Two of the athletes had been discharged as of Monday morning. The remaining four were in fair condition as of Monday. All are expected to make a full recovery, according to the release.

The medical center could not confirm Tuesday evening whether any additional players had been released from the hospital without their names.

The women showed symptons of rhabdomyolysis, a muscle disorder that causes a breakdown of muscle fibers and releases a protein called myoglobin into the bloodstream, which can cause kidney damage and in extreme cases, kidney failure.

Trainers evaluated the team for symptoms after one athlete complained of not feeling well, according to the release. None has kidney damage, according to media reports.

The names of the six players have not been released.

Christopher Kaeding, the head team physician for OSU’s athletic department, did not immediately return The Lantern’s request for comment Tuesday evening.

In January 2011, 13 football players at the University of Iowa developed the disorder after overexertion during a squat-lifting workout.

A report cleared coaches, players, physicians and trainers for wrongdoing but recommended the strenuous workout that contributed to the hospitalizations be dropped from training.

All 13 players made full recoveries.

The women’s lacrosse team did not have games this weekend. They next play at Canisius in Buffalo, N.Y., Sunday at 1 p.m.

Immediate inquires as to whether any of the affected athletes will play in Sunday’s game were not returned.

Or, at least, that’s the way his daughter sees it.

Assistant women’s lacrosse coach Amanda Belichick, 27, said her father has become an OSU fan since she started coaching at OSU.

She said it helps that her father also has close ties to OSU football coach Urban Meyer and former Patriots linebacker Mike Vrabel, now the defensive line coach at OSU.

Many of her father’s former assistants have moved toward the college ranks.

“I think with Bill O’Brien going to Penn State, he’s (her father) spreading his wings in the college world,” she said. “It’s great to see that Patriots connection out here.”

While her father is known for being rather short with the media, Amanda Belichick, a graduate of Wesleyan University, spoke candidly about growing up as the daughter of an NFL coach.

“People give him a hard time for not divulging too much information, but that’s, you know, not his job,” Amanda Belichick said.

Growing up as the daughter as one of the most successful coaches in NFL history, one might assume that coaching would be a natural progression for Amanda Belichick.

“I have a lot of memories of watching him breakdown film and drawing out plays and analyzing a game plan,” she said.

But she said she hadn’t even considered coaching until after graduating from Wesleyan University in 2007 when she took a job coaching high school lacrosse, soccer and ice hockey at a boarding school in Connecticut.

“I worked in the admissions office and it was kind of my full-time job,” she said. “What I loved about that job, and coaching was such a small part of it, was the coaching.”

She stuck with lacrosse because it was something that she had been around her entire life.

“We’ve always been a lacrosse family,” she said. “It’s been my passion, it’s one of his (her father) passions.”

Amanda Belichick followed coach Alexis Venechanos to OSU from the University of Massachusetts where the pair helped lead the Minutewomen to an Atlantic-10 championship in 2010.

Now that she is in coaching, having an NFL head coach for a father does have its advantages, she said.

“I’ve really had an opportunity to work with him and talk about preparation and really evolve the way I prepare for my own, whether its practice or evaluating ourselves or evaluating our opponents,” she said. “Those are things that I’ve really been able to take from him.”

But Amanda Belichick said her and her father’s relationship goes beyond coaching.

“There are a lot of things that are personal that have nothing to do with sports that we can connect on,” she said.

These topics include things like movies, books and a passion for history, she said.

Amanda Belichick joked that during the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, she can only reach her father in the very early morning or very late at night.

She said during a week like this she understands he’s busy and never tries to hold him up.

When the ball is kicked off Sunday from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Ind., Amanda Belichick said she will be watching with the same nervous excitement that she watches all her father’s big games with.

“You want the best for your father and you want to see him be successful,” she said. “I know how hard he works. To see him go out and win games is great.”

The Patriots organization and the OSU women’s lacrosse team did not immediately respond to The Lantern’s request for comment.

The Patriots and New York Giants will play in Super Bowl XLVI at 6:30 p.m., Sunday.

Tight end Jake Ballard and center Jim Cordle are both former Buckeyes and are on the Giants’ active roster.

In the eyes of the Cavaliers, redemption will be realized only once they forge past an obstacle that has derailed them each of the past three years — the national semifinals. Even then, this embattled No. 2 Virginia team will not be truly satisfied until it acquires a championship trophy that has eluded its grasp since 2006.

“We’re definitely aware that no one on this team has won a national championship,” junior captain attackman Steele Stanwick said. “The fact that we’ve come up short in the past few years is definitely tough to swallow, but we’re going to use that as motivation to just work harder this year.”

