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This Week In Recruiting
By Chris Horne

Football recruiting ...

Ras-I Dowling

According to a report in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, former Deep Creek (Chesapeake, VA) standout Ras-I Dowling has qualified. The 6-2, 185-pound DB/WR, who signed with Virginia this past February, is considered one of the top incoming recruits and could potentially see playing time as a true freshman.

Dowling originally signed with UVa in the class of 2006, but needed to go to Hargrave Military Academy for one year to raise his standardized test score. He had a breakout year for Hargrave's postgraduate football squad, starting at cornerback throughout the season.

Moreover, the athletic Dowling, who has been timed at sub-4.5 seconds in the 40 and has posted a 40-inch vertical leap, played through the season without injury. Throughout his career at Deep Creek, Dowling was plagued with nagging injuries.

Dowling projects initially as a defensive back and he will likely get looks for safety and cornerback. Assuming Dowling is all set, only one 2007 class recruit, Ballou (Washington, D.C.) offensive tackle Lamar Milstead, has work to do to qualify. The 6-5, 270-pound Milstead just needs to improve on his SAT score, but he is confident he will make the grade.

UVa has offered two of the top linebacker recruits in the country in Gateway's (Monroeville, PA) Shayne Hale and West Windsor Plainsboro South (Princeton Junction, N.J.) star J.B. Fitzgerald. However, the staff has their work cut out for both.

The 6-3, 220-pound Hale, considered one of the top linebacker recruits in the country, has close to 40 Division 1A scholarship offers. He visited Virginia for the Feb. 24 junior day and says he is still considering the Hoos, but the competition is fierce. Ohio State, Michigan, and Notre Dame are just some of the schools high on Hale's list. Don't look for a decision anytime soon, as the talented prospect plans to take his recruitment up to signing day.

UVa has already been through WWPS twice in the evaluation period. The first time, UVa was represented by three coaches. The second time, which was this past week, UVa was represented by Bob Price and Wayne Lineburg.

There is no doubt that the Hoos are high on the 6-3, 225-pound Fitzgerald, who also visited UVa in February. But, right now, UVa just needs to make Fitzgerald's first cut of schools. Early next month, look for Fitzgerald to narrow his list to six or seven schools. Florida, one of Fitzgerald's most recent offers, along with Michigan and Rutgers are all but certain to make the cut. UVa is battling for one of the other spots.

Stay tuned for updates on these two prospects this week on the EDGE. UVa landed an outstanding linebacker haul in the 2007 class, so the position is not necessarily a major need in this class, but landing one or two stars certainly would be nice. The top in-state linebacker target is 6-1, 225-pound Donovan Miles out of Brooke Point High School in Stafford, Virginia.

Basketball recruiting ...

The spring signing period has come and gone. UVa did not sign any other prospects, so the class stands at four - 6-1 PG Sammy Zeglinski, 6-3 G Mustapha Farrakhan, 6-4 G Jeff Jones and 6-8 F Mike Scott. Stay tuned for a final look at the 2007 class as well as a look ahead to the 2008 class.

Chris Horne, our resident recruiting expert, provides updates throughout the week for Edge subscribers about UVa's commitments and recruiting targets in football and men's basketball. To sign up for an Edge subscription, please check out the Sabre Edge Sign Up and Information Page. If you're already on board as an Edge subscriber, click the links below to catch up on recruiting.

Sabre Edge recruiting updates from the past week ...

Aaron VanKuiken's Road to UVa
Aaron VanKuiken first began playing football back in his 8th grade year. Three years later, he is a 6-7, 290-pound junior offensive tackle recruit and a commitment to the University of Virginia's 2008 class. The Turpin High School (Cincinnati, OH) product has worked hard to get to where he is right now.

Cavs and Hokies Battle for Roberts
Virginia and Virginia Tech may not go head to head for as many in-state prospects as you may think, at least in terms of both schools being heavily in the running until the end. But the Cavs and the Hokies are prominent forces in the race for Smithfield wide receiver/defensive back target Dyrell Roberts, who currently is high on both programs.

Southern Invitational Prospect Wrap-up
Top men's basketball prospects from the 2008, 2009 and 2010 classes, respectively, made their way to Charlottesville this past weekend to play in the Southern Invitational, an AAU tournament annually held at the University of Virginia. The Sabre.com was on hand over the weekend to check out UVa's already established targets such as Ed Davis, as well as potential targets for future classes.

