At Fall Convocation Friday afternoon, University President John T. Casteen, III presented the Thomas Jefferson Award, the University’s highest honor, to both Dean of Admissions John Blackburn and Sharon Hostler, interim vice provost for faculty advancement. This year marks only the second time two people have received the award in one year.

In his remarks about Blackburn, Casteen said, “with steadfast wisdom, judgment and uncommon integrity, Mr. Blackburn has selected the students for each year’s entering class for nearly a quarter-century.”

Casteen also focused on Blackburn’s dedication to diversity and fair access for all students.

“Each year, Mr. Blackburn visits personally with students of diverse racial, ethnic and social backgrounds, encouraging them to consider applying for admission to U.Va.,” Casteen said. “By making disadvantaged students aware of the AccessUVa financial-aid program, he has enabled hundreds of young women and men to study here despite their limited financial means.”

Assoc. Dean of Admissions Greg Roberts, who wrote a letter supporting Blackburn’s nomination, said Blackburn is not only a leader at the University but also a genuinely good person.

“He is a wonderful, wonderful human being,” Roberts said. “He is the kindest, most caring and compassionate man I have ever known.”
Roberts also described Blackburn as a trailblazer in the field of admissions, especially regarding access and affordability.

“His whole life is dedicated to values that would have been very important to Jefferson,” Roberts said.

Spanish Prof. David Gies said Blackburn is one of the most important people at the University.

“We on the faculty … are always crowing about how wonderful the students are, and he and his staff are the people who produce [the students],” Gies said. “If they did a lousy job, our jobs would be completely different and much more difficult.”

Blackburn, who will be retiring in 2009,  stated in an e-mail that he is honored and humbled to be a Jefferson Award recipient.

“I never, in my wildest dreams, imagined receiving the Thomas Jefferson Award,” he stated.

Sharon Hostler, currently serving as interim vice provost for faculty advancement, has been a member of the University faculty since 1969.

“Dr. Hostler was the first woman in the School of Medicine to hold an endowed professorship,” Casteen said about Hostler. “She has been an advocate for children, families of sick children, students, women, junior faculty and nascent leaders.”

Susan Pollart, associate dean for faculty development, noted Hostler’s accomplishments in the field of pediatric medicine.

Before Hostler, “care had focused on the doctor and what they could do for the patient,” Pollart said. Hostler worked to shift the focus to the patients and their families and coined the term “patient-centered care,” Pollart said.

Marcia Day Childress, Humanities Programs director at the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Humanities and Hostler’s primary nominator, praised Hostler’s “advocacy on behalf of women, gender equity and a more humane culture in academic medicine and in academe generally, both here in Charlottesville and nationwide.”

Childress also said Hostler will work to put some of the programs she helped develop for medical faculty into place for all faculty across the University community.

Asst. Anesthesiology Prof. Farnaz Gazoni said she first met Hostler — who could not be reached for comment — when she shadowed her 12 years ago as a pre-medical student at the University.

“Dr. Hostler is deserving of the [Jefferson Award] because she embodies so many Jeffersonian virtues,” Gazoni said. “She’s done so much to … enrich the medical side of his Academical Village.”

The symptoms of the common cold can be caused by the body’s response to a virus, rather than just the virus itself, according to a collaborative study by the University and consumer goods manufacturer Procter & Gamble.

In the study, scientists examined the body’s response to the rhinovirus infection, which is one of the main causes of the common cold, said Jay Tiesman, Procter & Gamble Genomics Group leader and author of the study.

“What was very interesting is that we found that the human body really responds to rhinoviruses in a way by overstimulating the immune system,” he said. “We found a number of pathways that were identified in response to rhinovirus infection that made us think that maybe that some of the systems that we’re seeing with the common cold are really the responses to the over-stimulation of the immune system.”

Identifying these systems and finding ways to temper the body’s response could help significantly in reducing symptoms of the common cold, he said.

“We’re hoping that we can use some of these pathways that we’ve identified and learn more about how the body responds to the rhinovirus infection and develop new therapeutic compounds that can ultimately go into our products,” Tiesman said.

