As a future lawn resident and a member of several organizations that had incorrect records in Monday’s Lawn article (2009 — 2010 Lawn Application Statistics, 3/16/2009), I was extremely disappointed in the number of errors made by The Cavalier Daily. Falsely reported on and underrepresented in your selected applicant numbers were: Sigma Kappa, Kappa Delta, the University Guide Service and the University Programs Council to name a few. How ironic that such errors are printed the same day your Viewpoint Writer Matt Dickey prints an article praising your paper’s services (“Relevant reporting,” 3/16/2009). Relevant topics being reported? Yes. Accurate? Unfortunately, not.

Concerning The Cavalier Daily’s recent article on my grade inflation work (Research cites grade inflation as cause for national increase in GPA, 3/16/2009), I appreciate the newspaper creating awareness about the problem of grade inflation and think the article reflects my work accurately except in one respect. I do not believe nor did I mean to suggest that grade inflation is the sole factor for rising grades nationwide. It is the dominant factor nationwide, but at an institutional level, factors like increased student quality can and do play a subsidiary role.

Significant and surprising errors were made in the statistics for next year’s Lawn residents (2009 — 2010 Lawn Application Statistics, 3/16/2009). I am one of the Lawn residents for next year and was surprised to see incorrect information.

A cursory glance of my own information uncovered the fact that every single one of my statistics was looked over in compiling the published data. For instance, I am in Sigma Alpha Epsilon, but you stated that one applied from my fraternity and that zero were accepted. I am the co-director of the Engineering Guide service, but the organization itself is not even present on a list that reportedly includes all organizations that have members who applied for a Lawn room.

Every statistic I inspected turned out to be incorrect. I sincerely hope that measures are taken to correct any errors and more importantly, to determine how such significant errors were made. It is troubling for myself, no doubt, but I am most upset at how this presents the particular organizations that applicants represent.

Engineering Guides for instance is not even on the list, a disservice to the members of an organization that provides an invaluable service to the Engineering School, a large part of this University.

106-23.

It may take a moment to process this score’s lopsidedness, but it is indeed the margin by which the undefeated No. 14 Virginia baseball team has outscored its opponents the last seven games. In the Cavaliers’ latest game against Florida State — the preseason No. 6-ranked team nationally and a perennial baseball powerhouse — the result also was familiar, as Virginia cruised to a 15-2 victory at Davenport Field Friday.

“I don’t know what’s going on offensively — I can’t explain it,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “We’re just in one of those streaks right now where we’re just swinging the bats really, really [well] throughout our lineup.”

The Cavaliers (15-0, 4-0 ACC) and the Seminoles (9-6, 1-3 ACC) were scheduled for a three-game series, but games two and three were cancelled because of wet field conditions.

With Friday’s win and top-ranked Georgia’s first two losses of the season in a weekend series against Alabama, Virginia stands as the only undefeated team in the nation. After entering the season unranked and picked to finish fourth in the Coastal Division of the ACC, the No. 18 Cavaliers will surely climb still higher in this week’s poll, which comes out Tuesday.

“We’re just trying to ride this as long as we can,” sophomore right fielder Dan Grovatt said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

Almost as impressive as the Cavaliers’ explosive offensive production has been the pitching of freshman Danny Hultzen, who improved to 4-0 on the season with his most impressive outing to date. Hultzen rarely let the Seminoles put the ball in play, allowing just one earned run on four hits and striking out 13 in seven innings of work. The 13 punchouts included 11 swinging, and seven consecutive strikeouts from one out in the first to two outs in the third.

“When he has command of his off-speed pitches, and then can throw his fastball with the velocity he does and the command he does, that’s a special pitcher,” O’Connor said. “He’s not perfect, but he’s been pretty close to perfect this year up until this point.”