More updates since the last SabreMail ...

• Ocean Lakes Star Adds Four Offers
• UVa Coach Visits Christian Brothers Academy
• 16 Offers for Dowtin
• Bennett Tops West Potomac's Prospect List
• Donovan Miles Closing in on 5th Offer?

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Final Four!

Two Virginia teams had quite the weekend as both earned spots in the Final Four of their NCAA Tournament. The men's tennis team clinched the first Final Four berth in school and ACC history by rolling past Southern Cal in the Elite Eight. UVa takes on Georgia today at noon. Meanwhile, the women's lacrosse team stomped North Carolina, 14-8, at Klockner Stadium to earn a trip to Philadelphia and the national semifinals. The Hoos play Duke on Friday.

Post of the Week

This "Post of the Week" comes from the lacrosse board where fans have been evaluating the 2007 season of the men's team. This post recaps much of the discussion and looks at some of the questions facing the Cavaliers in the offseason and for the 2008 campaign.

Subject: A Summary of Questions for 2008
Posted by: 1moreUVAfan on Sat May 19 2007 6:43:25 AM

Dom Starsia and the Cavalier staff will try to put together the pieces of the puzzle this offseason.

Message: Last Tuesday I was going to write a post about my concerns and questions for next year. Then I realized that this already had been done. The thread started by gborocav, "Observations and Needs to be Addressed," (note: message board post that will expire) and continued by many of you, accounted for basically everything I could think of. For my own purposes I wanted to summarize these thoughts; partly because it helps me understand things better, and partly because I might blow off some steam. ALMOST EVERY POINT below was mentioned by someone in gborocav's thread. I just grouped them, phrased some things differently, and added a few thoughts here and there.

I like this team and its coaches a lot. But when you look at the full set of needs that have been mentioned, it's clear that there is a lot of work to do.

TALENT AUDITIONS

--- Who is the goalie? A critical question but I think Bud or Adam Ghitelman, or maybe Wade, should be able to do the job. --- And the corollary: Will the young defense able to support a goalie who is a first year starter? I'm concerned here. We are heading toward a defense consisting of a third year guy and two second year guys; with only one upper class alternative. --- Who is the face-off guy? Beats me. --- Who are the first and second line middies? --- And the corollary, should Danny be moved to midfield?

Look at this list of possibilities, there are almost too many choices! Dom referred to this as "a puzzle and we need to put the pieces together." I think the main need is for an impact player who can put up a lot of points and occupy the defense. The guys below are all very good, or will be, but will any of them become a star? I don't want to minimize the potential of the Brattons, but expecting Shamel to be the lead middie as a first year is asking an awful lot. Choose from the following middies:

Riley Carroll Giannone
Shamel Bratton Rhamel Bratton Huguely
Pomper Garrison Clements
Elsmo Ince plus others

Note: Factor Danny in?? ssdm's omitted.

--- How much will the incoming freshmen, at any position, contribute during their first year? It could be a lot, this is an incredible class. But they will still be freshmen.

MYSTERIES (or for TV buffs, LOST)

--- What happened to our shooting accuracy?
--- Where did our EMO go?
--- Why the steep decline in transition opportunities and goals?

Who would have thought that all three of these things could go south in one year? The coaches have to play detective and solve these mysteries.

PHYSICAL PLAY and EMOTION

It seems to me that physical play is the result of size, strength and emotional attitude. Being physical is becoming more and more important. It cost us 3 of our 4 losses.

While Duke was in their warm-ups, and Delaware too, I noticed that they were pretty bulked up, chests and arms specifically. It wasn't as easy to see that when they were in their loose game uniforms. These guys were spending a lot of time in the weight room; a lot of time. The bar has been raised here. Teams are getting bigger and stronger and I think we are a bit behind the curve.

--- Will the guys put in the time to get stronger?

On top of that, this group is short on emotion. It's a classy group and we are all proud of that. But they sometimes lack fire, intensity, energy and maybe toughness. There have been flashes of emotion. I was happy to see Danny and Drew show some emotion after goals last Saturday. I remember Ben pointing to the bench and yelling after he scored the lead goal in the first Duke game. We don't usually see that. The team appears to have an almost intellectual, business-like approach to the game. We need to inject a shot of emotion.

--- Who are the emotional leaders? Who are the cheerleaders? Who are the guys who pump up everyone else? Can a team change its personality? ----Can you play a physical game without a lot of emotion? I doubt it.