Last May, the Cavaliers were surrounded by negativity. That fateful month began with the highly publicized arrest of George Huguely, a senior midfielder accused of murdering women’s lacrosse player Yeardley Love. The month ended with a last-second loss to eventual national champion Duke in the national semifinal, marking Virginia’s third consecutive year of failure at that stage of the NCAA Tournament.

With the bitter taste of May’s setbacks still lingering, the talent-filled Cavaliers seek to rectify their fortunes with a strong 2011 lineup featuring 28 returning lettermen and seven starters from last year’s team.

The strength of this year’s squad lies in its experienced midfield. Senior captain John Haldy will join the Bratton twins in a first-line midfield whose combination of speed, strength and athleticism should present problems to any opponent. Seniors Shamel and Rhamel Bratton — both high picks in January’s Major League Lacrosse Draft — were two of the best all-around midfielders in college lacrosse last year, and their skills only have sharpened heading into this season. Seniors Brian McDermott and Garett Ince also will again assume face-off duties.

Virginia, which returns nine of its top 10 goal scorers from 2010, also looks to reap the benefits of a formidable attack. Junior Chris Bocklet scored 53 goals last season to become the first Cavalier to score more than 50 goals since Doug Knight’s 56 goals in 1996; he will join Stanwick up front. Stanwick, who tallied a team-best 32 assists last year, again will seek to quarterback the offense in both settled and extra-man situations. The final attacking spot could be filled by any one of three sophomores — Matt White, Connor English or Matt Cockerton.

Goalkeeping responsibilities will fall on senior All-American Adam Ghitelman, who will start between the pipes for the fourth straight year. Ghitelman’s experience anchors a somewhat untested defense that appears to be the team’s biggest question mark. After allowing only 8.22 goals per game against the country’s toughest schedule in 2010, this year’s team will need to replace two All-Americans on the close defense and two in the defensive midfield. Returning redshirt junior starter Matt Lovejoy will join the likes of sophomore Harry Prevas, who played a mix of long-stick midfield and close defense last year. Senior captain Bray Malphrus will bring his experience and discipline to the table, as well.

The Cavaliers again will grind through arguably the most brutal schedule in college lacrosse. They will collide with seven of the other nine teams ranked in the preseason top 10, including another early season matchup against No. 1 Syracuse. If both squads enter the March 4 contest unscathed, it will mark the third straight year the two schools have squared off as the country’s top two teams. Virginia won last year’s battle in Charlottesville 11-10, but this year they will compete in the Carrier Dome, where the crowd might exceed 15,000.

This year’s home schedule is highlighted by two ACC contests, a showdown against No. 4 Maryland at Scott Stadium April 2 and a matchup against No. 3 North Carolina April 9.

The other bull’s eye on the team’s schedule will be an April 16 showdown at Duke, the veritable thorn in Virginia’s side for the past several years. The Blue Devils have claimed 10 of the last 11 meetings between the two schools, including last year’s 14-13 Final Four victory. Duke returns 29 lettermen and six starters from last year’s championship team, but they will have to replace six of their top eight goal scorers.

But even with all the intrigue the future holds, Virginia coach Dom Starsia insisted his players need to stay grounded in the here and now.

“There are no guarantees about the end of the season,” Starsia said. “All we can do is take care of today and this coming weekend. I’m not going to obsess about it right now.”

In addition to chasing a national championship, the defending ACC champion Cavaliers also will strive to make Starsia the most prolific coach in Division I history. With 316 career wins, the Virginia skipper only needs 11 victories to surpass legendary coach Jack Emmer on the all-time wins list.

The Cavaliers will kick off the 2011 campaign at Klöckner Stadium at 5 p.m. tomorrow against Drexel, the 10th consecutive year Virginia has opened its season against the Dragons. Virginia owns a 9-1 all-time record against Drexel, which is ranked as high as 16 in one poll.

“Drexel had a great year last year, and they nearly had an argument to be in the NCAA tournament,” Starsia said. “[They have] two 40-point scorers on the attack and two all-conference long poles and a third-team All-American goalie. Those are the kind of things you need to be successful. We’re going to have to play our best lacrosse, and that’s what we expect of ourselves.”

With expectations higher than ever, the Cavaliers must dig deep this season to rekindle the program’s glory. In the meantime, though, the road to the Final Four, where they have competed in nine of the past 12 years, begins Saturday.

“I just look at the bottom-line, and we haven’t won yet,” Malphrus said. “I personally would say that we haven’t lived up to what we are capable of achieving yet. I think that this year we have a very good chance of living up to that standard.”

