After a yearlong freefall on the Virginia depth chart, redshirt sophomore quarterback Anthony Martinez announced Saturday that he is leaving the team, The Washington Post reported.

The strong-armed Martinez arrived as a fairly promising prospect in 2002 but his overall play since coming to Virginia has been below expectations. He performed adequately while filling in for the injured Matt Schaub in last season’s first game against Duke but had trouble leading the offense in a 31-7 loss to South Carolina the following week. Current starter Marques Hagans took over after that game and held onto the spot until Schaub’s return later that month.

Martinez remained in the number three spot for the remainder of the year but the situation has worsened further for him this season. Both freshman Kevin McCabe and sophomore transfer Christian Olsen have moved ahead of Martinez on the depth chart, further decreasing the likelihood he would see any playing time.

Martinez’s career as a college athlete is not necessarily over though. Transferring from Virginia after the semester is an option and playing for the Cavalier baseball team might also be a possibility. Martinez was also a successful pitcher in his days at Patrick Henry High School in Ashland, Va.

Last night’s men’s soccer game was a tale of two halves. The first half saw a Cavalier squad that was sluggish and unable to finish the majority of their chances against a weaker Manhattan team. The second half saw a Cavalier squad that looked like the team who beat second ranked Wake Forest on Saturday and a team with ACC and national championship aspirations.

In the first half, the Cavaliers controlled the possession a majority of the time, but were unable to attack Manhattan’s defense. The Cavaliers first legitimate scoring chance of the game came with thirty minutes left in the first half when freshman Jeremy Barlow attacked down the left side and found forward Matt Ayotte inside in the box. Ayotte lunged to reach the ball, but could not muster enough power to beat Manhattan goalkeeper Collin Leaver. Despite the Cavaliers’ continued advantage in time of possession, they could not find the back of the net for the next 20 minutes. Though his team controlled the tempo, Virginia coach George Gelnovatch wanted his team to attack the Jaspers’ net more often.

“You don’t win games by putting a string of passes together,” Gelnovatch said. “We need to penetrate [the defense].”

The Cavaliers were finally able to penetrate Manhattan’s defense when Ayotte scored on a cross from fellow freshman Chris Tierney with eight minutes remaining in the first half.

“The first goal makes us feel more comfortable about what we do,” Ayotte said.

However, the Cavaliers’ comfort — and their lead for that matter — was short-lived as Manhattan scored the equalizer only five minutes later. The Jaspers had a free kick following a foul by the Cavaliers. The free kick was taken by midfielder Justin Schultz, who lofted a ball past the Cavalier defense. Schultz’s chip found the head of midfielder Brian Lundy who directed the ball past Virginia goalie Ryan Burke. Lundy’s goal tied the game and the Cavaliers headed into halftime needing an increased effort level.

That effort was likely sparked by the halftime speech given by Gelnovatch.

“I got pretty animated in the locker room,” he said. “I lit into them at halftime and I think it worked.”

Gelnovatch’s words worked indeed. The Cavaliers stormed through the second half, scoring three goals in a thirty minute span.

The first goal of the second half came when defender Hunter Freeman crossed a seemingly harmless ball into the Jaspers’ six-yard box. However, the Manhattan goalie fumbled the ball and accidentally knocked it into his own net, giving the Cavaliers a 2-1 lead.

“Once we got that second goal, then the second half was good,” Gelnovatch said.

Following the second goal, the Cavaliers played much looser and the goals continued to mount. Matt Oliver scored Virginia’s third goal with a beautiful flick off a corner kick from Freeman. Oliver’s goal was followed by a fourth and final tally as senior Kirk Dinnall capitalized upon a poor clearance by the Jasper defense to give the Cavaliers a 4-1 victory.

While the Cavaliers were able to defeat Manhattan with a poor first half performance, they will likely need to play the entirety of their next contest — an ACC game at North Carolina — with the same intensity and aggression they displayed in the second half last night if they want to come away with a similar result.

It is relatively undisputed that college students often suffer from what one might call “acute amotivational syndrome.” We don’t feel like doing homework, we don’t feel like going to the gym, we don’t feel like doing the variety of other activities to which we have pledged our time.

But if you are a division one athlete, a lack of motivation, however understandable, is just not acceptable.