Although Hultzen had thrown 98 pitches and held a 13-0 lead through six innings on a chilly evening at Davenport Field, O’Connor had Hultzen toeing the mound in the seventh. While Hultzen appeared to have enough energy left for another inning, O’Connor said, he also wanted to test the freshman’s stamina, who chose to attend Virginia after being drafted in the 10th round of the MLB draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“There’s gonna be games that he’s gonna need to go 110 pitches,” O’Connor said. “I wanted to see what he still had left in the tank in the seventh inning, and he still had it.”

Offensively, Virginia compiled 14 hits, as every ball the Cavaliers made contact with seemed to fall. Following a scoreless first inning, the Cavaliers made their first offensive surge against Florida State starting pitcher freshman Sean Gilmartin in the bottom of the second. With Virginia runners on second and third with one out, freshman catcher John Hicks popped what appeared to be a routine fly ball to shallow centerfield. With the Florida State infield in and sophomore centerfielder Tyler Holt playing deep in cavernous Davenport Field, however, the ball fell harmlessly in front of Holt, scoring one runner and moving the other to third.

Hicks then moved to second after junior catcher Franco Valdes grounded into a fielder’s choice to score another run, and sophomore left fielder John Barr smacked a two-out line drive to right to score Hicks for the final run of the inning.

The Cavaliers followed with 10 runs combined in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, but it was the three-run second that was the springboard for the rest of the night.

“Once we got through the lineup once and started to figure [Gilmartin] out a little bit, we were able to get a few knocks in and some scoring opportunities, and drive some guys home,” O’Connor said.

The Cavaliers also managed to hit two homeruns — both two-run shots — as Grovatt hit his third of the year in the fifth inning and Hicks followed with his third of the season in the sixth.

With the two long balls, the Cavaliers added to their vastly augmented power numbers. Virginia already has 17 homeruns this season, after knocking just 25 out of the park in last year’s 61-game season.

What O’Connor is most pleased about, however, is that his team has remained eager to put runners on and advance them in any way possible, in what he has referred to as an “opportunistic offense.”

“The thing I really like about our offensive ballclub is that we still haven’t lost what we do well too, and that’s steal bases and put pressure on the other team,” O’Connor said. “We need to continue to play that style of offense, and also knowing that we can also step up and hit a three-run homerun when we need to, too.”

Gilmartin got his first loss of the season, giving up four earned runs on six hits in four-plus innings after entering the evening with a 3-0 record and a 2.31 ERA. Poor fielding didn’t help the Seminoles’ cause, as they committed five errors.

“I think defensively, that’s very uncharacteristic of Florida State,” O’Connor said. “It being 35, 38 degrees might have something to do with it.”

The lopsided loss to Virginia will not help Florida State in the national rankings, as the team continued one of the worst starts in program history. This is the second straight conference series loss for the Seminoles, who dropped two of three games to then-unranked Boston College in Tallahassee the previous weekend — their first opening ACC series loss in school history. These struggles also have occurred in the context of a dark time for Florida State athletics, as baseball was among 10 sports found to have committed academic violations, resulting in a four-year probationary period for the athletics department, according to a report released by the NCAA March 6.

Virginia, meanwhile, will look to continue rolling against Marshall Tuesday and Canisius Wednesday at Davenport Field.

They might not want to admit it, but for many members of the Virginia men’s basketball team, the end of this season and the prospect of starting another must be a relief.

There are some obvious players for whom this may hold true. Freshman Sylven Landesberg has to be looking forward to getting a little more help next year. One would think sophomore Mustapha Farrakhan is looking for a fresh start after riding the bench for much of the year — again. Fellow sophomore Jeff Jones must be excited about a potential season in which he never has DNP next to his name. Senior Mamadi Diane finally got his 1,000 career points after riding the bench much of his final season, and he, along with senior Tunji Soroye, are probably ready to move on.

You can, however, be guaranteed of this: No one is more ready to redeem himself and his team after the past season than junior Calvin Baker.

As the Wahoo nation vented its frustrations about Virginia’s sometimes unbearable performances, Baker often was the focal point. While Virginia’s poor sequences were numerous all season, Baker’s were the most obvious and often the most puzzling. He was booed at home by fans and he was slammed on message boards. When Virginia coach Dave Leitao was criticized for overvaluing experience on a losing team, Baker’s name was among the first ones mentioned.