LEADERSHIP

We all know how important team leadership is.

---Who are the team leaders next year? There are not that many seniors on the team; this is still a young group. Other than Ben, potential leaders are not obvious to me. Maybe Riley? Danny? (I have to add that I do not know the inner workings of the team.) The need for leadership concerns me and I have no clue how you create leaders if they are not naturally there.

As I said, I like this team and its coaches a lot. A list of positives would be just as long. But next year will require some patience.

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.

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Around the World of Wahoo Sports ...

• Monica Wright Named USA U19 Finalist: Virginia's Monica Wright has been named one of 16 finalists for the 2007 USA Basketball U19 World Championship Team, USA Basketball announced on Sunday. The selections were made by the USA Basketball Women's Collegiate Committee, which is chaired by Sue Donohoe, the NCAA's vice president of Division I women's basketball.
• Breslin Named National Player of the Week: Virginia's Kate Breslin was named the National Player of the Week for the second consecutive week, this time by womenslacrosse.com. Last week, Breslin earned the same honor from womenslax.com. Her teammate Ashley McCulloch was named to the national honor roll by womenslacrosse.com as well.
• Doolittle, Thompson Named Dick Howser Trophy Semifinalists: Virginia's Sean Doolittle and Jacob Thompson are semifinalists for the Dick Howser Trophy. The 16 candidates hail from eight different conferences, with Vanderbilt, Florida State, and Virginia being the only schools to produce multiple semifinalists. The list includes six pitchers, eight position players, and two utility players. Doolittle is hitting .320 this year, and has a 7-3 record and 2.67 ERA as well. Thompson is 10-0 with a 1.46 ERA in 14 starts this year.
• Reynolds To Be Honored In Roanoke On May 21: Virginia basketball standout J.R. Reynolds returns home to Roanoke, Va., today for a dinner in his honor and to attend J.R. Reynolds' Day at Roanoke Catholic School. Reynolds will attend a school assembly where his uniform number 20 will be retired. The dinner in Reynolds' honor is scheduled for the Salem Civic Center.
• Reynolds Makes MLB Debut with Arizona: Former Virginia infielder Mark Reynolds (2002-04) was called up Tuesday by the Arizona Diamondbacks and made his Major League Baseball debut Wednesday night at Colorado.

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

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Issue No. 196 - July 1, 2005

This Week In Recruiting
By Chris Horne

Chris Dalton also committed to UVa's 2006 football recruiting class this week. A 6-1 ½, 165-pound prospect out of West Iredell HS in Statesville, North Carolina, Dalton plays wide receiver and cornerback in high school but is being recruited as a receiver for UVa.

As a junior last season, Dalton caught 37 passes for 525 yards and five touchdowns. He returned 14 kickoffs for 336 yards and two scores and intercepted four passes on defense. Very athletic, Dalton excels in track and field in addition to football.

"He's tremendously quick and fast," West Iredell head coach Mark Weycker said of Dalton in the Sabre EDGE article. "He's a young man right now. He hasn't even turned 17 years old, so physically he's the type of kid I envision in three years carrying about 195 pounds and be as quick or quicker and as athletic as he is right now. He's just real explosive and real athletic."

In track, Dalton finished second in this year's 300-meter hurdles event and finished fifth in last year's 110-meter hurdles event. He posted a 4.33 time in the 40-yard dash as well as a 35.6-inch vertical leap at the Shrine Bowl combine earlier this year. Dalton chose the 'Hoos over an offer from Clemson and heavy interest from ECU and UNC.

Coming Soon

The Sabre has you covered when it comes to Hoo news. Here are a few of the articles to expect on the site in the coming days:

• Top Regional Match-Ups UVa signed Southern Cal to a home-and-home series, but why isn't there a marquee regional opponent on each season's football schedule to fill in at the old Virginia Tech slot? The Sabre's Kris Wright looks at some dream regional rivalries for the Hoos.
  
• ACC Baseball Tournament Greg Waters teams up with ESPN 840 AM's Wes McElroy to provide exclusive coverage of the ACC Tournament in Jacksonville. We'll have features and articles throughout the event to keep you in touch with the Hoos.
  
• McCulloch Heating Up Virginia's Ashley McCulloch has been playing very well during the Cavaliers' recent winning streak, which helped propel the women's lacrosse team to the Final Four.
  
• Checking In With Marquis Weeks Former Cav football player Marquis Weeks is preparing for summer camps and offseason training with the Seahawks.
  

