With a 14-10 win against No. 16 Vanderbilt under their belt, No. 2 Virginia returns home to host Syracuse tomorrow at noon. While the Cavaliers have already recorded a win, the game will mark the beginning of the season for No. 13 Syracuse.

Syracuse split two 30-minute scrimmages with Penn on Feb. 14. The Orangewomen won the first game, 6-5, but lost the second, 6-2.

In the first scrimmage, senior midfielder Leigh-Ann Zimmer got the Orangewomen on the scoreboard. She is second all-time at Syracuse with 109 goals scored, and third all-time with 159 career points and 40 career assists. Junior midfielder Monica Joines recorded four goals and one assist. She is ninth all-time at Syracuse with 46 career goals and 56 career points. Freshman goaltender Bethel Steele played all 30 minutes and helped seal the win with five saves.

In Virginia’s game last weekend, junior attack Amy Appelt scored six goals tying her career high and was named ACC Player of the Week. She is eighth all-time in career goals scored at Virginia with 117, and sixth all-time in points scored with 163.

Despite losing Lauren Aumiller, Virginia’s all-time leading scorer, the Cavaliers offense stepped up to fill the void. Sophomore midfielders Nikki Lieb had six ground balls, and Meredith Lazarus recorded her first hat trick. Senior attack Morgan Thalenberg also recorded a hat trick and three draw controls.

In her first career start, junior defender Ashley Dodson had two draw controls, two ground balls and caused a turnover. Senior goalkeeper Andrea Pfeiffer contributed to the win with six saves and an assist.

“This is Andrea’s third year starting for us,” Myers said. “She will have older players in front of her but not necessarily tremendously experienced players, so I do expect for us to get better everyday that we practice and every game that we play in. But I think it’s a great group and I’m really excited about it.”

Virginia returns this season with experience, confidence and a victorious season opener.

“You want to take it a day at a time, hopefully building great things and getting back to an ACC title game and hopefully winning and then working our way back to the NCAA title game as well,” Myers said.

In order to the reach these goals, the Cavaliers are not overlooking their competition.

“I think that everyone’s going to be out to get us,” senior attack Caitlyn Banks said. “We had a great year last year, and we need to make sure that we’re ready for that, ready to have people on our heels.”

Tomorrow’s game will be Syracuse’s first true test of the season and will provide Virginia with the chance to build up a winning record.

The Cavaliers aren’t usually the queens of consistency but they grabbed the lead and held on to it early against Wake Forest last night, rolling to a 75-61 win.

Just minutes after seniors Anna Prillaman, Anna Crosswhite, and Safiya Grant-Fairley were honored in front of the home crowd, Virginia took the court with an energy and rhythm rarely achieved so early by the self-proclaimed second half team.

“The whole team was focused on giving [the seniors] a great game tonight,” Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said. “We started the game on fire.”

The Cavaliers’ communication, movement, and passing were especially on target against the Demon Deacons, allowing Virginia to pull ahead by as many as 13 and hold a double digit lead for much of the first half.

“I was really pleased with our movement, our motion,” Ryan said. “To score 37 points in the first half — that’s really a good thing for this team. We have not done that in awhile.”

Wake Forest sophomore forward Liz Strunk, averaging 13.2 points was a major threat to the Cavaliers coming into the contest. She came up big in the second half, finishing the game with 25 points, but was held to only eight points in the first half. Energetic and physical defense by the Cavaliers, especially sophomore forward Tiffany Sardin, held Strunk back in the first half while major offensive contributions by junior forward Jocelyn Logan-Friend and Prillaman kept Strunk from affecting the outcome of the game.

Logan-Friend, in addition to having the motivation of the home finale and senior night, had the memory of Sunday’s loss to Florida State. With the score tied and just seconds on the clock, Logan-Friend was called for a technical foul for excessive celebration.

“That was pretty rough for me,” Logan-Friend said. “I had a hard time with it but my teammates and my coaches really encouraged me and told me that we had another game to win.”

Logan-Friend had absolutely nothing to apologize for after last night’s game in which she put up a career high 15 points and earned her first double-double with 10 rebounds.

“She took a lot of responsibility for [Sunday's loss],” Ryan said. “To see her come out today and really play a career game — it was exactly what I expected from her.”

The contest was entirely different from Virginia’s last-second victory over the Demon Deacons in Winston-Salem earlier in the season. Wake dominated that game only to have the win stolen from them by LaTonya Blue’s jumper with 14 seconds on the clock.