I don’t agree with Leitao about everything, but when it comes to Baker, I absolutely take Leitao’s side. Baker’s game isn’t pretty, but the good outweighs the bad.

First, let me recognize the bad. He does not have the ball-handling ability of an ACC point guard. His turnovers are not only numerous — 2.5 per game to be exact, including seven conference games with four turnovers or more — but also diverse. At any moment, he might step out of bounds or travel with no one around. He often tries to “thread the needle” with his passes, as the cliche goes, but the needle ends up stuck in the fabric seemingly as often as it makes it through. As his arm flies out to an absurd degree, he shoots sub-40 percent from the field and sub-30 percent from three-point range, which includes floaters in the lane and NBA-range threes that could end up hitting any part of the basket, backboard included. And, most painful of all to a guy like me who loves the pure point guard, he is too selfish in transition — rather than dishing to a teammate in a numbers-up situation, he just loves to pull up for a 12-15 foot jumper.

In other words, he does a lot that just makes you go, ‘What is this guy thinking?’ — as a point guard, mind you.

So why does he play? Because he has an upside, much of which isn’t measurable by numbers.

His scoring isn’t terrific — he was third on the team at 8.4 points per game — and his shooting percentage doesn’t help. But, the way he scores cannot be undervalued. Other than Landesberg, he was the only Cavalier who could regularly get into the teeth of the defense — a quality desperately needed in Leitao’s offense, which relies heavily on dribble penetration.

And yes, his 39.2 percent shooting is poor — but then again, the majority of guys on this team cannot brag that theirs was better. Four players who had at least four shots per game, in fact, had percentages worse than Baker — Farrakhan, Jones, Diane and freshman Sammy Zeglinski — all of whom also averaged fewer points. So despite the shooting percentage, the fact that Baker could get his team a bucket here and there was certainly a plus for the often scoring-starved Cavs.

On defense, Baker was also up and down — but when it was up, it was way up. When Leitao went to man-to-man on defense, he often assigned Baker to D-up the opposing team’s best guard. In Virginia’s 62-55 loss to Miami, he played Jack McClinton — who is third in the ACC at 19.3 points per contest — nearly perfectly, holding him to 11 points on 3-of-10 shooting. Had McClinton missed one of his few open looks of the night — a three that put the Hurricanes up five with under a minute remaining — we might be talking about how Baker’s defense won the game.

But Baker’s most important quality is one that is entirely intangible: passion. He doesn’t just leave all of his energy on the floor, but his heart and soul along with it. If Baker could leave a kidney in exchange for a win, he’d probably do that too.

The only way to prove this point is by results. Through the first half of the ACC season, as Virginia was getting embarrassed both at home and on the road, Leitao claimed the problem was that his team wasn’t into the game. His Cavaliers needed energy and were lacking in passion, he cried. They needed to change how they approached the way they were playing.

It sure sounded like a whole lot of coach-speak. A reaction I often heard was, “How about a few good players instead?”

The player who most often preached Leitao’s sentiment, both on the court and in postgame interviews, was Baker; the thing about it, though, is it made him all the easier to criticize. How can a guy who hands the ball over in gift-wrapping to the opposing team turn around and get on his teammates for not playing hard enough?

But with the manner in which Virginia began to pick up wins, Leitao and Baker proved the point. The turnaround began when he threw in a revamped starting lineup for the second half against Boston College, which included the seldom-used junior Solomon Tat at power forward and Baker at point. Talent-wise, it certainly wasn’t the best five Virginia had to offer; sophomore Mike Scott, for instance, found himself coming off the bench in subsequent games. But, as Leitao put it, “I wasn’t really interested in playing anybody who wasn’t [going to] play the game the right way.”

With Baker as the emotional leader of this group, Virginia first started getting competitive, and then started winning. Leitao started essentially the same starting lineup for the remainder of the season, taking three of its four conference wins, and remaining competitive in nearly every game the rest of the way.

