Former Vice President Dan Quayle once said, “The future will be better tomorrow.” For the Cavaliers, that means winning today.

Starting with this weekend’s double-header against Florida State and Miami, the message coming from the team has been crystal clear: In order to have a realistic shot at second place in the ACC, every one of the season’s final six matches must be victories.

Although this may sound overly optimistic, the Cavaliers are not kidding themselves. The team has already beaten five of its final six opponents once this season, and completing the sweep may not be too much of a stretch.

“Our goal is to finish out the season with no more losses,” freshman setter Marlow Bruneau said. “We have to finish with all wins and hopefully make second [in the ACC] or stay in third and separate ourselves from the rest.”

With no ACC Tournament, the last part of the volleyball schedule has all the urgency of a playoff push.

Currently sitting in third place with an 11-5 conference record, the Cavaliers will need to be consistent and hope for a little divine intervention to move past second place North Carolina in the standings. It doesn’t help that the Tar Heels have gotten the better of Virginia twice already this year.

First place in the ACC has been safely tucked away by the Maryland Terrapins, a team that has only dropped one game the entire season.

Another reason the Cavaliers are talking about a mid-November sweep could be because they are looking in the rear view mirror. Duke, with a 10-5 record, is only one game behind Virginia — and the two will face each other in Durham next weekend.

In practice this week, the Cavaliers have been working on plugging some last-minute cracks exposed over the past few matches.

“We’ve really been working on developing the defense,” coach Melissa Aldrich Shelton said. “Playing Maryland really exposed some definite holes in our formations. We’re working on some cover shots and other things to improve.”

If defense has been one of the team’s weaknesses, a balanced offense has definitely been a strength. In the last two matches, four different players have racked up double figures in kills — in large part thanks to generous ball distribution by setter Emily Kirkwood.

“I think Emily’s done a very good job of spreading the ball around,” Bruneau said. “Obviously having a connection with her sister [team kill leader Sarah Kirkwood] helps us, but she’s done a really good job spreading around the offense. It’s more balanced now that we have [outside hitter] Beth [Shelton] involved, and our middles are better.”

Friday’s clash with Florida State at Memorial Gymnasium is the first step in the Cavaliers’ plan for a late-season sprint. The match also will be the first time Virginia has played at home since Oct. 29 — a distinct advantage given the fact that the Cavaliers have only lost three home matches this year.

Though it remains to be seen whether the team can live up to its ambitious goal, grabbing two victories against teams from the Sunshine State this weekend is one way to make things look a little better tomorrow.

In the first three swim meets of the season, Virginia freshman diver Jackie Apple has only lost one of the six events in which she has competed.

Apple’s one loss occurred fairly early in last week’s meet against Virginia Tech when Hokie Laura Lunn won the women’s three-meter board competition. Later that same day, however, Apple avenged her loss with a win over Lunn in the women’s one-meter competition.

Virginia diving coach Dave Fafara said he is impressed with Apple’s performance so far this season.

“She has a great chance of making it into the top 5 at the ACCs this year,” Fafara said. “And she has a strong chance of making the NCAAs.”

Apple’s first passion was gymnastics. It was not until her freshman year of high school that she began diving seriously.

“I was a gymnast for 11 years, but then I had a really bad injury,” Apple said. “It was my country club swim coach who suggested I take up diving.”

For four years in New Albany, Ohio, Apple dove for both New Albany High School as well as the U.S. Elite Diving Academy, a club team. Her decision to come to Virginia, while influenced by several factors, was not a hard one to make.

“I really liked Dave [Fafara], and I wanted to go to an ACC school, considering I am originally from North Carolina,” she said. “Also, my high school, New Albany High School, was modeled after U.Va. So at my school, this is where everyone really wants to go.”

Given her success, it seems that Apple’s transition to collegiate diving has been relatively easy. Nevertheless, she admits that diving for Virginia is quite different from her high school experience.

