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Cavaliers aim to uphold rich history

As postseason looms, Myers, players reflect on tourney's impact

The National Lacrosse Hall of Fame inducted five men as its inaugural class in 1957. In fact, in each of the Hall’s first 35 years of existence, only men joined the sport’s most cherished institution. Though Rosabelle Sinclair gathered the first women’s college lacrosse team at Bryn Mawr in 1926, the Hall did not recognize a female star until her induction in 1992.

Women’s college lacrosse has grown exponentially since the days of Sinclair. Thirty-one years after the sport’s first NCAA Tournament, 100 schools now compete at the Division I level. But as the women’s college lacrosse universe expands, however, it has become increasingly difficult for traditional powers such as Virginia to claim the sport’s top prize: a national championship.

“You know, back when I played at Virginia and won a national championship as a player and then as an assistant, there were only maybe four or five legitimately good teams that could actually challenge for a championship,” Virginia coach Julie Myers said. “[Now] the coaches are doing a better job; there’s so many more athletes that they can coach. So, I’ve just seen the parity in the Tournament grow every year.”

This year, the NCAA Tournament will expand from 16 to 26 teams, with 13 schools receiving at-large bids. No. 16 Virginia (8-8, 1-4 ACC) could benefit from the move. The Cavaliers began the season ranked No. 8 in the IWLCA Coaches Poll but have slipped eight spots since then, and Myers said that only wins against No. 9 Duke and No. 1 Maryland in this week’s ACC Tournament would guarantee her team’s place in the field.

Virginia, despite its uneven season, believes an extended NCAA Tournament run is not yet out of reach. Having played in the 2011 Tournament at Florida and in last year’s at Virginia, senior defender Lelan Bailey understands the keys to success in the postseason.

“The majority of the game is won in the practices and the planning and the film-watching,” Bailey said. “The preparation for the game is going to be huge.”

Myers, Virginia’s head coach since 1996, has a deep knowledge of NCAA Tournament lacrosse. Confronted with the diabolical task of following legendary coach Jane Miller, whose Virginia teams captured two national championships and reached six Final Fours in her 12 years at the helm, Myers has guided the Cavaliers to 17 tournament appearances in her tenure.

Virginia, however, has encountered more heartbreak than elation at season’s end. Other than a 2004 title game triumph against Princeton, the Cavaliers have dropped each of their other championship tilts under Myers, including losses to Maryland in three of her first four years as head coach. Virginia last reached the championship in 2007, when the third-ranked Cavaliers succumbed, 15-13, to No. 1 Northwestern.

“It’s so hard,” Myers said. “I mean, there are so many years we got to a championship game … but to get there, I think you appreciate getting there after the fact.”

In addition to drawing on the lessons from those heartbreaks, Myers still attempts to instill the qualities that propelled her 2004 team to championship-winning glory in her team today.

“It was a year that we had to grind out a lot of games early on, and we just kept saying, ‘Stay with it, and we’ll get better, and a one-goal win is still a win, and let’s just keep building and moving forward,” Myers said.

In recent years, however, Virginia’s runs in the Tournament have ended much more abruptly, with the team advancing to the second round only once since 2007. This year, were it not for a 10-5 win against Virginia Tech in their regular season finale, the Cavaliers would be in true must-win mode entering Thursday’s game against Duke.

“To get in would be, you know, something that we’ve kind of always taken for granted,” Myers said. “I think this year now we realize how special it is, so we’re going to do everything we can to make sure this isn’t our first year of being left out in the last 20 years or so.”

For Virginia’s seniors, this year’s NCAA Tournament marks the last chance to join the pantheon of Cavalier greats in a rapidly expanding sport. In the end, however, Bailey regards this Tournament more as a chance to savor her experiences than one to bolster her legacy.

“I want to win because it’s the last time to be with this team — the team of 2013,” Bailey said. “We’ve been through so much; that’s why it means a lot to me. It’s because it’s the last time I’ll ever get to compete with my best friends.”

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