The only exception was a blowout loss at Clemson March 3, a 75-57 defeat. And it was this blip against Clemson in Virginia’s overall positive trend to end the season that presented a microcosm of Baker’s value to the team.

He first showed that knack for scoring, keeping his team in the game during the first half, hitting 5-of-7 field goals for 12 first-half points, including nine of Virginia’s first 11.

Baker can create his own offense, but he is no offensive juggernaut, and he predictably did not match those first half numbers in the second. He went cold and his teammates continued to play poorly, as Clemson opened up the half with a 28-9 run.

During that stretch, Baker was livid. After making a typically head-scratching turnover — he picked up his dribble at half-court and got tied up by a Clemson defender — he slammed the ball on the floor in frustration and got called for a technical foul. Oh, Calvin.

Then, in an ensuing timeout, Baker went off. Though my media seat was across the gym from the Virginia huddle, Baker was obviously crucifying his teammates. His angry gestures had his arms flying in all directions as he yelled and screamed his frustrations.

This happened after he cost his team possession and two free throws after a technical foul that followed a turnover — it sure seemed a bit hypocritical. Just Calvin being Calvin.

But then, on senior day, Virginia rebounded with a win against Maryland and an emotional send-off for Diane.

Perhaps that tongue-lashing, and even the technical foul, as humorous as it may have been, was exactly the spark that Virginia needed. Yes, the turnover and the free throws were costly. But his emotion and the passion in that sequence, though not quantifiable, more than made up for two points and possession. After the game, I asked him if he regretted the technical, and he said absolutely not, because his team needed something to get them fired up.

That, in a nutshell, is Calvin Baker.

“Calvin, through thick and thin, has been booed at home, doesn’t always play pretty for a guy who’s playing out of position, and turns it over more than a point guard should,” Leitao said. “But he plays the game with heart and spirit. That’s what we’re trying to get from everybody, every game. So, the things that he does not do, I sometimes live with, because what I’m looking for, he’s one of the guys that gives it to us.”

So Wahoo fans, the next time you see Baker step out of bounds, or dribble off his foot, or pull up in the lane for a shot that hits nothing but backboard, hold your tongue. On a team filled with youth, if there is one guy players should look toward next year for fearless leadership and guidance about how to approach basketball the right way, they need look no further than Calvin Baker.

Sophomore midfielder Shamel Bratton and freshman attack Steele Stanwick tallied three goals apiece during the No. 1 Virginia men’s lacrosse team’s 11-2 victory against Towson at home Saturday.

The Cavaliers (9-0) took an early lead, scoring on three of their first four shots, and never surrendered the advantage during Saturday’s rainy game. Stanwick scored the first two goals of the match, followed quickly by a goal from Bratton. Senior attack Gavin Gill added another before the end of the first quarter, bringing Virginia’s lead to 4-0.

“I feel like we came out in the beginning of the game and played very well in the first quarter,” coach Dom Starsia said. “But then I thought we made a couple of little mental errors in the second quarter. We let them control the ball for the most part.”

Towson (1-4) did mount a small rally during the second quarter. The Tigers scored two quick goals on back-to-back extra-man situations, which marked their only goals of the game. Virginia, however, was unable to capitalize when the extra-man advantage went the other way.

“They weren’t able to run by us, so we just needed to stay out of the penalty box,” Starsia said. “They were a dangerous team on the extra man. At the other end, we’ve been pretty good on extra man, but I feel like we haven’t been sharp enough.”

Bratton added two more goals before the half to give the Cavaliers a 6-2 lead.

The Cavaliers’ dominant defense held Towson to only 19 shots all day. The only area of the game in which the Tigers performed noticeably better than their opponent was face-offs, as the visitor won 12 compared to Virginia’s five. Towson proved unable to make something of that statistical advantage, though, committing a season-high 32 turnovers as players struggled to gain their footing on the muddy surface.