The environment of senior night was undoubtedly a factor in the difference of the last game against Wake Forest. Last night the seniors combined for 27 points in addition to changing the tone and energy of their teammates.

Prillaman sunk 16 points, nine of which came from behind the arc.

“It had to end like that,” Prillaman said. “There was no other way.”

The Cavaliers will end the regular season at Chapel Hill Sunday at 1:00 p.m. They will take the No. 16 Tar Heels with ACC Tournament seeding on the line. Virginia’s last game against UNC ended in a 75-70 loss after being within one point with 20 seconds to go.

The Virginia men’s swimming and diving team raced to a 110-point lead after the first full day of events of the ACC Championships to finish with a score of 314 points. Florida State and Georgia Tech were next in line with 204 and 157.7 points respectively.

The Cavalier men won three out of five events in Thursday night’s meet at the AFC and placed second in another. The Virginia trio of sophomore Fran Crippen, senior Ian Prichard, and freshman John Millen swept the 500-yard freestyle. All three had NCAA automatic qualifying times. Crippen led the way with a time of 4:17.90 to win his second straight ACC championship in that event.

“I knew it was going to be neck and neck the whole time,” Crippen said. “Being next to [Ian] we were really able to feed off each other. And I think that with Millen right next to him, it really helped him out to. We were able to work together and I think that was the biggest thing that helped us sweep.”

The Cavaliers had a 1-2-4 finish in the next event, the 200 individual medley. Senior Bo Greenwood become only the fourth man in ACC history to win that event three years in a row by swimming an NCAA consideration time of 1:48.10. Sophomore Ryan Berg placed second and senior Luke Wagner came in fourth. Both men also swam NCAA consideration times.

“All year long the team talked about dominating — that’s been our key word,” Greenwood said. “The individual events — everyone gets excited for them — but I think people get more excited watching their teammates swim. I get more excited watching Ian, Fran, and John Millen sweep the 500 than I do when I win.”

Virginia came into the 200 freestyle relay tied for the fifth fastest time from preliminaries, but the Cavalier group of seniors Adam Kerpelman and Jon Haag, freshman Greg Imboden, and sophomore Ethan McCoy touched first with an NCAA consideration time of 1:19.94. Relays are worth double the points and the value of winning that race was not lost on the team.

“It’s just something about performing for [my teammates],” Haag said. “When I got done and all those guys were coming over and just jumping on top of me. That’s the best feeling in the world. When you start thinking that swimming is tough and the training sucks and this and that, when you experience that, it erases all that negative feeling, because I can’t imagine doing it for any other reason than for that relay. That was just awesome.”

This was the second relay victory for the Cavalier men, as the team won the 800-yard freestyle Wednesday night and placed third in the 200 medley relay.

Virginia senior diver Pete Amstutz placed second in the 1-meter diving with an NCAA zone B qualifying score of 310.85. Clemson’s Eric Shulick won the event with a score of 314.60. N.C. State’s Cullen Jones swam to victory in the evening’s other event, the 50 free with a NCAA automatic qualifying time of 19.70.

After Thursday night’s performance, the Cavaliers are well on their way towards meeting their lofty goal of scoring 900 points for the championships, something that has never been done before. And the team feels better days are ahead.

“All of our top people in their individual races are just going to be outstanding,” Greenwood said. “I think from here on out, there’s no reason we shouldn’t win every event.”

This weekend may be only their third tournament of the season, but Virginia softball players already have something to hang their hats on.

Last Sunday, with a 4-3 come-from-behind win over Miami in extra innings, the Cavaliers won head coach Cheryl Sprangel’s 700th career game. Sprangel currently ranks 19th in career victories among active Division I softball coaches.

“It is definitely a milestone for me to get to this point,” Sprangel said. “The most amazing part of the game was the team was down by three runs going into the sixth. But the team knew what it meant to me, and they did what they had to do to get the win.”

The Cavaliers will attempt to increase Sprangel’s win total even further this weekend when they travel to Houston, Texas, to participate in the Cougar Classic. In the annual tournament, Virginia will play five games, including one against a Villanova team the Cavaliers defeated just a week ago.

“It’s still only the third tournament of the season so I think we are still excited,” sophomore infielder Sara Larquier said. “We are expecting to win all of our games but Villanova will be ready to come out and get us. If we can beat them and move on to our next competition, it will just show that we are ready to keep on rolling and getting more victories.”

After beginning last season with a 5-4 record, the Cavaliers have jumped out to a much better start this year, going 7-2 through their first nine games. Early struggles with the bat have recently disappeared as Virginia has scored at least four runs in each of its last four games, all wins.