For most people, Pediatrics Prof. Ronald Turner said, the rhinovirus is just responsible for a common cold. For individuals with asthma or other respiratory conditions, though, contraction of the rhinovirus can exacerbate their preexisting conditions, he added.

“Obviously the rhinovirus infection is a major problem in the world, and it affects a lot of people,” Tiesman said. “It’s not really normally a deadly disease but it’s associated with a lot of problems, like asthma. So hopefully by understanding this, we can impact not just the common cold but take it even further and have a bigger medical impact.”

The study will not necessarily result in the immediate development of new medical remedies, Turner said, noting that researching causes and symptoms of the common cold is part of an important and continuing body of research.

Tiesman, though, said there will be “efforts to take the information that we have now and develop new therapies for the cold and for related diseases.”

The study was conducted at the University and used University student volunteers as test subjects, Tiesman said.

“We don’t restrict our studies to college students, but the vast majority of our volunteers are [University] students,” he said.

Researchers completed a general survey of cell responses to the virus, Turner said, adding that “by doing this, you find out things that you wouldn’t expect.”

Last week, the Republican Party of Virginia reported that duplicate absentee ballots have been sent to voters from several locations in Virginia, sparking concerns that election results in Virginia could be compromised. In a press release, the RPV stated that there have been reports of duplicate ballots in Fairfax, Virginia Beach, Henrico, Chesterfield and Petersburg, though Petersburg Registrar Dawn Williams denied that any duplicate applications were mailed to Petersburg residents.

RPV Communications Director Gerry Scimeca said such a glitch could have a significant impact on the election in the commonwealth.
“If you have more ballots than actual voters circulating, [there is a] possibility of tainting the outcome,” he said.

Scimeca said the RPV recommends that officials from the counties that sent out duplicate ballots not count the absentee ballots they receive until the deadline to turn in absentee ballots has passed on Election Day. Then, if any voter has turned in more than one ballot, Scimeca said the State Board of Elections should set guidelines to help registrars determine the best course of action, whether it be contacting the voter or perhaps the voter’s witness.

Susan Pollard, Virginia State Board of Elections director of communications, said the SBE is currently investigating the cause of this error, adding that it is most likely because of a processing issue rather than a problem with the electronic system.

“This is very serious,” Pollard said, “but voters need to be reassured that the Virginia Election and Registration [Information] System does have safeguards built in to not allow more than one ballot to be counted [per person].”

Pollard urged anyone who receives a duplicate ballot to contact his registrar.

“If there is an issue in processing, it needs to be reviewed and it needs to be remedied,” she said.

Scimeca also suggested notifying the registrar, but said he believes it is more important that the duplicate ballot is destroyed.

“Rip it up, throw it away,” he said. “It’s really no good and having it out there can only hurt you.”

Though the Republican Party of Virginia has expressed concern about this issue in the past week, the Democratic Party of Virginia is not worried, DPV communications director Jared Leopold said, adding that the State Board of Elections appears to be managing the situation.

“I think it was a small glitch in the system,” Leopold said, “and it appears to be under control.”

Richard Sincere, chair of the Charlottesville electoral board, said he has not encountered this problem before but noted “generally if a mistake like this is made, voters are honest enough to return only one ballot.”

Sincere added that Charlottesville has a number of procedures in place to ensure that serious errors do not occur. If the integrity of ballots was called into question, Sincere said, the person counting the ballots could compare signatures or check with the witness to determine whether a vote was cast in the proper manner.

“We expect voters to be honest about this sort of thing, but if they do try to vote twice, that’s criminal fraud and a felony,” Sincere said. “If a complaint is made, that can be turned over to the commonwealth attorney.”

The Cavalier Daily attempted to contact officials from Fairfax, Virginia Beach, Henrico and Chesterfield for comment. A Henrico official declined to comment on the situation, while representatives from the other regions did not respond to requests for on-the-record comment.

The University Judiciary Committee’s representatives and judges passed a bylaw unanimously last night that further defines professionalism for UJC support officers.

Passed by the Issues subcommittee, the bylaw outlines violations of professionalism and their consequences.

“The proposal is to put into writing something that we’ve been talking about for a while,” Issues Chair Will Bane said. “It is important for all members of the UJC to maintain a high level of professionalism.”