“I think [the weather] probably was more beneficial towards the defense,” senior defender Matt Kelly said. “It seemed like guys were slipping all over the place and luckily we were able to hold our ground and play good defense.”

Virginia came out strong in the third quarter, with senior midfielder Steve Giannone notching two quick goals to atone for a foul in the first half. Stanwick added his third, and senior attack Garrett Billings got on the board before the third quarter ended. Senior attack Danny Glading contributed another goal midway through the final quarter to round out the scoring.

“We just wanted to keep playing our game,” Stanwick said. “We knew the shots were going to fall and coach just told us to execute. That was the real goal — just execution.”

Virginia now moves to a less-busy schedule with only one game per week. Its next opponent, however, may require all the Cavaliers’ extra time for preparation. Virginia visits perennial lacrosse powerhouse Johns Hopkins next Saturday in Baltimore, Md.

“We will probably enjoy this win, and we will check out the film,” senior defender Chad Gaudet said. “Coach will put together a good game plan for practice this week.”

The weekend’s rainy weather failed to stop the Virginia women’s tennis team from extending its recent win streak as the No. 18 Cavaliers beat No. 45 Virginia Tech 7-0 Sunday in Charlottesville.

The match against the Hokies was Virginia’s (10-2) sixth consecutive victory and marks the first time in program history the squad has started conference play 3-0.

Originally scheduled to be played at the Snyder Tennis Center, the match was moved to the Boyd Tinsley Tennis Courts at the Boar’s Head Sports Club. Because of the fast nature of the indoor play, the Cavaliers had to reevaluate their playing strategy. The team proved itself capable of handling tougher challenges as it swept the in-state rival Hokies, but the Cavaliers’ dominance was not evident until after the doubles matches.

“Virginia Tech really came out with more intensity than we did to start the match,” Virginia coach Mark Guilbeau said. “The doubles was quite impressive from their end. Sometimes you have to ask your kids for a little more, and they responded well. I think they see the positives and all the benefits that come from really taking care of the details, being intense, and giving their best effort.”

The team’s response led to three close doubles matches that all ended in the Cavaliers’ favor. The No. 1 Virginia doubles team of junior Jennifer Stevens and freshman Emily Fraser took down Virginia Tech senior Jessica Brouwer and sophomore Holly Johnson 9-7 while the Cavaliers’ No. 2 pair of sophomore Neela Vaez and senior Amanda Rales held on through a tiebreaker to put away freshman Martha Blakely and senior Inga Beermann 9-8 (3). At the No. 3 spot, Virginia freshman Claire Bartlett teamed up with senior Maggie Yahner to defeat Hokie sophomore Yasmin Hamza and senior Abbey Walker 8-4 to secure the doubles point for the host team.

In the singles competition, Fraser guarded her spot at No. 1 on Virginia’s ladder by producing a 6-3, 6-4 win against Virginia Tech’s Beermann. Fraser has continued to show that her minimal amount of college play compared to other players on the squad does not reflect her level of ability.

“I don’t really think about the age or the year of any of the players I’m playing against,” Fraser said. “I try to put all the little details aside and bring everything I have, and hopefully I’ll do well.”

Performing well at the No. 1 position usually is no easy feat for an athlete new to the collegiate world, but Fraser’s persistent attention to detail has aided in the transition. The freshman has been working with the Virginia coaching staff to strengthen every aspect of her game, focusing most on her serve.

“Coming into school, I struggled a lot with my serve,” Fraser said. “Under [Guilbeau’s and assistant coach Troy Porco]’s coaching, it’s really starting to come together more and I’ve been working on it a lot on my own.”

Another freshman who got a taste of victory against the Hokies was Bartlett, who topped her singles opponent Johnson 6-0, 6-1 at the No. 5 slot. Despite her success, Bartlett’s spring season has been a bit more challenging than her teammates’, after only competing in a limited number of matches this fall.