Last Sunday’s game against Tennessee-Chattanooga was an especially impressive offensive performance. In what would become Sprangel’s 701st victory, Virginia scored nine runs on 12 hits in only five innings.

Senior captain Hannah Owings performed especially well, as she scored a run every time she batted, including a home run smash, her third of the young season. But Owings will be the first to say that touting individual achievements will not be what helps the Cavaliers accomplish their lofty goals.

“We have a very interesting dynamic this year,” Owings said. “We have a very quiet confidence about us. In the past, we have been a little more forthright. Our motto this year is ‘stop talking about things you can do and get it done.’”

Virginia begins the Cougar Classic today with two games against Villanova and BYU. It will then take on Pittsburgh and Houston tomorrow, before finishing the weekend with a contest against Mississippi State Sunday morning.

Having something to be proud of is one thing. Being satisfied is quite another. The Cavaliers venture cross country this weekend attempting to prove that even with their coach’s recent milestone, they still have more goals to reach. Picked to tie for second place in the preseason ACC poll, these early season tournaments should provide Virginia with the experience needed to claim the conference’s top spot.

One lucky customer recently walked out of a Red Apple convenience store in Stephens City, Va.That customer was holding the only ticket that matched all six numbers on the Feb. 20 drawing of the Mega Millions lottery game.

The jackpot totaled $239 million, $9 million more than the expected jackpot.

“Exceptionally strong sales in the hours leading up to Friday’s drawing pushed the jackpot amount a full $9 million higher that our estimated jackpot amount,” Virginia Lottery Director Penelope W. Kyle said in a press release.

University students can expect a range of surprising and not-so-surprising referenda on the spring ballot next week.

The ballot will include five referenda for students to vote on — one Student Council-initiated item, one from the Class Trustees Program and three student-initiated items.

Student-initiated referenda required the submission of a petition with 900 signatures by Wednesday night, University Board of Elections Chair Brian Cook said.

A major student-initiated referendum is an item supporting domestic partner benefits. The measure is an attempt to gauge and rally student support for same-sex benefits, said fourth-year College student Blair Reeves, the initiator of the referendum. More than 1,500 students signed the petition.

The petition comes in the wake of the recent DontGivetoUVa.com Web site asking donors to refrain from giving money to the University until same-sex partners of employees are granted benefits.

“I think that some people viewed DontGivetoUVa.com as being sort of abrasive,” said Noah Sullivan, Council executive chief of staff. “They wanted to establish if there was student support [for the issue] without being so confrontational.”

An unusual student-initiated referendum also will appear on the spring ballot. Students will be asked to vote on whether “Greg is delightful.”

Third-year College student Jonathan Soma said he spent two and a half days gathering signatures at Newcomb Hall and Observatory Hill in order to have the statement appear on the ballot.

Soma emphasized that his measure has no affiliation with Council presidential candidate Greg Scanlon, nor is it an attempt to make light of Council or the partner benefits referendum.

“That makes me feel terrible because it is really just trying to have some fun,” Soma said.

Two other referenda address Student Council procedure.

A referendum that would give the first-year president and transfer student liaison voting privileges renews a similar effort that failed last fall.

The fall referendum passed the student body, but Council deferred the measure over concern about its constitutionality and recommended that a revised version be placed on the spring ballot. A student petition garnered the measure a spot on the ballot this time.

A fourth referendum, which narrowly passed a contentious Council meeting Tuesday, would alter the voting procedure on Council. The measure would allow the executive vice president to cast a vote only in the case of a tie and bestowing all other Council officers, including the president, with the same voting powers as other Council members.

The final referendum was generated by the Class Trustees Program, which recently issued an updated constitution that requires student approval.

“There were a lot of really outdated things — it hadn’t been updated since 1997,” said Justin Ferira, fourth-year class president and president of the trustees. “There are no sweeping changes — it is just updated to apply to the changing size of the class and the changing structure of the trustees program.”

In order to make changes to legislative bodies’ constitutions, two-thirds of the student body population — 8,000 students — previously was required to vote in approval of a change. In accordance with the updated constitution, 10 percent of the student body must vote in the elections and two-thirds must vote in approval — approximately 210 students.

Cook said it is important for students to seriously consider the referenda.

“In setting signature thresholds for referenda, the UBE decided that having to gather 900 signatures would require a very considerable amount of effort,” he said. “If this is something that a thousand students felt strongly enough to sign their names on a petition, it is something that the student body should consider seriously.”

Editor’s Note: Jonathan Soma is the Cavalier Daily online manager and Blair Reeves is a columnist. Neither Soma nor Reeves had any involvement in the writing or editing of this article.