The bylaw defines professionalism as — but not restricted to — breaking the attendance policy, incessant tardiness, failure to wear the proper attire to trials and meetings, and being found guilty of any violation of the Standards of Conduct.

“It’ll help keep us consistent in addressing violations of standards of professionalism,” UJC Chair Merriam Mikhail said. “I want to make sure that we do have a mechanism to address any situation where we find a support officer’s behavior unfitting of a UJC member.”

Mikhail said while she could not give any details, UJC has dealt with violations of professionalism in the past, citing one instance where an educator did not show up to a trial.

Mikhail said the new bylaw specifies which UJC officers will act when a violation of professionalism arises. If a support officer is accused of a professionalism violation, the senior support officer of the accused will investigate the offense. The senior support officer will assign punishment to the support officer if he is found to have committed a violation of professionalism. Support officers may receive an oral admonition, a written warning, suspension from UJC or removal from UJC. If suspended, the accused support officer may not take part in any trial proceedings or attend UJC meetings or events.

The sanctioned support officer, however, can appeal the senior support officer’s decision by submitting a written petition to the UJC Chair within seven days of receiving the senior support officer’s original decision. The voting members of UJC’s executive committee will review the violation and may vote to overturn the senior support officer’s decision. A majority vote is needed, and the executive committee’s decision will be final.

Previously, if a support officer was accused of violating a standard of professionalism, the senior support officer and the support officer would meet to discuss the violation. Typically, the meeting would result in the accused support officer resigning from his position, Mikhail said. She added that the new method is designed to relieve pressure on the support officer to resign from his position.

Both Bane and Mikhail noted that the bylaw not only benefits UJC, but the entire University community. Mikhail said the new method helps to increase the quality of UJC’s support officers because the bylaw helps to limit bias by creating one consistent process to handle professionalism violations.

“We’re trying to eliminate as much bias in the system,” Bane said. “A fair UJC benefits the University as a whole.”

The College Board, the non-profit organization that administers SATs, PSATs and Advanced Placement exams, unveiled a new test for eighth graders last week.

The exam, called ReadiStep, “is a paper-and-pencil test with three multiple-choice sections — reading, writing and mathematics,” College Board spokesperson Jennifer Topiel stated in an e-mail. The total test time is two hours and the examination allows 40 minutes for each section, Topiel said. There are no essays or student-produced responses.

Topiel said that the purpose of the exam is to provide an early assessment of students’ strength and weaknesses so they have time throughout high school to focus on specific skills that will help them to be successful in college.

Bob Schaeffer, spokesperson for the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, also known as FairTest, however, said the test only represents a way for the College Board to make money.

“It’s a cynical marketing ploy that serves no useful purpose other than fattening the College Board’s wallets,” he said.

Schaeffer explained that because of the No Child Left Behind Act, students nationwide are required to be tested in math and science every year starting in the 3rd grade, and in writing twice between the third and eighth grades.

“By the time any student in America finishes eighth grade nowadays, he or she has taken at least 14 standardized tests that have been mandated under No Child Left Behind law,” Schaeffer said.

Furthermore, Schaeffer said, the College Board already tests students on the same subjects — math, science, and writing — on the SAT, PSAT and SAT subject-tests. He said ReadiStep will just be a shorter version of the PSAT and will serve as a pre-pre-SAT exam.

Topiel explained, however, that ReadiStep is intended for eighth grade students, as opposed to the PSAT, which is targeted toward 10th and 11th graders, even though some schools are providing the PSAT to eighth-graders.

“Educators asked us for an assessment that measured grade-appropriate skills for the eighth-grade level,” Topiel said. “Using the PSAT/NMSQT earlier than high school is not appropriate, because middle school students haven’t learned many of the skills that are assessed on that exam.”

Greg Roberts, University associate dean of admissions, said he did not think the new test would be examined in college admissions.

“The eighth-grade record is so far removed from where they are as 17-year-olds that I cannot imagine any school looking back that far for [college] admissions,” he said. He did note, though, his concern about test anxiety and exhaustion among high school students.