Bartlett “has been everything we were hoping for her to be,” Guilbeau said. “It’s tough because she has to come in here quickly not having quite as much preparation but she’s been unbelievable. What a lot of folks don’t know that aren’t directly involved in the program is the extra work that she’s doing outside of our day-to-day practice.”

In addition to Bartlett and Fraser, Stevens, Hardenbergh, Rales and Vaez all defeated their Virginia Tech opponents in singles competition.

The Cavaliers’ conference schedule continues next weekend as the team faces Georgia Tech and Clemson on the road.

The No. 1 Virginia men’s tennis team traveled to Austin, Texas, Sunday where it defeated No. 10 Texas 4-3. Virginia’s scheduled match Friday against Baylor was cancelled because of rain.

The two teams took a 3-3 tie into doubles to decide the match. For Virginia (18-0, 3-0 ACC), the No. 23 tandem of senior Dominic Inglot and sophomore Michael Shabaz struck first with an 8-6 win against the No. 32 pair of junior Dimitar Kutrovsky and junior Josh Zavala of Texas (11-3). The Longhorns tied the doubles round, however, with an 8-6 win in the No. 3 spot. The match was then decided in the No. 1 slot, in which Virginia’s No. 2 team in the nation, sophomore Sanam Singh and junior Houston Barrick, defeated No. 35 sophomore Ed Corrie and sophomore Kellen Domico.

In singles, the Longhorns took five of the first six sets. Freshman Steven Eelkman Rooda won his first set 7-5, but lost the next two to No. 121 junior Oliver Sajous, 7-6, 6-3.

Texas took the first point of the match in No. 1 singles as No. 17 Kutrovsky defeated No. 18 Inglot, 7-5, 6-4. The Longhorns prevailed in the No. 2 spot as well, as No. 68 Corrie upset No. 16 Shabaz in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4.

Freshman Drew Courtney took the first point for the Cavaliers, winning his 13th consecutive singles match. Courtney bounced back from a 4-6 loss in the first set to junior Josh Zavala, taking the next two, 6-0, 6-3.

Singh tied up the match at 2-2 in another three-set battle. After dropping the first set to No. 125 Kellen Damico, Singh won the next two, 6-3, 6-3 to take the point.

Virginia took a brief lead with its third consecutive point after Barrick triumphed against senior Miguel Reyes Varela in three sets, 3-6, 7-6, 6-3. The Longhorns, however, quickly tied the match with the win against Rooda.

—compiled by Andrew Seidman

No. 9 North Carolina beat the No. 4 women’s lacrosse team 12-8 Saturday in Chapel Hill, N.C.

With the loss, Virginia (5-2, 1-2 ACC) has dropped two of its last three conference games.

The Cavaliers had a difficult time executing because of sloppy weather conditions, as both squads were forced to brave a steady rainfall and accommodate for a puddle-filled field. North Carolina junior goalkeeper Logan Ripley proved tough to handle, as well, as she recorded eight saves for the Tar Heels (5-2, 1-0 ACC), stifling the Cavaliers’ offensive attack. Virginia senior midfielder Blair Weymouth led her team with four goals, while junior midfielder Kaitlin Duff added two goals to go along with a team-high four draw controls.

The Cavaliers will have to recover quickly to take on in-state rival William & Mary at home Tuesday.

—compiled by Ben Gomez

Ben, Second-year College student

Major?
Undeclared

Sexual Orientation?
Straight

What extracurriculars do you participate in?
Sigma Chi Fraternity, Intramural Sports, Habitat for Humanity

What do you like to do in your free time?
Golfing, Road Tripping, Spelunking

What are the physical and personality attributes you are looking for in a date?
Smart enough to understand my jokes (but not smart enough to trick me), outgoing, spontaneous. Not fat or busted.

What are your religious affiliations?
Jewish

What are your favorite TV shows?
Seinfeld, The Office, King of the Hill

What are your favorite movies?
Caddyshack, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men

What music do you like (genres and bands)?
Music: Classic Rock, Country, Southern Rock. Bands: Hill and Wood, Marshall Law, Soiree

What’s your favorite food?
Steak

What are your favorite books and authors?
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Anthem by Ayn Rand, Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy

Describe your ideal date (not person but outing)?
Great dinner followed by a night of inebriated dancing.

