COLLEGE PARK, Md.-The Virginia men's lacrosse team can be forgiven for feeling nervous before Friday night's game against Maryland. The Cavs, who were missing their best defenseman, were about to play a team with as much lacrosse tradition as any in the game. Any squad, even one defending a championship, could have had doubts.
However, the No. 2 Cavaliers (5-1, 1-0 ACC) erased any doubts in the second and third quarters of their 11-6 victory over the No. 6 Terrapins (6-2, 1-2). Holding a 3-2 lead at the end of the first quarter, the Cavs scored the next eight goals before Maryland's Jon Kemezis put in a rebound with 8:45 remaining in the game.
That goal marked the Terrapins' first tally since Andrew Combs' goal with 9:20 left in the first quarter. Virginia held Maryland without a shot in the third quarter despite the absence of senior All-American defenseman Ryan Curtis, who cut his right hand in an off-the-field incident last Saturday.
"I felt like I was back in the championship game again," senior defenseman Court Weisleder said. "We were deflecting balls, picking off passes, playing solid defense, sliding, getting. It's the Virginia defense."
"Our whole defense played really well, I think we did a great job," senior attackman Drew McKnight said. Curtis "is a great defenseman, but Mark [Koontz], Court, Richard Reid, Doug Worthen and John Harvey picked up the slack."
The Cavalier defense, playing without their injured star, held Maryland's top three scorers - Mike Mollot, Brian Zeller and Marcus LaChapelle - to no goals and only one assist between them. Matt Urlock led the Terrapins with two goals.
"Without Curtis, our defense just played incredible," sophomore attackman Conor Gill said. "I can't say enough good things about Koontz. He shut down their No. 1 attackman. I see this as maybe a blessing in disguise that we showed that we have some other players that can play besides Curtis. It shows our depth."
McKnight led the Cavs on offense with three goals, two of which came in the decisive 8-0 run, and two assists. Gill and senior midfielder David Bruce each added two goals.
Maryland goalkeeper Pat McGinnis made 27 saves, the most of any Division 1 goalkeeper this season, but was unable to make enough saves to stop the Cavalier onslaught.
"I think we got a lot of good shots all day," Starsia said. "We didn't take a lot of bad shots. We might have missed the cage a couple of times, but [McGinnis] was terrific."
Defense and ball control fueled the Cavalier run with most of the third quarter played in Maryland's defensive end as Terrapin fans chanted, "We want a shot."
"The whole year we've been playing great team defense," Weisleder said. "He was our big stud last year, he's our big stud this year, but our team defense really came together tonight. We all knew we had to step up and play hard, and we were able to shut down their two stud attackmen and things worked out."
The Terps took their only lead of the game in the first quarter at 2-1 and appeared to be in control, but the Cavs soon snatched the momentum back behind McKnight and Gill.
"Maryland brought the energy to the field in the early going, and dominated play in the first ten minutes," Starsia said. "They were working us in the middle of the field. Then I thought we started getting ground balls, started clearing the ball a little better. That made a difference, and I think we just wore them down"
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