In an unusual twist of events, two opposing Student Council presidential candidates have endorsed each other as number-two choices in the University Board of Election’s runoff voting system. Candidates Greg Scanlon and Elliot Haspel announced dual endorsements yesterday, citing similar Council reform-oriented ideologies.

“The new instant runoff voting adds an entirely new dynamic to the system,” Haspel said. “I think voters should have every opportunity to vote for reform candidates.”

Haspel described Scanlon as “after me, the most reform-minded candidate.”

“He wants to see Council really be able to be an effective advocate for the students, and he realized that in order to do that, you have to have wholesale change,” Haspel said.

Scanlon also said he based his endorsement on Haspel’s reform-based campaign.

“I think we are both aiming for the same thing,” Scanlon said. “We both have the same goals, and either of us would be a very good choice.”

Both Scanlon and Haspel said they doubt that the move will hurt either of their chances at winning the election.

“You might as well help someone who is going to be accomplishing the same things you want to see accomplished,” Scanlon said.

The University Board of Election’s newly implemented instant runoff system allows voters to select more than one candidate through a ranking system. The candidate receiving the fewest first-place rankings is dropped from the next round of the runoff.

Voters who chose the dropped candidate automatically cast a vote for their respective “number-two” candidates in the next round. The runoff is repeated until one candidate has a clear majority.

“In essence, ranking a candidate is the same as casting a vote for a candidate,” UBE Chair Brian Cook said. “In the traditional voting system it’s one person, one vote — everyone’s vote counts at exactly the same time in exactly the same way. With the instant runoff voting system you can vote for as many people as you’d like, but only one of those votes counts at any given time.”

Presidential candidate Curtis Ofori criticized his competitors’ move.

“Essentially, I think they are abusing the system,” Ofori said. “I think the voters will see that and will vote accordingly.”

Haspel said he does not see the move as an abuse of the system.

“All we are saying is that if we lose, we want our votes going to the candidate we think is second best,” he said. “I don’t think that’s abusing the system, I think that’s being responsible in taking to our voters every chance to get their voices heard through a successful Student Council president.”

Fellow presidential candidate Noah Sullivan called Haspel and Scanlon’s tactic “pretty creative.”

“Taking advantage of the system is not wrong — it’s good strategy,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan added that he was not overly concerned with the move.

“We feel pretty confident that we have enough support that we are not going to have to worry about that,” he said.

The University’s Medical Center announced yesterday it will eliminate the use of dogs in the Medical School’s educational curriculum, following a heated community debate over the practice.

The controversy centered on the optional laboratory course, Emergency Life Saving Techniques, which used dogs to teach students how to tie sutures around blood vessels, insert chest tubes, open collapsed air passages and insert IV needles. After the procedures were performed, the dogs were put to sleep.

Arthur Garson Jr., vice president and dean of the Medical School, formed a review committee in February to respond to overwhelming pressure from students and community members to halt the practice of using live animals in the lab and implement the use of simulators.

The committee reviewed the Medical School’s practices and educational techniques to determine the necessity of live animals in medical education.

“Our most important concern is the education we bring medical students,” Garson said.

The committee’s decision took new technology into account. The Medical School currently has a new simulator and Garson said it plans to obtain more.

“We will most definitely use some or all of those simulators,” Garson said.

While the committee’s recommendation applied only to dogs, the Medical School previously had temporarily suspended the use of animals in all teaching practices, and Garson said it will maintain the suspension pending further recommendations from the committee on the use of animals other than dogs in medical classes.

The most concentrated pressure to eliminate the use of animals in the lab has come from the Citizens for Humane Medicine. The group is currently focused on introducing alternative educational practices to the Medical School, said Rooshin Dalal, the group’s co-founder and a University medical student.

Dalal said 18 percent of medical schools still use animals in the classroom.

The group’s goal is to eliminate the use of all animals, not just dogs.

Dalal said his group will not be satisfied until all animals are taken off the curriculum.

“We will continue to educate the community and central Virginia about the alternatives,” Dalal said.

Citizens for Humane Medicine has been working closely with the Washington, D.C.-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Dalal said.

Megha Even, a research analyst from PCRM, said she is providing the Citizens for Humane Medicine with suggestions of alternative educational procedures the Medical School could use.

“There is absolutely no need for any animals in medical education,” Evens said.

