With The Cavalier Daily wrapping up its production for the semester and the school year drawing to a close, it seems as if Virginia spring sports should be finishing up, too, right? Well, as Lee Corso says on College GameDay, not so fast my friend.
While students head to the beach, take up summer jobs, or simply catch up on some much-needed sleep following a taxing school year, many Cavalier athletes will continue to grind out at least another month’s worth of practice — whether it be on the field, the court, or the diamond. Their postseason results might get lost in the layover between the spring and fall semesters, but that is not to say they deserve to be entirely disregarded.
To save students the trouble of keeping tabs on their Cavaliers during the break, The Cavalier Daily called in a special sports’ psychic to predict the final outcomes for the orange-and-blue’s spring teams. Due to high fees for foreseeing the future, however, postseason predictions had to be scaled down, and only the Big Three — men’s lacrosse, men’s tennis, and baseball — were fortunate enough to have their postseason plans forecast by our hired seer.
Will the future hold triumph or despair? Victory or defeat? Trophies or tears? Without further ado, let’s take a peer into the crystal ball and see what’s in store for the Cavaliers.
Men’s Lacrosse
In allowing six Syracuse goals in the fourth quarter, playing an epic seven overtimes against conference rival Maryland and entering the final period tied with unranked Dartmouth in the regular season finale, No. 1 Virginia has lived on the edge all season. While the Cavaliers managed to squeak out “Ws” in all three nailbiters and have dropped only one game this season — on the road against Duke — Wahoo fans have nevertheless found themselves sweating through the team’s nine-weeks atop the national rankings.
Murmurs of an undefeated spring rippled through Grounds at the season’s outset, but with the loss against the Blue Devils — who boast a perfect 6-0 record against the Cavaliers during their recent meetings — and the team’s failure to focus for a full 60 minutes, Virginia’s spot on the top rung appears shaky at best.
What will this mean come postseason time? Although coach Dom Starsia has proven during his 16 years at the helm that he is more than capable of peaking his squad at just the right moment, this latest edition of the Cardiac Cavs could be on a different playoff track.
Virginia may boast all the talent required of national champions, but its luck is bound to run out. In 2007, the then-No. 3 Cavaliers lost only two games in the regular season but were tripped up by No. 15 Delaware in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. The plucky Fightin’ Blue Hens took advantage of a sluggish start by the defending national champions, dealing sleepy Virginia a stupefying 14-8 loss at home.
Cavalier fans might want to do themselves a favor and brace for a similar outcome this spring. Before looking to the NCAA Tournament, Virginia must first worry about an ACC semifinal matchup against Duke this Friday. Duke evidently has Virginia’s number, and unfortunately for the Cavaliers, this will lead to an early exit in the conference tournament and a slightly lower seed in NCAAs. A first round stumble against a smaller, quicker, simply more inspired first round opponent — à la Delaware — will end Virginia’s bid for a fifth team title and will finally push the Cavaliers off their tightrope into an offseason abyss that will see four starters graduate from this year’s team.
Men’s Tennis
This wasn’t supposed to be Virginia’s year. The Cavaliers had their shot last spring, when — after waltzing through the regular season schedule largely uncontested with arguably the greatest player in collegiate tennis history conducting the tune of the perfection — coach Brian Boland’s squad emerged as the clear-cut favorite to take home the program’s first national championship. An inopportune slipup against Georgia in the national semifinals left Virginia empty-handed at season’s end, however, and the graduation of three of the top six from the nearly-perfect 2008 squad signaled the passing of the Cavaliers’ halcyon days.
Virginia was apparently not informed of this, though, as rather than crying over spilled milk, the Cavaliers have rebounded from last year’s setback by putting together their second straight unblemished regular season. Rising to No. 1 in the country after winning the National Team Indoor title for a second straight year, the Cavaliers followed up that stunning performance with a road win against No. 10 Texas — a preseason favorite to win the national championship. The team has compiled a 45-match win streak in the ACC and enters the NCAA Tournament fresh off claiming its third straight conference crown via three 4-0 sweeps in the ACC Tournament.
Although the team’s results thus far might sound eerily familiar, fans need not fear a similar May disappointment. This year’s installment of unbeaten Virginia might not boast Somdev Devvarman at the top of its lineup, but it does, however, possess the depth that last season’s squad lacked. The Cavaliers have proven their dominance in doubles, having dropped only one doubles point all season, and the team’s strength lies in its top-to-bottom attack.
Unlike the men’s lacrosse team, Virginia shouldn’t be tripped up in the early rounds of tennis’ Big Dance. As long as four points are all that’s needed to hoist the national championship trophy May 19 in College Station, Texas, senior captain Dominic Inglot and co. will be able to get the job done this time around.
Baseball
If less was expected of the Virginia men’s tennis team this season than last, the bar was set even lower for the Cavaliers on the diamond, as the young squad toed the mound at the start of the spring inexperienced, unproven and unranked. Nineteen Virginia wins later, however, and the green Cavaliers found themselves off to the best start in program history, ranked No. 18 in the national polls and one of only two unbeaten teams remaining in Division I.
While the squad dropped series to ACC baseball powerhouses Miami and North Carolina in heartbreaking fashion, it did pick up a big win on the road in its most recent series against Boston College. The remainder of the regular season should be smoother sailing for the Cavaliers, as they face softer ACC foes N.C. State and Duke at home during the next two weekends before closing with a three-game road series against struggling in-state rival Virginia Tech.
This doesn’t mean, however, that the general wear-and-tear from a 54-game schedule won’t begin to take its toll on a team unused to playing such a lengthy season. While the Cavalier bats were bound to cool off a little after their red-hot start, the arms of the Virginia bullpen have begun to show signs of fatigue recently. Last year’s national ERA title winner Matt Packer has seen his ERA balloon to 4.55, and Cavalier relievers have proven shaky at best in late game situations.
Despite a newfound ability to hit the long ball — Virginia has already slugged 13 more home runs than it managed all last season — the Cavaliers still aren’t quite ready to embark on the road to Omaha for the College World Series. The team has never advanced past the regional round in eight appearances, and this season will again see the No. 13 Cavaliers struggle to dispel the demons of postseasons past. As has been a common theme in Virginia’s losses this spring, the squad will jump out early but see its lead evaporate late. The Cavaliers might manage one win in the round robin play, but for the sixth consecutive season, they will fail to make it to the elusive NCAA Super Regional. Wahoo fans need not despair, however, as this was never meant to be Virginia’s year anyway. Next spring, the Cavaliers will be one year older and will have all the tools needed to make a long-awaited trip to Omaha.
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