For the Virginia men’s soccer team, motivation seems to be turned on and off with a switch, or rather a number of switches.

In the first half of last night’s game, the Cavaliers came out looking sluggish, discombobulated and completely unmotivated. The first real signs of life from the Virginia squad came about 20 minutes into the game, when the Cavaliers finally started putting a little pressure on the Manhattan Jaspers. While Virginia no doubt expected to win the game fairly easily, the starters came out looking like they expected to crawl their way to victory

Throughout the first half, little spurts of enthusiasm cropped up among the lackadaisical group, usually triggered by one of the following: close shots on goal (ours or theirs), blatant fouls that the referee just happened to “miss,” personal frustration or outbursts from the crowd.

Of course there are exceptions to this endemic amotivational syndrome. Several players manage to escape its Tuesday night grasp, notably, the freshmen. Maybe it’s just the thrill of playing college soccer or the fear of being ripped out of the lineup — which happens easily and often on a team as deep as this year’s Cavaliers — but for some reason this youngsters just don’t seem to slow down. Freshmen midfielders Nico Colaluca, Chris Tierney and Jeremy Barlow outworked their older teammates by far in the first half.

More important than all the little switches that temporarily pump up the team is the man I like to call “The Great Motivator.”

Whatever it is that coach George Gelnovatch says to his team at halftime, it just switches on something inside of them. In both of the last two games, the Cavaliers have come roaring out of the break, looking like a completely different team. Against Wake Forest last Friday the Cavaliers went into the half down one but came back and won the game 2-1. Yesterday Virginia was tied at the break but ended up crushing the Jaspers 4-1.

Gelnovatch understands that in certain circumstances, it is just hard for his team to get pumped up for a given game. In the case of last night’s match the stage was set for minimal enthusiasm. The team was coming of a huge win on the road against an ACC rival. It was a Tuesday night (not an easy night for anyone to get motivated to do anything). And it was against a less-than-feared opponent. Despite his understanding, the “Great Motivator” knew what to do in this situation — yell. And it worked.

After the game Gelnovatch acknowledged that as hard as it is, it is crucial for the Cavaliers to get up for every game. In order to be a top team, athletes need to come through with enthusiasm even against less than top tier challengers.

The Virginia football team has learned this and it has paid off so far — Cavalier fans can only hope that the soccer team will follow suit.

It’s easy to find devoted athletes on Virginia’s varsity and club sports teams. With former athletic greats the likes of J.C. Mathis, Bryson Spinner or Jermaine Harper donning Cavalier uniforms, there has always been an abundance of athletes who excel in their respective endeavors.

And though the athletic ability of faculty members often flies under the radar, this is not always the case. University Prof. Chen Jian, a well-known expert in East Asian history, also happens to be a decorated table tennis player, who most recently won the Virginia 2003 Intramural Championship.

“When I was nine years old in 1961, the 26th World Table Tennis Championship was held in China,” Chen said. “There was a huge ping-pong fever in China then, and everyone was playing, so I did that too.”

Chen experienced events such as the Cultural Revolution first hand, growing up during Mao Zedong’s domination of China at the height of the Cold War.

Ping-pong in China, particularly in the 1960s, was a full-blown cultural phenomenon. Many people have heard stories about Sammy Sosa using a milk carton for a glove when he was growing up in the Dominican Republic; ping-pong fever encouraged the same kind of resourcefulness in Chen and his peers.

“I never had a real coach, but everyone played on every surface,” Chen said. “On the ground or even on a small table, you played ping-pong.”

Chen plays a traditional “ping” style of table tennis, holding the paddle and maneuvering it so he only utilizes one of its sides. This style provides Chen with certain advantages over more orthodox players who grip the handle more like a tennis racket and use both sides of the paddle, making him a frustrating player to take on.

“I’m very quick and my control of ball movement is very good, so that’s why people hate me,” Chen said. “With my backhand block, I can control the ball very well, and that is what allows me to beat some of the youngsters.”

Chen speaks highly of the Charlottesville ping-pong community, particularly Sean O’Neill, a five-time national champion and two-time Olympian. O’Neill helped Chen develop his game even more when the professor arrived in Charlottesville.

“O’Neill taught me some small tricks, and while he doesn’t play my style, because he is a professional he is familiar with it,” Chen said.