When thinking of traditional lacrosse hotbeds, the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states typically come to mind — but certainly not the western United States and especially not Colorado. Yet that’s where the Virginia men’s lacrosse team is headed this weekend for the fourth annual Pioneer Face-Off Classic for a doubleheader with the Air Force Academy tomorrow and the 23rd ranked University of Denver Pioneers Sunday.

Of the two, Denver should present a more formidable challenge. Although they have yet to play a game, this year’s squad is basically an upgraded version of the 2003 team, which went 9-5 and came within one goal of making the NCAA tournament. Four out of their top five point contributors are back, as well as Corey Vann, one of the nation’s premier defenseman who returns from an injury that hampered him last season. Last year, the Pioneers lost to Virginia 12-3 when they came to Charlottesville.

In their first regular season game last Saturday, Virginia rolled to a 15-4 win over Drexel University in Philadelphia. The offensive balance was impeccable, as 11 different players scored, with four players notching two goals apiece. Virginia lacked this kind of balance in their exhibition loss to Georgetown Feb. 15, their third and final exhibition game.

“The Georgetown game was like a wakeup call” sophomore attackman Matt Ward said. “Especially since we came out there flat.”

Coming out flat is something the Cavaliers realize they can’t afford to do if they want to successfully defend their title this season.

“Every team that comes out on the field against us is going to try to knock us off” senior defenseman Brett Hughes said. “I thought it might have been a shock to some of the kids on the team, but the reaction was great.”

One weak spot for the Cavaliers against Drexel was Virginia’s performance on faceoffs. Returning faceoff specialist Jack deVilliers won seven out of 15 faceoffs against Drexel with sophomore Charlie Glazer, who went four for seven. On the day, the Dragons won one more faceoff than the Cavaliers.

“I don’t think we made a smooth play to win on a faceoff the entire day,” head coach Dom Starsia said. “We used a lot of people, and we haven’t really settled on units yet, so that may have contributed to the confusion.”

The western road trip will not only present the team with a nice reprieve from the usual East Coast conference schedule but will also serve as a final measuring stick before the team enters the meat of their perennially brutal schedule. The Cavaliers take on No. 3 Syracuse and No. 4 Princeton in their next two home games.

Yale University has joined the ranks of universities across the country expanding programs formerly open only to minorities to all students.

In an e-mail sent to students last Friday, Yale College Dean Richard Brodhead announced that Cultural Connections, an orientation program that offers freshmen minority students a chance to go to New Haven before classes begin and to adjust to the campus before classes start, would be open to all incoming freshmen.

The announcement, made after Yale already had opened up other programs to all interested students, reflects changes in minority programs at several universities following two June Supreme Court rulings regarding affirmative action. Additionally, universities face pressure from advocacy groups that allege many universities’ minority programs are in violation of civil rights law.

In his e-mail, Brodhead expressed his belief that the change would strengthen Yale College.

“I expect this change to strengthen the Cultural Connections program, and indeed the whole fabric of Yale College,” Brodhead wrote.

Brodhead wrote that Yale was changing programs after the Supreme Court rulings clarified affirmative action policies.

“While our commitment to supporting the needs of minority students in Yale College remains unchanged, this moment requires us to examine our programs intended to foster an inclusive student community to make sure that they successfully serve that goal,” Brodhead wrote.

Since the Supreme Court rulings, the Center for Equal Opportunity, a Virginia-based think tank, has sent letters to over 100 colleges and universities nationwide, including Yale and the University, complaining about what it deems racially exclusive programs.

Edward Blum, senior fellow at the CEO, said the letters sent by the Center were prompted by the Supreme Court’s ruling that only individual considerations could be taken into account when schools considered an applicant or student’s race.

“Clearly, all race-exclusive programs and resources don’t involve individualized consideration,” Blum said. “They are, by their very nature, just the opposite of that.”

Blum said the Center’s letter project was mostly completed and many schools had changed some of their programs or policies.

“Overwhelmingly, they have taken the path of Yale and the others and amended the programs to include all students regardless of race,” Blum said.

Yale spokesperson Gila Reinstein listed two fellowships and a scholarship program that had previously been expanded to all students. Reinstein also said the administration was examining other programs for possible change.

“Any ones that are directed to restrictive populations like minorities, women and so on, are being rethought to make them as inclusive as possible,” Reinstein said.

Blum said the University had received a letter specifically requesting they open the Minority Introduction to Engineering program to all students. Blum said the Center received a reply from the University declaring they had already decided to open the program to all students.

Shamim Sisson, director of the Office of Student Life, said the University had no orientation programs devoted specifically to minority groups.

“By and large, our orientation is open to everybody, and there are very few events for any one group in particular,” Sisson said.