“Students are getting so many tests: Standards of Learning tests, Advanced Placement tests, SAT subject tests and SATs or ACTs, among many others,” he said. “I think that’s what most would fear with coming up with a new test like this.”

But both Roberts and Schaeffer said standardized tests can help assess students on a more universal level and help students improve certain skills.

“Standardized tests have their place as part of a balanced assessment system, as one factor among many,” Schaeffer said.

The Honor Committee finalized two surveys, Feedback on Involvement with Honor Investigation From the Reporter and Feedback on Involvement with Honor Investigation and Trial From the Reporter, at last night’s meeting. The surveys were designed to increase communication between the Committee and reporters of honor violations; the former was created for honor cases that are dropped after the investigation process and the latter for honor cases that go through the investigation and trial processes.

The surveys ask reporters how they felt about the level of communication between themselves and the honor advisors as well as the reporters’ impressions of the case investigation. The surveys also ask reporters if they were comfortable in their understanding of the trial procedures and ask reporters to evaluate the timeliness of the investigation and trial processes on a scale from one to five.

The Committee plans to put the surveys into effect immediately. Vice Chair for Trials Sophie Staples said the Committee may update the surveys in the future, if it wishes to do so.

“As far as implementing this, it can be changed any time,” she said.

—compiled by Stephanie Kassab

ATLANTA — The Cavaliers are one resilient team. Coming into the game as 14-point underdogs, Virginia upset No. 21 Georgia Tech 24-17 Saturday, giving Virginia its first victory against a ranked opponent on the road since traveling to Clemson in 2001. In addition, thanks to Virginia Tech losing to Florida State, the Cavaliers are in sole possession of first place in the ACC Coastal Division.
“Anything less from [the staff, offense, defense and special teams] would have made it hard [to win],” Virginia coach Al Groh said. “It was a real battle with that team.”

Things did not look good for the Cavaliers early. After Virginia scored a field goal on its first drive, Georgia Tech ran its patent option offense to perfection on its first drive. Georgia Tech freshman A-Back Roddy Jones ran five times for 47 yards on that first drive, sophomore B-Back Jonathan Dwyer ran four times for 22 yards and sophomore quarterback Josh Nesbitt capped off an 11-play, 73-yard all-rushing drive with a 1-yard touchdown run to put the Yellow Jackets up 7-3 in the first quarter.

“We scrambled around a lot [on defense],” Groh said. “One of the things about [Georgia Tech’s] offense is that it’s not just necessarily the plays themselves. It’s the multitude of blocking schemes with which each one of those plays can be put together.”

It only got worse for Virginia in the first quarter when sophomore quarterback Marc Verica threw an errant pass that Georgia Tech sophomore safety Morgan Burnett intercepted. During the Yellow Jackets’ next play, Nesbitt, taking advantage of all of the runs in the first drive, threw a play-action 42-yard pass to sophomore wide receiver Demaryius Thomas, and then Dwyer ran for 3 yards up the middle to the end zone to give Georgia Tech a 14-3 lead.

To Virginia’s credit, however, it responded in typical Cavalier fashion, as it converted on four third downs on the next drive, including a 14-yard touchdown pass from Verica to junior wide receiver Kevin Ogletree to pull the Cavaliers to within 4 at 14-10.

The touchdown play “was a great call at the time, obviously gutty, great throw and great execution,” Groh said. “Marc put it right out there.”

At halftime, Georgia Tech went into to locker room with the lead, but Virginia had the momentum.

Verica threw two interceptions in the first half, but in the second half, it was Georgia Tech’s turn to turn the ball over — and it did so at the most inopportune times. On the Yellow Jackets’ first drive of the second half, right as Georgia Tech got into Virginia territory, Nesbitt fumbled the center-quarterback exchange, and junior nose tackle Nate Collins pounced on the ball. Virginia then turned a turnover into a touchdown. After completing a third-down pass to senior wide receiver Cary Koch, Verica threw a 34-yard pass to senior wide receiver Maurice Covington, who held on to the pass and raced to the end zone to give the Cavaliers a 17-14 lead.

“Kevin and Mo [Covington] both really showed their great value to us and how we can do some things in the passing game when they are both on their game,” Groh said.