“Well for one, in high school you don’t do the three-meter in meets,” Apple said. “Also, the meets I think are a lot more fun here. They are a lot bigger, and you have all the fans coming in, which is really exciting. It’s definitely different, but I probably like college diving better.”

To ease the transition, Apple has looked to the older divers for advice and support. Senior Patty Parks has been her main mentor.

“[She] has been such a help,” Apple said. “She is awesome, and all the other swimmers have been really supportive too. I love the team.”

Part of Apple’s success stems from her ability to remain calm during meets. While she said it is unsettling to learn new dives in practice, once she has mastered them and is competing, she does not think about being scared.

Fafara said he loves the enthusiastic attitude Apple brings to practice. He also said he appreciates her willingness to try new dives even though she likes back dives the best.

On the whole, Apple’s coach has high hopes for his young diver.

“I think she is going to have a stellar career at U.Va.,” Fafara said.

Four Virginia football players will not participate in tomorrow’s game against No. 24 Georgia Tech due to a violation of team policy, the University announced in a press release yesterday morning.

The four suspended players are senior wide receiver Ottowa Anderson, junior safety Tony Franklin, sophomore defensive end Vince Redd and senior nose tackle Kwakou Robinson.

“There are some internal issues that we’re doing a little investigation on, and when we’ve culminated that process and finalized what that means, we’ll make a determination on some people’s status,” Virginia coach Al Groh said during the ACC’s weekly teleconference Wednesday.

The verdict of that investigation was handed down yesterday and resulted in the loss of three established starters in Anderson, Franklin and Robinson. Franklin is also one of four Virginia captains for the 2005 season.

Arguably the biggest hit for the Cavaliers will be taken at nose tackle, a position already lacking in depth due to the untimely loss of back-up senior Ron Darden last week. Darden, who was forced to quit the team due to reoccurring concussions, had played in all seven games this season and started the three leading up to Virginia’s 51-3 win over Temple last weekend. He did not play against the Owls; Robinson started in his place.

Darden and Robinson’s absences leave sophomore Keenan Carter as the team’s lone nose tackle available to go tomorrow against the Yellow Jackets. The 6-foot-1 inch, 307-pound Carter, who has played but not started in all of the team’s eight games, has 21 tackles.

The Cavaliers were going to count on Franklin, who moved to safety this season after spending his first two years at Virginia at cornerback, to help contain Georgia Tech’s first team All-ACC wide-out Calvin Johnson, who leads the ACC in receiving yards per game. Johnson has averaged 90.6 yards per game this season and has totaled 40 receptions for 725 yards and five touchdowns.

With Franklin a no-go, sophomore Jamaal Jackson will get his first career start and will be saddled with the burden of holding Johnson in check. Franklin has started all eight of Virginia’s games at safety. Fortunately for Jackson, he’s five inches taller than Franklin, and at 6-foot-3 only gives up one inch to the 6-foot-4 Johnson, who thrives on taking advantage of shorter defensive backs.

“That’s why he has the success that he does,” Groh said of Johnson. “He just can play over the top of a lot of defenders. He’s done a terrific job of that, and obviously, Reggie Ball understands where to put the ball to enable him to do that.”

Anderson, who returned to Virginia this season after spending all of last year at home in Norfolk on academic suspension, has nine receptions for 168 yards. Since the Cavaliers’ season opening 31-19 win against Western Michigan, however, he has only had six catches for 59 yards. Anderson started the first four games of the season but has since been overtaken on the depth chart by junior Fontel Mines.

Sports are ubiquitous at U.Va. People are always running. We might even be the only University to have our own running celebrity: “Crazy Running Man.” Our recreational facilities are consistently rated as among the best in the nation. The intramural sports department is run with German-like efficiency, providing competitive fun to first years in dorms, grad students and everyone in between. Between Frisbee toss on the Lawn brought to you by the 21 Society or pick-up basketball games at the Dell, it’s hard to walk to class and not see something athletic. Oh, and every varsity sport plays at the Division I level in the best conference in the country.

