports.com.

Sabre articles from the past week

Sit On It, Poskay? Nah, Fire Away!
Virginia senior Matt Poskay has scored 34 goals this season to go with just five assists. In his career, he's scored 81 times while dishing out just 10 assists. After pouring in four goals against Georgetown in the NCAA Quarterfinals, the midfielder stretched his consecutive games with a goal streak to 20 games. And yet, not one Cavalier has been tempted to yell "Sit on it, Poskay!"

Lacrosse Notes: Seniors Setting the Tone
The Virginia seniors on the men's lacrosse team have seen all this before. After all, they've made this Final Four trip three times. It's routine to them. But what about the freshmen for the Cavaliers? How will they know what to expect? Senior Matt Poskay says the youngsters won't have to look far for guidance

UVa's Young Receivers Could Make Impact
Herman Moore. Germane Crowell. Billy McMullen. John Ford. Tyrone Davis. Virginia's 2,000-yard receiving club reads like a symbolic torch-passing in the record books - one guy handing off to the next as their careers line up in succession with just two years missing from 1984 to 2002. A closer look at the record list, however, reveals something even more interesting.

ACC Baseball Tournament: Virginia's Bracket
Virginia opens play in the ACC Baseball Tournament today with a 10 a.m. contest against Florida State. In preparation for this week's tournament, the Sabre.com takes a quick look at Virginia's three bracket opponents: Florida State, North Carolina, and N.C. State.

Around the Horn: Cavs Try to Stay Hot in Tourney
With a three-game sweep of Virginia Tech, the Cavaliers (45-11, 21-9) completed the Virginia baseball program's most successful regular season to date. Virginia's 21 ACC wins are the most in school history and the 45 regular season triumphs also set a team record. Greg Miclat and the Hoos will try to keep a good thing going in the ACC Tournament this week.

Why or Why Not? - UVa in the ACC Tournament
The Virginia baseball team opens play in the ACC Tournament on Wednesday with a contest against Florida State. The Sabre caught up with Adam Gottschalk, one of the play-by-play voices for WINA's coverage of the Cavaliers, to talk about the upcoming event. Adam answers why or why not on several items including whether Casey Lambert will win the MVP honors and who will be the Cavs' fourth starter.

X Marks the Spot: Face-offs Key in Lacrosse
In describing lacrosse to newcomers, some will suggest that the sport is a hybrid of soccer and ice hockey with a touch of basketball thrown in. Perhaps, rugby should be added to the list as well - after all, the battle in the face-off X is reminiscent of a one-on-one version of the rugby scrum.

Sabre Edge recruiting updates from the past week ...

Halfway Finished with the 2007 Class?
The May Evaluation period is almost complete, and the Virginia Cavaliers have landed nine verbal commitments in the 2007 recruiting class. Certainly a good start for a program that, in the 2005 class, racked up 17 commitments by the end of July. Virginia's commitment number could rise in the coming weeks and months, with more prospects hoping to make early decisions.

Nosal's Recruitment Gaining Momentum
Kellam (Virginia Beach, VA) tight end Greg Nosal landed an offer from Virginia Tech back in February and he had to wait a while for the next one to come in. But now, four more Division 1A programs - including the University of Virginia - have extended official scholarship offers to the 6-7, 255-pound standout.

St. Anne's Star Lands Offers
College coaches have taken notice of St. Anne's-Belfield (Charlottesville, VA) tight end Brian Linthicum here in recent months. A very athletic player, the 6-4, 220-pound prospect has received close to double-digit offers and is drawing serious interest from a number of Division 1A programs.

Cloy Schedules Unofficial Visits
Scholarship offers from Kentucky and Louisville, respectively, give Spring Valley (Columbia, S.C.) tight end/center recruit Mason Cloy a total of 13 official offers. Cloy will get a chance to check out these two programs and more in the coming few weeks, as he has set up a round of unofficial visits.

Taliaferro's Commitment to UVa
Aaron Taliaferro's first real experience with the University of Virginia came last summer, when he participated in the football program's camp. Ever since, Taliaferro says, he has favored the Cavs and, earlier this week, finally decided to make a verbal commitment to coach Al Groh and staff.

Fells-Danzer's Early Decision
Terence Fells-Danzer originally planned to make a verbal commitment shortly before his senior season. The 6-2, 230-pound Culpeper star heads out to Spain this summer on a school trip, and he had hoped to use that time to think about his decision. However, on Monday of this week, Terence approached his head coach with a different timetable.

DeChristopher Adds Two Offers
Clover Hill (Midlothian, VA) standout offensive lineman Blake DeChristopher had a breakout performance at the Norfolk combine earlier this month. There, the 6-5, 290-pound recruit posted consecutive 40-yard dash times of 5.0, ran a 4.5 time in the 20-yard shuttle, posted a 31-inch vertical leap and benched 185 pounds 28 times. Since the combine, DeChristopher has added two more Division 1A offers and has seen his recruitment increase in intensity.

Cavs Add Two Talented Linebackers
Today was an outstanding day for the University of Virginia football staff, as they landed two top in-state linebacker recruits in Gloucester standout Aaron Taliaferro and Culpeper star Terence Fells-Danzer. Both of these prospects were high on the board at the linebacker position.

Cavs Pull Out Commitment from Minnifield
On Sunday night, Chase Minnifield had basically narrowed his list of schools to two - Louisville and Virginia. It was certainly a close decision in the end and one that went back and forth within the final 24 hours before the Henry Clay High School (Lexington, KY) standout finally settled on the Cavaliers.

Minnifield Commits to Virginia
UVa received a good surprise today, when 6-0, 185-pound athlete Chase Minnifield committed to the 'Hoos over Louisville, Michigan and Stanford. Louisville, the alma-mater of Chase's father, Frank (a star for the Cleveland Browns as well), was thought to be the likeliest choice. Chase announced his commitment during a press conference at his high school.

Taliaferro to Announce Tuesday
Aaron Taliaferro, a top linebacker/defensive end prospect out of Gloucester High School (VA), will make a verbal commitment on Tuesday, May 23rd, according to a statement from head coach Tommy Reamon. The press conference will take place in the school's main office at 3:00 p.m.

Offer List Soars for Hylton's Alvarez
6-5, 310-pound Hylton (Woodbridge, VA) offensive line recruit William Alvarez has seen his recruitment explode during the month of May. He entered the evaluation period with single-digit offers, but has since seen his offer list easily reach double digits and the number keeps growing.

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