Recently, there has been a resurgence in competitive ping-pong’s popularity in the United States, and ESPN has carried several table tennis events. This represents a major step for a sport that the general public often regards as a recreational activity. In contrast, ping-pong in China has recently been reduced in stature, especially with the emergence of basketball and Yao Ming’s popularity in the NBA.

Chen’s expertise in China’s modern history and his first-hand experiences, such as being arrested twice during the Cultural Revolution, provide him with a unique perspective on the historical importance of ping-pong. In 1971, the American ping-pong team arrived in China, the first American delegation to come to China in 22 years, and had a surprisingly profound effect on Sino-American relations.

“I would say that ping-pong diplomacy and [the ensuing] Chinese-American rapprochement were part of the decline of the Cultural Revolution,” Chen said.

With two active table tennis clubs in the Charlottesville area, there are many opportunities to learn the game and play, including O’Neill’s own classes run through the University’s intramural sports program. Chen himself enjoys regular Friday games at Slaughter gymnasium, and although the exercise aspect of the game has become more important to him, a certain competitive fire still burns in the professor.

“After the week you can relax and play different people,” Chen said. “At my age, I still want to win, but I do not get upset if I lose.”

But Chen made it clear that he’s no pushover.

“Most times I do win though,” Chen said before laughing confidently.

Country star Alan Jackson and Virginia football coach Al Groh would agree on at least one thing: Too much of a good thing is a good thing.

While Jackson sings that line with the Chattahoochee and country girls in mind, Groh is most likely thinking about his plethora of tight ends.

Virginia’s trio of tight ends — junior Heath Miller, senior Patrick Estes and true freshman Tom Santi — has played a crucial part in the Cavaliers’ dominant performances in the first three games of the season.

“Tight end is always going to be a prominent position on this team,” Groh said. “That’s how the scheme is built. We have some very capable tight ends.”

Out of this very productive trio, the 6-foot-5-inch, 225-pound Miller is obviously gains the most attention and headlines. He is leading the ACC in receiving touchdowns with three, and was also named ACC Player of the Week for Offensive Linemen after his five-catch, two-touchdown game against Akron Saturday. Miller is also an early favorite for the John Mackey Award, given to the best tight end in the country.

Miller, however, recognizes that he is not the only tight end that has been producing for the Virginia offense, which is currently ranked third in the nation for points per game at a mind-boggling clip of 50.3 ppg.

“I think it’s an asset to the offense to be able to have three guys that can come in and be productive in the running game as well as the passing game,” Miller said.

Estes, a 6-foot-7-inch, 280-pound senior, is best known for Virginia as a big blocker — a kind of guy that can come in during the running game to add a sixth or seventh lineman for the Cavaliers. Opposing teams cannot look past the playmaking part of his game, however, as Estes has five touchdowns and 26 receptions in his career.

“Pat, obviously from his stature, is a good blocker,” Miller said. “He can really move people, but he’s also capable of catching the ball as you saw Saturday and making plays once he gets the ball in his hand.”

The youngest of three, Santi, has not taken a long time to let his impact on this Virginia squad be known. The 6-foot-5-inch, 225-pound freshman — one of the most heralded recruits in the 2004 class — is best known for his speed and hands, but has potential to become an all-around blocking and receiving tight end, like Miller and Estes before him. In his first three games as a collegiate player, Santi has netted five catches for a total of 43 yards.

Groh and Miller are certainly aware of Santi’s potential.

“He’s doing a great job for us,” Miller said. “I look forward to big things for him. Things are coming at him fast, but he’s taking it all real well and he’s doing a good job.”

Both the present and the future of the Virginia tight ends are in good hands. Miller and Estes represent the foundation of a group that often has to be asked to block interior lineman or blitzing linebackers, line up to the outside as a receiver and make big catches. Santi and red-shirt freshman Jonathan Stupar — who is currently out with a broken foot — represent a future that should make huge strides in the Virginia offensive scheme.

“Tight end’s always going to be a premium position on our team,” Groh said. “We have it on all levels.”

And even Alan Jackson knows, that is a good thing.

Following two tough losses in a row, the No. 13 Virginia field hockey team (5-3) looks to get back on track today against the James Madison Dukes. One key area in which the Cavaliers need to improve is efficiency in offensive and defensive penalty corners.

