2009. The round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament. The Cavaliers are down 2-0 at halftime against Penn State. To everyone present, it looks like the Virginia women’s soccer season is coming to a premature end. That is, to everybody except the players on the Virginia women’s soccer team.

Seemingly against all odds, the Cavaliers rally with six goals in less than 20 minutes to pull off one of the biggest comebacks in school history.

This year, with the Cavaliers heading to Happy Valley to play in the Penn State Invitational, it seems the Nittany Lions want some payback.

“There’s actually an article in our locker room just that they’re ready to play and they want revenge,” senior forward Meghan Lenczyk said. “I think it’s going be tough because they really want to get us back for that game. It’s definitely going to be emotional.”

Virginia is coming off of two very impressive regular season wins, beating Liberty 4-0 and Colgate 6-0 for a combined total of 46 shots, whereas their opponents managed just one. Still, it remains to be seen whether these victories were a result of the Cavaliers’ prowess or just lackluster showings from their opponents.

“I think it’s a little bit of both,” Lenczyk said. “It’s really encouraging to have two big wins like that, but I think there’s a lot we can still learn from both the games. We still have a lot to improve on, and this weekend is going to be a huge test for us.”

The coaches noted that the weekend will serve as a useful tool to evaluate where the team stands at the beginning of the season.

“We’re away from home, we expect a good crowd, so it’ll be a great atmosphere to assess things, and see where we are a little bit,” coach Steve Swanson said. “I think our kids are excited about the challenge up there.”

For the second match of the Invitational, the Cavaliers go up against Connecticut. But with a 0-2 start this season, the Huskies do not seem to present anywhere near the same kind of challenge posed by Penn State.

“I’d say we just take one game at a time,” Lenczyk said. “Right now, our focus is Penn State. After that game, our focus is going to be UConn. I think the way we’re looking at it is it’s just going to be a tough weekend as a whole, but right now, focus on Penn State.”

In addition to their strong performance in the two regular season games, the Cavaliers also have put up some strong results in preseason play, beating then-No. 4 Notre Dame 4-1 and tying James Madison 1-1.

“Notre Dame, that was one of the best we’ve ever played against them and they’re a great team,” Lenczyk said. “I think JMU was a little disappointing, but also, we have to take into account we were tired — we’d just played against Notre Dame. And we’ve learned from that, you know we came back the next day and played better after that.”

That day-to-day improvement is an important factor for Lenczyk, especially when asked about her goals for the weekend.

“Hopefully, winning. That’s what we want, that’s our goal, but I see the team getting better and better every game, and I hope that trend continues throughout the season.”

In 2009, the Cavaliers left the preseason winless. Saturday evening, they look to complete a perfect run through the 2010 preseason, when they will travel to Fairfax, Va. to take on George Mason for their third and final exhibition game.

The first two preseason matches this year saw the defense pick up where it left off last year, with both VCU and VMI struggling to break through Virginia’s lines. With senior Diego Restrepo, a Soccer America preseason all-American, between the goalposts, the Cavaliers have yet to allow a goal.

Virginia’s attack, despite losing several starters from its potent midfield, also has done well in the preseason. Soccer America preseason all-American sophomore forward Will Bates and company kept steady pressure on both opponents, despite struggling to find a consistent finishing touch until the second half of the VMI match, which ended 4-0.

“We’ve defended well,” Virginia coach George Gelnovatch said. “And the other night, we got better at attacking.”

George Mason also has won its first two preseason matches; however, the team is in somewhat of a rebuilding stage. After winning the CAA and advancing to the second round in 2008, the Patriots succeeded in the early stages of the 2009 season. They won seven of their first nine games, including a 2-0 victory over Maryland, ranked No. 2 at the time, before faltering during the closing half of the season.

Virginia plays just four of its 17 regular season matches on the road this year, but the team opens ACC play on the road against No. 10 Duke in little more than two weeks’ time. Still, Gelnovatch hopes the match against the Patriots will help Virginia prepare for its few upcoming road experiences.

“We felt that this would be a good opportunity to put ourselves in kind of a hostile environment,” Gelnovatch said. “They’ll have a couple thousand people there, and it’ll be a tough game for us.”
Junior defender Hunter Jumper said he expects the match to be competitive but added that the team would be ready for the task.