Perhaps the best measure of how last spring’s alleged murder has affected the image and future of the program will be reflected in Starsia’s ability to recruit the same top-notch talent that has helped Virginia win three national titles and reach 12 final fours during his 19-year tenure.

“I would say it probably did affect recruiting, but probably in a more subtle way than people would suspect,” Starsia said.

The very notion that a University student could commit such an act has caused people who know Huguely to revisit the “play hard, party hard” label that became associated with the sport during the 2006 Duke lacrosse scandal, in which three men’s players were accused of rape before later being declared innocent. This kind of attention may put Starsia’s program at a disadvantage as he competes with recruiters such as North Carolina coach Joe Breschi and Johns Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala for the nation’s best high-school players.

The culture
Andrew Sharp, an editor for Sports Blog Nation and Boston College graduate, witnessed firsthand the lacrosse culture in the Washington, D.C.-Maryland area — a traditional recruiting hotbed for top college programs. Sharp attended St. Albans School in Washington and traveled in similar social circles as Huguely, who went to Sharp’s rival high school, Landon. Although Sharp did not play lacrosse for St. Albans, he observed the way Huguely and other lacrosse prodigies acted toward others. His critique of lacrosse culture is the result of his experience growing up in a place where lacrosse is king, and people like Huguely sit on the throne.

In the aftermath of Love’s death, Sharp described in his blog the role lacrosse may have played in shaping Huguely’s character. Earlier this month, he explained his experience with lacrosse culture in an interview with The Cavalier Daily.

“Much of the wealth and power in America gets passed down through generations. Growing up immersed in that sort of luxury, it’s hard to find much diversity of thought among your peers, and it’s pretty natural to be a little entitled,” Sharp said.

Participation in the sport requires a significant financial investment — six of the country’s top 10 high-school lacrosse programs are private institutions where students pay an average of $23,173 per year in tuition. Players and their families also must buy expensive equipment and have time to travel on the road.

Growing up rich and attending an expensive private school does not turn people into criminals, however. Although college often provides an opportunity for most elite private school graduates to expand their horizons, Sharp said many lacrosse players simply confirm their provincial perspectives in similar closed, homogeneous social circles when they step on campus.

“Even athletes that play football and basketball will encounter teammates from all over the country, with vastly different perspectives on life,” Sharp said. “Among lacrosse teams at elite schools — most of whom draw from a pool of wealthy talent from the same regions every year — that’s not always true.”

But others note that it is common for any student to associate with others from a similar background, and it may be unfair to single out lacrosse players for this behavior.

The alleged murder is not the only incident that worries Sharp. In the aftermath of the incident, The Washington Post reported that eight of the 41 players on the Virginia men’s lacrosse team — nearly 20 percent of the roster — had been charged with alcohol-related offenses during their careers at Virginia. The charges include underage alcohol possession, using a fake ID and driving while intoxicated. By comparison, the Post reported, only two Maryland players and one Georgetown player had charges.

The figure is also magnified by the fact that it appears Virginia men’s lacrosse players have been charged with alcohol-related offenses at a far greater rate than the general student body. University Judiciary Committee data from spring 2008 to spring 2009 indicates that 175 of the total 13,947 undergraduate students at the University had alcohol-related offenses — a mere .01 percent. The comparison, of course, is not perfect — for example, the lacrosse offenses occurred during a four-year period.

Susan Bruce, director of the University’s Gordie Center for Alcohol and Substance Education, said a forthcoming NCAA study indicates that 17 percent of student-athletes never use alcohol, compared to 15.7 percent of non-athletes. Those student-athletes who do drink, however, drink more often than non-athletes and are more likely to engage in risky behavior such as driving under the influence, Bruce said, adding that they are more likely to endorse the “work hard, party hard” ethic.

“I think that the sport … can serve as an incubator for behavior that can be pretty destructive,” Sharp said. “Whether it’s depression, anger or substance dependencies, I think it’s important to think about what role lacrosse culture played in either burying those problems — until they boiled over — or exacerbating them. It’s not to say it could only happen with lacrosse, but, ‘this could have happened to normal students’ isn’t a good enough reason to dismiss lacrosse as a potential factor.”

Nevertheless, Sharp emphasized that he knows several players who have broken the mold and carried out healthy college lifestyles. Still, he believes lacrosse culture should be reexamined by all involved in the sport.

“I would say that lacrosse should be a part of the conversation,” St. Albans coach Malcolm Lester said. “Does that mean lacrosse is to blame for [those] various ills? It’s hard to say, but again, it is worth discussing.”