In Case You Missed It ...

Sabre articles since the last SabreMail

Hoos Top Heels, Earn Final Four Slot
Cavalier coach Julie Myers said earlier this week that she expected Saturday's match-up with North Carolina to be a closely contested affair with two or three goals separating the two teams in the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight. Myers was right. For about 15 minutes. After that? It was all Virginia. In the end, the Hoos turned a 7-1 halftime lead into a 14-8 victory as Kate Breslin scored five goals.

Huey Is Good News For Hoos
It's a typical practice day on the Snyder Tennis Center courts. The Virginia men's tennis team is preparing for the final regular season weekend of ACC play where an undefeated record and outright conference title are up for grabs. Everyone is relaxed, but a business-like air unquestionably hovers. Certainly, focus is not a problem for these players and coaches. Still, head coach Brian Boland finds time to joke about the "legendary" Treat Huey, who holds down the No. 2 singles spot for the Cavaliers. The thing is, Boland might be joking but he isn't completely kidding.

Best Seat in the House: Pro Football Cavaliers
The Virginia football program has produced quite a few professional football players over the years under coaches like George Welsh and Al Groh. Patrick Kerney, Kai Parham, and Fontel Mines are three examples of that fact and all three joined co-host John Freeman on The Best Seat in the House this week to talk about their careers, the future, and UVa. Check out the FREE audio features to see what those Hoos are up to.

Breslin, Hoos Eye Final Four Berth
The Virginia women's lacrosse team is peaking at just the right time. The Cavaliers (17-3) have not lost in more than a month and will look to continue their winning ways on Saturday when they host ACC rival North Carolina in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. Moving on to the Final Four won't be easy, but if the Hoos advance, there is a good chance Kate Breslin will play a key part in the success.

Mahini: An Almost Fair Policy
Normally, as the spring months give way to the days of summer, things get quiet in the Virginia athletic world and discussion on the message boards turns to endless debates about proper Scott Stadium attire. And we were all ready to settle in for that timeless controversy of ties verses orange gorilla suits until ... an innocent looking pamphlet called the Virginia Football Priority Seating & Parking Policy landed in our laps.

Baseball Check-Up: How Do The Hoos Look?
The Virginia baseball team closes out the regular season Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at Boston College. From there, it's off to Jacksonville for the ACC Tournament and the start of the postseason. What are UVa's chances in the postseason? Did any title hopes take a hit with the loss of Greg Miclat? Who's the third starter? For that matter, what happened to the pitching since the exam break? The Sabre asks a pair of baseball nuts those questions and more in this feature - what did Greg Waters and Wes McElroy have to say?

Around the Horn: Regrouping In Boston?
In an all too familiar story for Virginia fans, N.C. State continued its dominance over Brian O'Connor and the Cavaliers, handing UVa its second series loss of the season and the first at Davenport Field in almost two years. The last time the Cavaliers lost a series at home was against Miami back in May 2005 in 1-2 series defeat. UVa tries to get its mojo back on the road at Boston College this week.

Photo Gallery: Men's Tennis Reaches Sweet 16
The Virginia men's tennis team advanced to the Sweet 16 for the fourth straight year with a pair of convincing wins over the weekend. The Cavaliers (28-3) dismissed Hampton and Old Dominion by 4-0 scores on Friday and Saturday at the Snyder Tennis Center to move on in the NCAA Tournament. Check out some of the action from the matches in this 55-image photo gallery that includes Somdev Devvarman, Treat Huey, Dominic Inglot, Marko Miklo, Houston Barrick, Ted Angelinos, and Lee Singer.

Sabre Roundtable: Hoo Will Step Up In 2007?
Now that there has been some time to marinate over the spring practice period, what do some of The Sabre's contributors think about next season? Nick Sauer, JHoo, intern Nick Ward, and ESPN 840 AM's Wes McElroy tackle five basic questions in this roundtable. Who will step up on offense? Defense? Special Teams? What are the most dangerous games on the schedule? Who will be the MVP for the Hoos? Here's a hint: Clint Sintim made one of the lists.

Best Seat in the House: Brian O'Connor
Brian O'Connor and the Virginia baseball team host the final regular season home game of the year tonight when Coastal Carolina comes to town. The Cavaliers are looking to avenge an early season loss to Coastal and they also will try to snap a two-game losing streak. O'Connor joined The Best Seat in the House to talk about that game, the Boston College series, the team's health, and more.

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