Later in the third quarter, the Yellow Jackets squandered what seemed to be yet another potential touchdown-scoring drive when Nesbitt, at the Virginia 7 yard-line, had trouble with an option exchange with Dwyer and fumbled the ball, which was recovered by Virginia junior linebacker Denzel Burrell.

“I tried to give it to [Dwyer] and it just popped out,” Nesbitt said. “It was a bad connection.”

After Georgia Tech converted a field goal to tie the game, senior running back Cedric Peerman — who had another strong game with 25 carries for 118 yards and one touchdown — played a critical part in Virginia’s go-ahead drive. Peerman had a big 31-yard run to get the Cavaliers to the Georgia Tech 14-yard line, and then on third-and-8 Peerman took a draw handoff and ran 8 yards and barely got the first down. The play was reviewed and upheld by the official, and on the next play, Peerman ran it in from 3 yards out to put the Cavaliers up 24-17.

“I felt like I had stayed in bounds,” Peerman said, recalling his touchdown run. “I knew I stretched the ball and hit the pylon, so I was hoping that it wasn’t a fumble.”

Georgia Tech’s last drive was not without drama, however. After a third-and-11 pass for Georgia Tech fell incomplete, Groh was called for sideline interference and Virginia was assessed a 5-yard penalty, which enabled the Yellow Jackets to convert a fourth-down pass from the subsequent play.
“I guess the official thought it was an important thing to do at that time of the game, to make his presence known,” Groh said about the penalty.
During the very next play, however, Virginia junior cornerback Vic Hall read Nesbitt’s pass perfectly and intercepted the ball to seal the deal and record the Cavaliers’ first road win of the year. Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson summed up what Virginia has been able to do in its last four victories accurately.
“You have to give [Virginia] credit,” Johnson said. “They came in here and did what they had to do to win the game.”

Virginia is now in first place in the Coastal Division.

“Wow, didn’t know that,” senior outside linebacker Clint Sintim said. “Not too bad for a team that was picked to finish … second to last [in the ACC ahead of] Duke.”

No, Clint, it’s not too bad. Nobody thought Virginia would be in this position in July — and that was before Peter Lalich got thrown off the team. SportsCenter called sophomore quarterback Marc Verica Marc Ver-eec-a two weeks ago and then simply avoided using his name in the highlights of Virginia’s 24-17 win against No. 21 Georgia Tech.

I hope ESPN looks up the correct pronunciation for next week, because Verica is making a name for himself and the name is not that hard to articulate. Following his picturesque two-minute drill a week ago that kept Virginia alive in the eventual overtime win against then-No. 18 North Carolina, Verica threw for a career-high 270 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the team’s first win on the road against the Yellow Jackets.

This from a guy who was on the scout team six months ago.

There are more simply dumbfounding numbers from this game that shed light on Virginia’s absurd turnaround better than anything I can say.

Put it this way: if I had told you earlier that in week nine, Virginia would have one loss in the ACC to Duke by 28 points and two wins against top-25 teams, how would you have reacted?

That’s not all I’ve got. Here are some more numbers that will make you, like me, feel ashamed that you ever hopped off the Cavalier bandwagon.

1. Road rebirth. Starting with the obvious, the win at Georgia Tech was Virginia’s first win on the road this season; this coming after the “Cardiac” Cavs went into cardiac arrest in two previous games on the road, losing at UConn and Duke by a combined 63 points.

Then the stats get even more obscene. This was Virginia’s first win against a ranked opponent on the road since Sept. 22, 2001, when it downed No. 19 Clemson. It was also the first time the Cavs won back-to-back games against ranked opponents since 2002, when they beat then-No. 22 N.C. State and then-No. 18 Maryland in back-to-back weeks.

Now, onto the individual numbers.

2. Can Sintim sack Long? With 1.5 sacks Saturday, Sintim now has 9.5 through eight games. Extrapolate that out to a 13-game season — Virginia needs just one more win to assure a 13th game — and he ends the year with 15.5 sacks. That’s 1.5 more than Chris somebody — you know, the one who now starts for the St. Louis Rams — had last year.

Even before the start of training camp, Sintim said it would be great if he got double-digit sacks. With reaching that goal now a virtual certainty, I asked him how he feels about 14.