Still, there’s one element of the sporting culture at U.Va. that many of my fellow Wahoos (particularly the non-Greek ones) don’t know a lot about: philanthropies. With the weather getting colder, I thought I would take the time to recount some of this semester’s events and the charities that benefited from them. The Greek community takes a lot of heat, and while some of it is deserved, I thought it would be appropriate, with Thanksgiving around the corner, to recap the fall season of Greek philanthropic sporting tournaments.

Delta Gamma’s “Anchorslam,” a 3-on-3 basketball tournament, serves a great example of a typical Greek philanthropy. First of all, Delta Gamma Philanthropy Chair Janet Joyce confirmed my theory about who comes out to these things. According to Joyce, most of the teams who played were fraternity teams. About 15 participating teams had the chance to win a grand prize worth approximately $150. Per norm, T-shirts were made to commemorate the event. Nothing against IM Sports, but for roughly the same price, the payoff is way higher to play in the Delta Gamma event than a weekend IM Rec tournament. Plus, it’s for charity; Delta Gamma raised over $3,000. (Although, the status symbol of those championship shorts is undeniably appealing.)

Alpha Chi Omega and Pi Kappa Phi’s “Battle of the Sexes” was one of the events that yours truly made it out to. Like athletics in general, the men totally dominated the women. For every team of girls competing, there were roughly 450,000 men (apparently I wasn’t the only boyfriend of an Alpha Chi Omega member charged with bringing out the troops).

The obstacle course featured what shall henceforth be called the “College Decathlon.” First leg: a dizzy bat spin to replicate Friday night, followed by hurdling couches à la Marques Weeks running from the cops, then making a beer pong shot. Leg two: putting on a bra and panties as quickly as possible (I guess this is a skill if you want to get a head start on your walk of shame without awkward conversation), then fishing for something in a kiddie pool of noodles. Leg three: beer pong (with water), tire step and then a rope crawl, just like the ROTC kids. Leg four: Slip-N-Slide through baby oil, then log roll to finish. Okay, that last one has nothing to do with college, but I smelled really good after doing it.

The most important lesson to come out of the “Battle of the Sexes” was the following: prizes. A teammate of mine scored great Christmas loot for family at way below face value through the silent auction. Somehow the Alpha Chi Omega girls even got an autographed Dwight “The Washing Machine” Freeney helmet that a Colts fan in your life would have loved. So remember: Philanthropies have great prizes.

Greeks have the mainstream sports covered via “Kappa Kickoff” or “Sigma Spikefest.” They have gym favorites like Delta Dodgeball (new this year, but far and away the best T-shirts) or Elmo’s Kickball (a classic). They have Lawn sports (literally) for Phi Delta Theta’s Big LeBocce or Kappa Delta Croquet. They even have fake ESPN sports like competitive eating and poker. Delta Zeta’s “Wingfest,” which is tonight at the Biltmore, features an amazing deal on wings. Theta Delta Chi and Pi Beta Phi had “High Stakes Casino Night” at O’Neill’s last week. In fact, the philanthropy scene has shown to be so marvelous at alliteration and consonance that it’s a matter of time before a spelling bee hits the philanthropy scene. In an interesting twist, sources tell me that next spring Mad Bowl will be out of commission to do a reconstruction project. How this affects the philanthropy season that thrives there remains to be seen.

If you missed out on the entire fall philanthropy season and want to make up for it, you’ve got two chances to make up for it today. This weekend, ZBT is presenting Four Square Mania at their house, and the aforementioned DZ Wingfest can hone your competitive eating skills. Have a philanthropic Thanksgiving everybody.

The first open honor trial in more than three years is scheduled to take place this Sunday at 10 a.m. in the trial room of Newcomb Hall.

The accused students are a male third-year College student and a female third-year College student who have asked to remain anonymous until their trial but have agreed to explain their rationale for having an open trial to The Cavalier Daily before the trial.

The students said they are charged with collaboration on a homework assignment in a politics class. The case was initiated by a teaching assistant in that class.