In Virginia’s three losses this season, the team’s main weakness has been penalty corners. The Cavaliers have struggled to take advantage offensively on penalty corners and have not been able to play consistent defense on opponents’ corners. Virginia’s performance in penalty corners this season has served as a reliable barometer to measure whether the team has won or lost a given game.

Against the University of North Carolina Sunday, Virginia had just two corners compared to eight for the Tar Heels. UNC converted on two of these eight opportunities en route to a 4-0 victory.

In Richmond last Wednesday, the Spiders scored a goal on their first penalty corner and had 12 penalty corners in the game, compared to Virginia’s four. Only the strong play of goalkeeper Logan Carr kept the game close. Carr registered 14 saves in the 2-1 loss.

“They are pretty nerve racking, but I know that I have a great defense,” Carr said of penalty corners. “We’re a team back there, and are all working for each other, so we just want to see the ball and clear it out as fast as possible.”

In their biggest win of the season so far, the Cavaliers outcornered the No. 12 Boston College Eagles 8-6, and won the game 4-3. Virginia converted on two of the eight penalty corner opportunities. The Cavaliers had to defend against a late corner awarded to the Eagles. Carr made a crucial save and Dana Anderson cleared the ball out of the circle to secure the Virginia victory.

Katie Jo Gerfen and Mia Link play major roles in defending against opponents’ corners. Link stopped five corners defensively in the Richmond game.

“She’s really fast, and she sees the ball really well,” Carr said of Link. “It helps having her in front of me.”

Gerfen contributes on both offensive and defensive corners by either taking shots on goal or clearing balls out of the circle.

“I just want to get the ball out of their attack and into transition,” Gerfen said of defensive corners. “I want to get the ball to the forward left.”

The failure to convert on penalty corners helped keep the Cavaliers from registering an upset victory over the No. 1 Michigan State Spartans. Virginia had 13 penalty corner opportunities compared to Michigan State’s four, but the Cavaliers scored a goal on only one of those opportunities, allowing the Spartans to escape with a 6-2 victory.

“I think clearly it is an area that is going to get some attention in practice, both defensively and attack-wise,” Virginia coach Jessica Wilk said after that game about penalty corner chances. “They shot them a little better than us today, and that made the difference.”

Today, the Cavaliers face a JMU team struggling with a 1-6 record. The Dukes, who lost to the No. 4 Duke Blue Devils on Saturday, should provide Virginia with an opportunity to tune up on offensive and defensive penalty corners. If the results so far are any indicator, the Cavaliers will have to maintain consistency in these areas in order to achieve success throughout the rest of the season.

Initiating a series of reforms that Student Council President Noah Sullivan calls the most important issues on Council’s agenda this semester, Council Vice President for Organizations Rebecca Keyworth presented three plans last night to reform Council’s appropriations process.

“The system we have now was developed years ago for a smaller number of student groups,” Keyworth said. “We have over 300 groups now, and there’s a lot of inefficiency in our current system.”

A task force of students and administrators met over the summer to research appropriations processes at other universities and non-profit organizations. The task force then formulated three possible systems of appropriating funds.

The first plan proposes that Council classify each student organization in different categories, such as club sports, fine arts and service. Council’s representative body would then allocate certain percentages of the total student activities fund to each of the ten categories. Organizations would then go through the classic appropriations process and get funds from the money set out for their categories.

The second plan proposes that the representative body set criteria by which applications for funds would be reviewed, including the size and past fiscal performance of the organization requesting funds. Council would also choose areas of emphasis on a yearly basis, such as cultural awareness, civic participation and academic life. Organizations would be permitted to submit grant requests at any time during the year. Under this plan, the representative body would consider appeals on a monthly basis.

The third proposal involves the division of the student activities fund into operational, travel and activity expenditures for all student organizations applying for funds. CIOs would submit separate budgets for the three categories of expenditures. These submitted budgets would be reviewed by appropriations subcommittees. The organizations would then have the opportunity to appeal their grants.

Sullivan emphasized the significance of appropriations reform.

“It is the most important thing that we work on this semester and probably the year,” Sullivan said. “For the first time, the right people and the right ideas have come together to tackle this problem. We need to make sure our new process serves the students.”