“It’d be great to have 14,” he said.

How about 15?

“Fifteen would be even better, because Chris had 14 last year.”

I didn’t get to asking him about 15.5, but I can imagine he wouldn’t have objected to that either.

3. Peerman pounding. More of the obvious: in four games since getting healthy, senior running back Cedric Peerman has been ridiculous.

“There’s nothing that I could say about Cedric that would do him justice to anybody who saw it with their own eyes,” Virginia coach Al Groh said. “His play, as much as everybody that probably you’ve ever seen, just speaks for itself.”

I couldn’t agree more — stats don’t give him his due. Senior offensive tackle Eugene Monroe has described Peerman’s impact with opposing defensive players as sounding like “a car crash” — the only difference is that following the collision, Peerman somehow stays on his feet and gains another 4 yards.

Nevertheless, it’s worth mentioning Peerman’s numbers. Since returning from injury at the start of Virginia’s winning streak against Maryland, Peerman has averaged 111.3 rushing yards per game and 5.3 yards per carry while rushing for 6 touchdowns. He has also hauled in 23 catches for 122 yards.

Of course, Peerman missed much of the first four games with a leg injury, so his numbers at the end of the year won’t seem terrific to the passive fan. Let’s just pretend, though, that these were the first four games of a 13-game season. Again extrapolating, Peerman ends the year with 1446.25 rushing yards, 19.5 rushing touchdowns, and 74.75 catches.

In case you didn’t know, Peerman was ordained as a minister not too long ago.

Would the Almighty mind explaining this?

From the time I started playing football at age 9 until my senior year in high school, all my coaches preached turnovers and big plays as the keys to winning the game. That statement often caused me to roll my eyes.

After witnessing what occurred at Bobby Dodd Stadium Saturday, though I finally see what my coaches were referring to: Without Georgia Tech turning the ball over at crucial spots on the field and without Virginia making key plays when necessary in the second half, the Cavaliers wouldn’t have left Atlanta with complete control of their destiny for a Coastal Division title.

Georgia Tech’s first critical turnover occurred on the Yellow Jackets’ first drive of the third quarter when quarterback Josh Nesbitt failed to execute the most elementary aspect of quarterback play: the center-quarterback exchange.

“I really don’t know what else you do,” a frustrated Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson said after the game. “At this level, you’d like to think you could get the center-to-quarterback exchange.”

No kidding, Coach Johnson. What really hurt about that turnover was that it occurred in Virginia territory right when the Yellow Jackets were driving down the field. There would be a costlier turnover later in the third quarter, however, when Nesbitt fumbled a handoff with sophomore B-Back Jonathan Dwyer to the Virginia 7-yard line, right when the Yellow Jackets could have taken a 21-17 lead. One of the biggest negatives of the option offense is that it can often lead to lots of fumbles because of the necessity to ride out fakes, which can lead to messed up exchanges between the quarterback and running back. That’s exactly what occurred.

“[Nesbitt] didn’t get off of [Dwyer] in time,” Johnson said. “It’s disappointing when that happens.”

The icing on the cake for the Yellow Jackets was when Nesbitt — once again in Virginia territory — threw an interception to Cavalier cornerback Vic Hall with 1:18 left in the game, which left almost all of the 47,416 in attendance befuddled that Georgia Tech let a possible victory slip away.

“I was just trying to get to my receiver,” Nesbitt said. “[Hall] made a great play on the ball.”

As much as Georgia Tech did to shoot itself in the foot, let’s not forget about the major plays Virginia made in this game. Obviously the Hall interception was big — it clinched the game — but give nose tackle Nate Collins and linebacker Denzell Burell credit for pouncing on the two Nesbitt fumbles. Cornerbacks Ras-I Dowling and Chase Minnifield also made critical plays on Georgia Tech’s last drive. Each cornerback broke up deep passes that seemed as if they were going to be caught by Georgia Tech receivers, allowing the Jackets to break the Cavaliers’ hearts just as the Cavaliers did to North Carolina on their final drive last week.

“The defensive kids were just so tough-minded and determined,” Groh said. “They were able to handle a lot of adjustments once we got a fix on things.”