Although the students admit to collaborating on the homework, they said they do not think they committed an honor offense.

“What we did was acceptable under the terms of the syllabus and the terms of the honor code and that, as a result, our intent wasn’t to be dishonest,” the male student said.

The homework assignment in question counts for a “very minimal” portion of the final grade in the class, the male student said.

In order to be convicted of an honor offense, an accused student must be found guilty on the basis of act, intent and seriousness.

“The issues at hand are from the intent and seriousness angle,” the male student said.

The accused students opted to waive their right to confidentiality in order to give other students the chance to witness the honor process, they said.

“We decided we wanted to make sure that people had a chance to see what was going on inside of honor,” the male student said.

Open trials proceed in the same fashion as closed trials, and accused students will be treated identically in both, Vice Chair for Trials Stewart Ackerly said.

The accused students said they are not having an open trial to make a statement about the honor system.

“We’re having an open trial so people can get an insight into the system and not to expose anything,” the male student said.

He added that he didn’t feel he had been treated unfairly.

The students did have a couple of complaints about the system thus far.

“My major gripe with this is the fact that it’s just taken so long,” he said.

The students were informed in May that they were being brought up on honor charges, but the interviews for the female accused student and the male accused student were not until Sept. 17 and Oct. 13, respectively.

The female accused student said she found another part of the process unpleasant.

“Up to the point that we were allowed to choose a counsel, it just felt like there was no one on our side,” she said. “Instead of it being you’re innocent until proven guilty, it really felt like the other way around.”

Because the facts of the case are the same for both students, they will be tried at the same time but will have two separate verdicts, a counsel for the accused Ben Sachs said.

“They usually each have their own counsel, but they elected, in this particular case, to have us represent them as a unit,” Sachs said.

The male student said although he does not know what to expect at trial, he does not see any reason why he should be found guilty.

“I know that we didn’t do anything dishonest,” he said. “I know that, despite any reservations or concerns I may have about honor in general, I still have faith in that things are going to do what they’re supposed to do.”

Forty-five tickets were available to the public Monday morning and had all been distributed by Monday afternoon, Ackerly said. The Honor Committee is looking into the possibility of broadcasting the trial to another room in Newcomb Hall for more spectators.

University Career Services recently received its first Peace Corps representative to the University.

The Peace Corps sent University graduate Justin Lawrence as its representative.

“They opened up this position because so many U.Va. students have gone into the Peace Corps after graduation,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence was a volunteer in Mauritania, West Africa and finished his service with the Peace Corps in August.

Lynn Heichel Kneedler, regional manager for the Mid-Atlantic States Peace Corps Office, said the Peace Corps selected the University to host one of its representatives for many reasons.

“We selected U.Va. because it is such a terrific Peace Corps campus,” Kneedler said. “A lot of graduates serve the Peace Corps, the student body is very service-minded and the students recognize the value of Peace Corps service for their future careers.”

Lawrence meets with and interviews students who are interested in joining the Peace Corps.

“I attended Diversity Career Day, and we had a lot of students there,” Lawrence said. “I’ve been conducting interviews on campus already.”

In addition to serving as the Peace Corps representative on Grounds, Lawrence will conduct interviews in the neighboring area and counties, Keffner said.

Lawrence said he’s looking for a large number of graduates to enter the Peace Corps this year and hopes his office will be accessible to interested students.

“I hope the office is a place students will be able to come and ask questions about the Peace Corps,” he said. “I hope it is a convenient place to stop by.”

Lawrence said UCS and the Peace Corps worked together to establish the office. He added that before this year, recruiters would have to drive from Washington, D.C. to Charlottesville.

“This is going to give students a lot easier access to information about the Peace Corps,” he said.

Keffner said Lawrence is one of the Peace Corps’ strategy recruiters.

“What the Peace Corps does is enter into contractual information with the University,” Keffner said. “We hire a Peace Corps [representative] who is a graduate or who is applying to grad school, and they work 20 hours a week for the Peace Corps. They are our ears and eyes and feet and voice for the Peace Corps on campus.”