What are deal breakers?
Missing chromosomes, missing teeth

Do you smoke?
Hookah

Are you outgoing or shy?
Outgoing

What do you want to do when you graduate?
Make bank

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Working for an advertising firm and preparing for an early retirement consisting of teaching high school economics and coaching track and field.

If you were a member of the circus, who would you be and why?
Cannonball guy, I like simple thrills.

Carly, Second-year College student

Major?
Undecided but interested in pre-commerce. and Spanish

What extracurriculars do you participate in?
I have a horse here and I do Club Polo, kickboxing, Madison House, Intramural Tennis and Outdoors at UVA

What do you like to do in your free time? I
I am a competitive equestrian so a lot of my time is spent riding and taking care of my horse but I also like working out, reading and partying.

What are the physical and personality attributes you are looking for in a date? I
I like someone who is outgoing (I have a pretty strong personality so I need someone who can compete with that), is respectful, has a good sense of humor and is intelligent. Personality is more important than physical attributes but physical attraction is definitely important in a relationship. My “type” would be someone who takes care of themselves (works out), is clean-cut and has a nice smile. I would say preppy but that isn’t really necessary, it’s just who I am usually attracted to. Think Channing Tatum in a polo…O.K., I recognize you probably won’t find him, but if you do, you know who to call.

What are your religious affiliations?
I am Methodist but I am not super religious. I believe in God and all that jazz but I’m not a regular church-goer.

What are your favorite TV shows?
Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Lost, Two and a Half Men, SEINFELD!

What are your favorite movies and actors?
Forrest Gump, Top Gun, Superbad, Knocked Up, Cool Runnings (ya man)

What music do you like?
Light rock but I listen to everything from country to classic. My “loves” are O.A.R., Jack Johnson, The Format, The Fray, John Mayer, oldies, etc.

What’s your favorite food?
I love food. That probably came out as me sounding like a fatass but whatever. I’m a steak and potatoes kinda girl but in general I eat pretty healthy. I love fruit especially berries and as strange as it may sound, I really love cereal.

Are you outgoing or shy?
I am very, very outgoing. I can rein it in but once you get to know me I tend to be rather bold.

What do you want to do when you graduate?
I want to work internationally. Right now I’m thinking about working for a corporation in their overseas department, but who knows where I will actually end up. Grad school is also a possibility.

If you were a member of the circus, who would you be and why?
Ooooh I love this question! I would be an acrobat if it wasn’t for my complete lack of grace. For the purposes of this survey, how about we just disregard that part of me and go with acrobat. You can’t take your eyes off the acrobat because they are always doing something ridiculous and somewhat dangerous and their energy is somewhat contagious.

Ben: I figured it could go two ways — she’d be hot and it’d be a good date, or she’d be ugly and boring and it’d be funny when I talked about it later. But she wasn’t. I pulled up to pick her up outside of Watson [and] I could tell from the street lights she’d look good because she was wearing nice clothes. She had a good coat on. She got in the car. And she looked good.

Carly: He picked me up outside my dorm and I just got in the car. I was running late so I was glad he was running late too. I was getting ready and realized I was supposed to be down there in like two minutes. So it was fine.

Ben: I was two minutes late, but that’s not big deal. She can live with that I think. It wasn’t that cold outside yet. We just said “hi” and talked about how funny it was that she didn’t know who to be looking for, not even what car. I didn’t know who to be looking for but we met up and it worked out fine.

Carly: We drove to the restaurant, an Indian restaurant. We just started talking; I don’t even remember what we were talking about.

Ben: I was a little bit nervous. I had spent the day hanging out with some girls that are really hot. I didn’t go to dinner with them to go on this date so I was a little concerned. I rushed to get there but made myself look really hot, naturally.

Carly: I wasn’t really nervous because I didn’t have a lot invested in the date. I didn’t know him at all, but I was kind of excited. I’ve never been on a blind date before so it was fun. 