The offense also deserves props for making critical plays when necessary. Wide receiver Maurice Covington almost dropped a sure 34-yard touchdown pass, but he was able to hold on to give Virginia a 17-14 lead in the third quarter. Peerman’s effort all game was extraordinary, but his 8-yard run on third-and-8 at the Georgia Tech 11 took a lot of heart and Peerman, like usual, came through and stretched the ball out for a first down. Peerman then followed that play up with the go-ahead touchdown run.

“Cedric just stepped up himself,” Groh said about Peerman’s run on third-and-8. “He said, ‘I’m getting this thing down there for the first down.’”

Most of all, the offensive line was superb. It opened up holes for Peerman all day and gave Verica — who settled down after two first-half interceptions and had another solid game — ample time to make plays.

“Those kids did a great job,” Groh said when describing the play of the linemen. “For us to be able to operate like that in the pocket and give up one sack during the course of the day was big.”

At the end of day, Virginia made plays when it absolutely had to, and Georgia Tech turned the ball over when it absolutely couldn’t. Now the Cavaliers are one game away from qualifying for a bowl game. Who knew the old words of my coaches had so much meaning.

The Virginia field hockey team’s senior night Saturday was bittersweet, as Wake Forest routed the Cavaliers 6-2.

“We knew Wake Forest was precise,” coach Michele Madison said. “Their precision is good around the circle, and we just had to be flawless and we weren’t. We had chances to put it in; we also had chances to keep it out. We just couldn’t get the job done today.”
Coming into the game, the No. 13 Cavaliers (11-7, 1-3 ACC) were 11-1 at home and needed a win, having lost two straight games in the strong ACC.

Virginia took control of the game in the beginning but was unable to maintain its level of competitiveness throughout the game. The Cavaliers got on the board first with freshman midfielder Paige Selenski, who scored her team-leading 16th goal of the season about 6.5 minutes into the game. The Wake Forest defense kept Selenski in check throughout the rest of the game, though; she was not able to get a shot in goal for the rest of the day.

After the Cavaliers’ first goal six minutes in, the game was controlled by Wake Forest (15-2, 2-2 ACC): the Demon Deacons scored two minutes later and followed with five straight goals. Junior forward Hilary Moore and junior midfielder Melissa Martin each scored two goals each for the Demon Deacons. Wake Forest senior midfielder Michelle Kasold, who currently ranks second in the nation in assists per game, added two more to her total on the year (23). Despite Wake Forest’s strong play, Virginia did not stop fighting until the final whistle was blown and added a goal by junior midfielder Traci Ragukas, who has netted 11 goals this season.

“I was proud of the team as they kept going and the fight was there,” Madison said. “We were able to get a couple of turnovers … but we were only able to convert one of them into a goal.”

Three of the Demon Deacons’ six goals came by way of the penalty corner. The six goals allowed by the Cavaliers were the most allowed by Virginia this season.

“I really don’t think the score reflects the actual game,” Ragukas said. “I thought we were right there; we just didn’t get any breaks. We had our opportunities; we just didn’t capitalize on them.”

The Cavalier defense did not show the same tenacity it displayed in previous home games. Madison unexpectedly started freshman Adrienne Ostroff in goal after she had seen time in just three games this season. The start for Ostroff was the first of her collegiate career, and she allowed four goals in 32 minutes while tallying three saves.

Ostroff “had another good week of practice,” Madison said. “She was getting the most saves. That was what it was about — to get some saves. I have to look back at the video, maybe one of the goals she could have gotten.”

Senior Amy Desjadon and sophomore Devon Burnley also saw time in goal, each allowing one goal.

After the game ended, the fans bid farewell to four Cavalier seniors: midfielder Lucy Meyers, back Inge Kaars Sijpesteijn, forward Liz Hiltz and Desjadon, all of whom have had impressive careers in their time in Charlottesville.

The seniors, along with the rest of the team, have a long road ahead of them as they travel to Durham, N.C. to play Duke next weekend and then return to Durham to play in the ACC Tournament the following week. The Cavaliers will need to muster the strength to win on the road if they are to be successful the rest of the season.