According to Council Director of University Relations Peter Farrell, Council will publicize the proposals in order to get feedback.

“We plan on going around to CIOs and talk to them about issues, including the appropriations process,” he said.

Farrell added that there would be a forum to discuss appropriations.

Keyworth said the current system would be in place for fall appropriations but a new proposal would be formulated by the end of the current semester.

Donning underwear on top of clothing and phallic “Patriot Missiles” taped to their pelvises, six women known as the “Missile Dick Chicks,” performed sarcastic songs supporting the Bush administration yesterday afternoon. The group, which has toured across the nation, performed to onlookers near Minor Hall while University ROTC students conducted a POW/MIA vigil nearby.

The group — which claims to hail from Bush’s hometown of Crawford, Texas — said they were amid a national “swing state and preemptive [Bush] win tour.” The women used pseudonyms while in costume and declined to give their real names.

“We’re on a swinging state tour,” said a group member, “Lola.” “We’re celebrating war profiteering — we’re spreading the message that it’s great to kill women and children abroad and bring that oil home for ourselves so we can drive our SUVs.”

“Babs,” another member of the group, said they stopped by the University on their way from a previous tour stop in Raleigh, N.C. to Washington, D.C. She added that the group has made appearances at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Antioch College in Ohio.

The group performed several songs for the onlookers including “These Bombs Were Made for Dropping,” a parody of Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Were Made For Walking,” and “Shop in the Name of War,” a parody of the Supremes’ hit “Stop in the Name of Love.” Both songs criticized the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq.

“The new Iraq will love its western lifestyle / They’ll buy our cars, our Botox and our jeans / They’ll buy our Tampax Americana / At the great big mall we call Democracy,” the group sang.

The group also addressed the audience and made references sarcastically supporting the Enron Corporation, the recent lifting of the Assault Weapons Ban and the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. The group also cynically called Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry a terrorist.

“Trust your fear, vote for ‘Dubya,’” “Babs” said.

The audience did not strongly react to the performance.

Amy Nichols-Belo, a Women’s Studies teaching assistant, used the impromptu performance as dialogue for her discussion section.

“I would describe it as political theater,” she said. “They were sort of performing in a hyper-representation of Bush supporters in an attempt to critique the Bush Administration — particularly on the administration’s position on the War in Iraq.”

Nichols-Belo said it was important to have multiple views on major national events such as the War in Iraq.

“I thought it was a very interesting critique,” she said. “I appreciate the opportunity to see different voices presented … especially when we have a very different representation of the war in Iraq being represented by the [POW-MIA] vigil.”

The University’s chapter of the National Organization for Women is organizing carpools to major cities in Virginia so students can vote in their registered cities on Election Day. NOW is currently recruiting volunteer drivers.

The organization plans to visit all the major cities in Virginia, but which cities will be selected depends on the number of drivers and voters.

“We aren’t sure how many people will participate but we expect many people to be involved,” NOW Treasurer Katherine Moody said.

After a list of drivers is compiled, an information board will be assembled, possibly online, for student voters to sign up for their hometown.

The purpose of NOW’s efforts is to increase voting among students, especially among women.

“Many women don’t vote, but it is such an important thing,” Moody said. “If we don’t vote, no one will represent our issues.”

Julia Siegel, vice president external of NOW, added that the young voter demographic can affect close elections.

“What’s important is getting college students involved in voting, because we make up a substantial age group and could make a difference in a close election,” Siegel said. “The carpool would be a very effective and easy way to get out the vote.”

Although absentee ballots are available on Grounds, NOW decided to hold the voting carpool “to bring people together and to make voting more personal rather than political,” Moody said. “Getting together is more fun than filling out a form.”

Siegel added that students often do not fill out ballots.

“Many U.Va. students are residents of Virginia, but do not vote,” she said.

The carpool proposal was originated by a few students who decided to go to their hometowns to vote. When interest in the idea grew, NOW took the initiative to open the event to all students who wish to vote in their registered cities.

The details of the event are being finalized, but further information will be available in October. Other student organizations such as the Asian Student Union and All Women Attaining Knowledge and Enrichment may also participate in the election carpool. In addition, members of the Minority Rights Coalition will participate in the event.