“We’re taking this one as serious as possible because this is our last one before the season gets going,” Jumper said.

Additionally, Gelnovatch said he may use fewer players in the match than in the previous exhibition matches. Virginia has used similar starting lineups in both matches, but nevertheless has used a plethora of substitutes.

“In this game we might not necessarily play everybody,” Gelnovatch said. “We are with each game and each day and week progressing more toward game-like situations, which means you keep your strongest team on the field to win the game.”

After tomorrow’s match at 7 p.m., Virginia will open its regular season at home against the University of Alabama at Birmingham Sept. 3.

The No. 3 Virginia field hockey team kicks off its 2010 campaign this weekend with two tough away games in Pennsylvania. The Cavaliers will face St. Joseph’s in Philadelphia this Saturday and No. 18 Penn State in Happy Valley Sunday.

Led by fifth-year coach Michele Madison, Virginia has high hopes for this season. The team is returning more than half of the starters from last year’s squad, which won a school-record 24 games and made it to the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998. Among the returners are two preseason All-ACC selections, juniors Paige Selenski and Michelle Vittese.

Virginia also returns three U-21 Junior National Team selections: junior Rachel Jennings and sophomore Tara Puffenberger and all-region senior goalkeeper Kim Kastuk, who racked up an average of 0.97 goals-against and eight shutouts last season.

Overall, the Cavaliers were picked to finish third in the ACC behind No. 1 North Carolina — the defending national champion and ACC Tournament champion — and No. 2 Maryland, but Madison believes her squad has what it takes to make it to the top this year.

“The ACC with North Carolina, Maryland and us making the top three — it’s going to be tough,” Madison said. “We open up the 24th with Boston College, and it’s still preseason. It’s nice that we’re ranked that high … But we just have to get work done.”

Madison’s Cavaliers looked good in their only preseason game — a 3-1 home win against No. 12 James Madison. Freshman Elly Buckley scored twice with one assist, while Puffenberger contributed a goal and an assist in the win.

Even so, the squad will have to work hard to live up to expectations this weekend.

“We have to work on possessing the ball and do what we need to do to control possession,” Madison said. “We also have to work on our team defense since we have four or five new players on the field.” St. Joseph’s, who went 7-11 overall but 4-2 in conference play last season, features junior Ellen Rowe — who scored nine goals during the 2009 campaign — and senior Hannah Rogers, who contributed six goals and three assists.

Penn State, meanwhile, boasts a hungry and talented squad eager to improve on last year’s 7-13 overall record. The Nittany Lions feature sophomore Kelsey Amy — who scored eight goals last season — along with redshirt sophomore Hannah Allison and junior Jessica Longstreth, who both added five goals and two assists each.

“Penn State’s always big; they always play us big,” redshirt junior midfielder Boyd Vicars said. “It’ll be a good match to start off the season with.”

The Saturday game in Philadelphia starts at 11 a.m., while the Sunday game in Happy Valley begins at noon. The Cavaliers will then return home to face Old Dominion the following Sunday.

The Virginia volleyball team will kick off its season this weekend when the squad travels to Philadelphia to take part in the Temple Invitational. A grueling challenge awaits the Cavaliers, who are set to butt heads with Valparaiso, Delaware and Temple within a two-day span.

After a long offseason, Virginia finally was able to put its skills to the test this past weekend in the Orange-Blue Scrimmage, an intrasquad competition to gauge their progress made during the summer months. With a good portion of the team new to Virginia, the scrimmage gave coach Lee Maes and his new assistant Jenny Andrew an opportunity to try out different lineups and get a better idea of the direction in which their team is heading.

“It was so nice to see so many moving parts and changes with regards to the lineup and how cohesive we still were with all the changes that we made,” Maes said.

Even though the game was only scrimmage, the players still showcased plenty of hustle on the court.

“We were definitely challenging one another on the court, which is always a sign that the team has a lot of depth,” sophomore outside hitter Jessica O’Shoney said, who put on an impressive performance in the scrimmage, leading the team with 13 kills and seven blocks.

This weekend, O’Shoney and the rest of the squad simply will have to concentrate on how well they can play the fundamentals of the game.