University students gathered on the Rotunda steps Tuesday night to tear down a mock Berlin Wall to commemorate the 16th anniversary of the falling of the real wall that used to separate East and West Berlin.

The event was put together by the Network of Enlightened Women and drew a turnout of about 25 students. NEW founder Karin Agness said she was pleased with the event.

“The event was a huge success,” Agness said, who began planning for the event last Thursday and promoted it by tabling on the Lawn all day Wednesday.

The event began with a set of speakers and included a reading of part of the Declaration of Independence. In addition, a member of the University Guide Service spoke about the history of slavery at the University. German Society President Douglas A. Melchior gave a chronology of the events in Germany that preceded the fall of the Berlin Wall.

“I’m glad that some political groups took the time to recognize this event and its bearing on the freedom of humanity,” Melchior said.

After Melchior’s history, excerpts from Ronald Reagan’s June 12, 1987 speech at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin were played. The students tore down the mock wall shortly thereafter.

“We wanted to make it more personal, and all the freedom we had at U.Va. we wanted to all feel,” Agness said.

Editor’s Note: Douglas Melchior previously worked for The Cavalier Daily Photography Department.

The “Papers of George Washington” research project at the University was awarded a 2005 National Humanities medal for its contributions to the field of humanities.

Theodore J. Crackel, editor-in-chief of the project, accepted the medal, which was awarded yesterday by President George W. Bush, on behalf of the project, according to a National Endowment for the Humanities statement.

The National Humanities medals are awarded each year to individuals or groups whose “work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the humanities, broadened our citizens’ engagement with the humanities, or helped preserve and expand Americans’ access to important resources in the humanities,” according to the National Endowment for the Humanities Web site.

The project, which began in 1969, was created with support from the University and the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union with the goal of creating a comprehensive collection of George Washington’s correspondence spanning much of his life. The compilation process involves going through all the correspondence to and from Washington, transcribing it and putting it into volumes, said Liz Smith, administrative specialist for the project.

Philander Chase, senior editor of the project, said the group has published 53 of an expected 90 volumes so far and expects to complete the project in the next 15 to 20 years.

Smith said the nationwide recognition that will come with the National Humanities medal could help the project, which is almost entirely grant-funded, attract more financial support.

Chase said he believes the project is garnering this national attention for several reasons, namely the innovative nature of the project, as well as the popularity and historical importance of Washington.

“One reason obviously is that it’s George Washington, and even more than two hundred years after his death, he’s still very much at the center of what we are as a nation,” he said.

Chase added that, with the help of the University press, the group has been able to be highly productive and forward-looking so it can get the materials out for both scholars and the public to use and benefit from.

The project will be taking “quite a step forward” in the next year, as it has recently announced that it will be digitizing the volumes to make them available in electronic form, Chase said. Because of the financial support from the University and the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association that will make the digitizing possible, Chase said the project will become the “first large amount of historical materials edited this way and available in this way.”

Unlike last year, flu vaccines are not expected to be in short supply at the University this year, according to Student Health Nursing Supervisor Karin Hancher.

Chiron, the major supplier of flu vaccines for the University, was shut down last year, allowing only half the vaccines to be produced.

“Everybody was short last year because this major company wasn’t able to produce flu vaccine,” Hancher said.

The company had lost its FDA approval last year but regained permission to release its vaccines this year.

Initially, a large amount of the vaccines produced this year was sent to the Gulf states, which meant the University could only receive sporadic deliveries, Hancher said. The University pharmacy received 50 doses in October, which were reserved for students at high risk. High-risk students typically suffer from illnesses such as asthma or have weak immune systems.

The University pharmacy received its largest delivery Nov. 3, thus eliminating the need to enforce restrictions on who can receive the vaccine.

“In general, we try to vaccinate first-tier students at risk, [and] we always vaccinate our medical and nursing students because we need to take care of the patients they are taking care of at the hospital, and then we vaccinate as many ordinary students as we can,” Hancher said.