Ben: She had never been to an Indian restaurant, but she loves to eat different kinds of food. I recommended something tandoori, so she got tandoori chicken. And I got lamb rogan josh. She said it was good.

Carly: I ordered chicken … tanadoori? I don’t remember. I had never gotten Indian food before so he had to explain the entire eating process to me. But it was pretty delicious. I kept asking him specific preparation questions and made him into the go-to expert for Indian food. Apparently, it was prepared in a special pan. He got some lamb something. There were chunks of meat in some sort of saucy something. I don’t know.

Ben: I normally go to Milan for the lunch buffet so I had never actually ordered Indian food before. But I knew I liked those two dishes. 

Carly: The conversation was good. We talked a lot about a lot of really random things, like random life stories. He’s [in a fraternity], too, so that was good. He did sports in high school and stuff. We’re both thinking about pre-comm. We both like outdoors stuff and we both like to go out. 

Ben: We both seemed to like lots of outdoors things. She thought it was cool that I went hiking. She rides horses and went skydiving and I think that’s pretty cool. We’re both Greek now, because she just pledged. The conversation was good. It felt like normal people talking, which is good for me because I’m not a normal person. We talked about a lot of different things; topics would just flow really easily. There was not much awkwardness and it was fun. The only semi-awkward thing was when I asked her why she signed up for it. Her response was what I expected: she thought it looked fun. I’m assuming she’s pretty happy with how it turned out.

Carly: I had a really good time. I had a lot of fun actually, which I wasn’t anticipating. I thought he was really cute and he was really easy to talk to. He was really nice. Afterwards, he dropped me back off at my dorm because I had to do my stat homework, like a nerd. He was going to some birthday party and invited me too, so I went with him after that. He had a pledge drive us, which was fantastic. I really want one. The party was good. I ran into a bunch of people that I knew, too, which was good because I didn’t really want to be just intruding on his friends. We ran into two of my suitemates. They spoke Hebrew together. It was awesome.

Ben: I had fun. It was more fun later, though. One of my friends called me reminding me about a party he was having at his apartment for one of his roommates, so I asked her if she wanted to go. She just had to finish up some stat homework that was due the next day. So I dropped her off at her dorm and then I got a pledge to take me over to my brother’s apartment. She called me around 11 and I arranged for a ride for me with a pledge to go pick her up. She came back and immediately it turns out that several people there know her and she knows them through her suitemates, so that made it less awkward at first. The night progressed and it became sort of a dance party. We had a good time dancing and stuff. I asked her if she wanted to come back to my apartment. I got a ride from the same pledge back to my apartment with her. On the ride back we listened to country music, which we both like, so that was cool.

Carly: The party was fun. Then we went back to his apartment and it was really fun. I kind of declared it my birthday because my birthday was Monday, so that was cool. It went really well so it seems like an 8.76 [out of ten]. I had a good time. I’m also going to say that I think it’s the best one that’s been in the Cav Daily so far since the main premise of it wasn’t that all we had to talk about was macaroni. I felt like we had a lot in common so that was good. It wasn’t awkward or anything. We were sitting in bed and I said, “You should Facebook friend me.” He just dropped me off the next morning and I don’t know how to phrase it, but I’m assuming I’ll see him some time again, hopefully.

Ben: I was just laughing because I had no idea what The Cavalier Daily was going to think about this. The next morning I gave her one of my shirts and a pair of shorts and drove her back to her dorm. I was going to get breakfast but the Cav Daily didn’t give me enough money. I spent it all on dinner. I wasn’t expecting breakfast. I’m going to give it a 9. I feel like the party we went to could’ve been better. But that’s not my fault. We’re Facebook friends. That happened shortly after I dropped her off. She has my shorts, so… She can have the shirt; it’s a small, it doesn’t fit me. She has my favorite pair of shorts though, so I need them back.

Ben and Carly have texted a few times, but he still hasn’t gotten his shorts back.