“Ultimately it’s going to come down to who’s going to be the most efficient — efficient in the serve and pass game, and efficient in terms of hitting,” Maes said.

Moreover, without any knowledge of what the weekend’s opponents play like, Virginia also will rely on the experience of its three seniors: middle Sydney Hill, defensive specialist A.J. Cushman and right-side hitter Kendahl Voelker.

This may be particularly true for this afternoon’s road matchup against Valparaiso, which boasts nine letter-winning returners, meaning that inexperience is not likely to be a problem. Moreover, coach Carin Avery is looking for her 250th career victory with the season-opener.

The Cavaliers then will face off against Delaware, another experienced squad, the following day. The Blue Hens look to duplicate their success from a year ago, when they captured the CAA regular season championship. They will be led by senior captains Jess Chason and Greta Gibboney, setter and defensive specialist, respectively.
Nevertheless, the Cavaliers refuse to be intimidated by their opponents, regardless of how accomplished they may be.
“We focus on concepts that we expect from every team we’ll play [in preparation],” Maes said.
Following Saturday afternoon’s game versus Delaware, Virginia will take on Temple at 7 p.m. The Owls return four starters but ended the 2009 season with a mediocre overall record of 14-12.
“I’m most excited to see different competition this weekend,” O’Shoney said.

Senior golfer Amory Davis made some noise in Washington at the 2010 U.S. Amateur Championship Wednesday when he downed 47-year-old Jeff Wilson, the tournament’s top seed. Davis defeated Wilson 3 and 1 to advance to Thursday’s round of 32, in which he was eliminated from the tournament 3 and 2 by Brad Benjamin.

Despite the loss, Davis can take pride in simply participating in the match-play portion of the event. Wednesday morning, he competed in a playoff featuring 16 players fighting for six spots in match play. Five players promptly birdied the par-4 10th hole while Davis managed only a par, leaving him among eight players vying for one final spot in the 64-man field. Davis came up clutch on the 460-yard 11th hole, sticking a five-iron close to the pin and converting his birdie putt to advance.

Just a few hours later, he went up against five-time USGA medalist Wilson, who became the first stroke-play medalist to lose in the first round of match play since 2001. It capped an extremely long day for Davis, who started off that morning with a 7:15 a.m. tee time and ended it around 7 p.m. in the last group to finish.

Davis and his fellow Cavalier teammates kick off their season Sept. 26 at the Fall Preview hosted by Oklahoma State.

This fall, Congressman Tom Perriello, D-Charlottesville, will face his first incumbent challenge since unseating the then-incumbent Virgil Goode in 2008.

Perriello — who plans to emphasize area campaigning in the run-up to November — reiterated the importance of votes from college-age supporters during a University Democrats meeting Wednesday evening. “[He] is relying on us in this campaign as much as he did in the last,” said Maddie Ward, a member of the University Democrats who attended the meeting.

Perriello also reminded attendees of his narrow, 727-vote victory in 2008, adding that this race would be “a test case whether people really meant what they did a year-and-a-half ago.”

The University Democrats have been actively working alongside the Tom Perriello for Congress campaign, which will move its location to the Corner to promote increased student involvement.

College Republicans Chair Loren Monk said her organization would be putting in plenty of hours to support Perriello’s opponent, State Sen. Robert Hurt, R-Chatham. The group will volunteer three times a week to spread the word about Hurt’s campaign to the surrounding Charlottesville community.

Monk added that the club “also hopes to bring Sen. Hurt to the University this fall so that students can hear more about his ideas for the fifth district.”

Hurt’s campaign office was unavailable for comment.

University Democrats President Adam Gillenwater said his organization has seen an increase in enthusiasm for this election compared to the last, and he predicts another Perriello win.

Nevertheless, Isaac Wood, media relations coordinator for the Center for Politics and a former Cavalier Daily opinion columnist, said the election for the fifth district is going to be another toss-up race.

Wood called the election in 2008 “extremely close,” and added that this year, despite Perriello’s incumbency, the congressman may not have an easy time of it.

“The pendulum has swung the other direction and Democrats are going to be on the defensive,” he said.

Polls show that the candidates are nearly dead-even in their support currently.