Approximately 2,700 students have received the flu vaccine so far.

While there isn’t a shortage of the vaccine, there is not an abundant supply either.

“I’m pretty sure we will use up everything we have,” Hancher said.

Demand for the vaccines in the greater Charlottesville-Albemarle area has also been high, said Deborah Childs, a nursing supervisor in the Charlottesville-Albemarle Health Department.

Unlike Student Health however, the Charlottesville-Albemarle Health Department can only administer vaccines to people who fit a certain criteria determined by the Center for Disease Control, such as people over 65 and children over six months old with chronic medical conditions, Childs said.

According to Childs, October and November are the optimal times to receive flu vaccines, but because the flu season does not peak until February, people who receive the vaccine in December or January can still be protected.

The Health Department informs the public that there are other methods of preventing the flu. Childs said she tells people to use “good health etiquette” such as covering one’s mouth while coughing and washing hands frequently.

Childs also said there have been no reports of flu activity in the Charlottesville-Albemarle area so far.

With the Virginia gubernatorial election results in, the presidents of two of the largest political groups at the University — the University Democrats and College Republicans — are beginning to think about what this means for the future of the Commonwealth.

University Democrats President Dave Wasserman sees Tim Kaine’s victory in a positive light and said the courtesy the candidates displayed during the victory and concession speeches was a relief.

“In a rough and tumble campaign, it was nice to see that each candidate was gracious,” Wasserman said. “Kaine worked hard to win the race and was on the campaign trail 24/7. Kilgore obviously appeared surprised, but I think he understood in his final days that things weren’t going his way.”

Wasserman said he believes Virginia will continue to grow and prosper under this continuation of Democratic leadership.

“I’m ecstatic that we’ll have another four years of Democratic administration,” Wasserman said. “I think that Virginians are not thinking in partisan terms but in ways that will benefit the future of the Commonwealth. [Gov.] Mark [R.] Warner has succeeded in earning the people’s trust, and voters are willing to pass on the torch to someone who is like-minded.”

On the other side of the political arena, College Republicans President Brain Gunn said Kaine’s victory stems from the success of Gov. Warner.

“Tim Kaine won this election as a direct result of the popularity of Mark Warner, without which he would have lost the election,” Gunn said. “I think that Tim Kaine is much more liberal than his predecessor and that he both tried and failed to hide this during the election.”

While Gunn said he is disappointed with the results, he cited other Republican wins across the Commonwealth as evidence of continued conservative support in Virginia.

“While it is true that the votes did not go our way and that we will have a Democratic governor for the next couple of years, all is not lost,” Gunn said, citing the election of Republican Bill Bolling as lieutenant governor and what he sees as the likely election of Republican Bob McDonnell as attorney general.

In terms of the future steps Kaine plans to take in his new role, Wasserman said Kaine already has begun to initiate part of his promises to Virginia by pushing forward important statewide policies.

“I’m thrilled that he’s already embarked on [implementing policies] today,” Wasserman said. “Less than 24 hours from the election, he set up leadership team to handle transportation issues in the state. He’s wasting no time in putting together a forward-thinking administration, and the trust that Virginian voters have placed in him is well-earned.”

According to Wasserman, one of Kaine’s most important plans as governor is to focus on making education more affordable and available for everyone.”It’s very important for Kaine to pay attention to specific outcomes of the higher education restructuring act,” Wasserman said.

Gunn said he hopes the policies Kaine plans to enact within the state are moderate and acceptable for all groups so as to avoid “the type of liberalism that has harmed states like New York and California.”

“Because of his disjointed ‘I believe but won’t act on my beliefs’ [attitude] on social issues, I believe it would be wise for him to avoid these and continue to focus of the economic development for all of Virginia,” Gunn said. “We respect the electoral process, and you will not hear complaints or doomsday predictions that came out of the 2004 presidential election. I hope that Kaine does a good job, and the Republican Party will ensure that he doesn’t go out of line.”