Steve Stenersen, president and CEO of U.S. Lacrosse, rejects the notion that lacrosse fosters the kind of behavior Huguely partook in.

“Nobody is immune to inter-partner violence,” he said. ”That is a situation that is certainly not limited to lacrosse — it is widespread across our society.”

Richard Lapchick, director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports, echoed that sentiment. Since the early 1990s, he has studied the relationship between athletes and sexual assault and claims that athletes are not disproportionately represented among sex offenders.

College coaches, meanwhile, insist that although lacrosse players engage in social activities, their behavior is not much different than that of typical college students.

“I think you’ll find lacrosse players across the board are pretty average young men in that respect,” Duke coach John Danowski said.

Following Duke’s path?
Nearly five years ago, the Duke lacrosse scandal shook the sport to its bones. The Duke case is different from Virginia’s in many ways — more than one person was charged with a crime; all those charges were dismissed; and racial overtones made the scandal even worse in the public eye. In both cases, however, the sport was brought under severe scrutiny, particularly in regard to substance abuse. After three Duke players were charged with rape, reports emerged that 15 players — about one-third of the team — had faced prior alcohol-related charges.

The perception of Duke lacrosse changed dramatically. After coach Mike Pressler was forced to resign, Danowski was introduced as the new head coach. Even though he was given a blank slate, he said, recruits still turned away. His first recruiting class was not ranked in Inside Lacrosse’s top-10 list.

Danowski said the scandal likely affected his recruitment efforts.

“I can’t say for sure that I know of anyone in particular [who turned away], but I gotta believe that there was,” he said. “I gotta believe there were people who said, ‘We’re not even gonna look that way.’”

In fact, of the seven players offered scholarships for the 2007 Duke freshman class, four opted out of their commitments, including former Virginia All-American Ken Clausen.

Virginia, on the other hand, kept every commitment after last spring’s alleged murder, and Starsia has recruited top talent for next year’s class. Ryan Tucker, a midfielder at Gilman High School in Maryland, may be the most heralded of the class. Gilman coach Brooks Matthews, who also coached current Virginia sophomore defenseman Harry Prevas, said the incident has not damaged Virginia’s reputation.

“I don’t think that kids are looking any less at U.Va.,” he said. “U.Va. is a place that recruits you. You don’t recruit U.Va.”

Lester, who is sending defenseman Albert Kammler to Virginia in the fall, said he would have been less likely to send a recruit to Virginia if the program handled Love’s death in the wrong way. Specifically, if the athletic department or lacrosse team had become insular or defiant about the alleged murder, he would have had misgivings about Virginia.

“There was a lot of transparency,” Lester said. “I think that particular situation — it’s hard not to look at it and say it was an isolated incident.”

A work in progress
Perhaps the strongest defense Virginia may have against negative perception of the program is its head coach. Five prominent coaches or figures in the lacrosse community interviewed for this story said Starsia’s reputation as a leader will protect the program from decline in the wake of the alleged murder.

Danowski said Starsia’s reputation as a family man, his tremendous amount of success on the field and the fact that his players appear to love him will help Virginia move forward.

“They love their style of play, the fact that they’re successful [and] they love their university,” Danowski said. “All those things combined, that’s not gonna go away.”

Although Athletic Director Craig Littlepage acknowledged that rumors surfaced concerning Starsia’s job security, he said he never considered firing the coach. Rather, Littlepage said Starsia received a great deal of support from the administration, players, alumni and parents.

Littlepage said he did not feel the need to provide reassurances to recruits that the program was stable.

“I never felt there was vulnerability with our program’s standing with prospective student-athletes,” Littlepage said in an interview. “Our program is defined by what it has achieved over the previous 20 or so years. Coach Starsia’s history, his team’s success and his handling of a wide range of situations at U.Va. are the best indicators of what he is about as the leader of our program and as an educator.”

Starsia did touch base with his players and incoming recruits after the tragedy but said such communication was nothing out of the ordinary.

In that same vein, Landon coach Rob Bordley, who coached Huguely in high school, said the alleged murder has not fractured the school’s relationship with Virginia.

And if the Duke case is a true parallel, it is worth noting that Danowski transformed his program from a public pariah in 2006 to a championship team in 2010.

Still, the grieving process has not entirely subsided for Virginia lacrosse players. The men’s head coach is no exception.

“There’s no easy answer here, no easy solution,” Starsia said. “Coaches are notorious for saying everything’s a work in progress … for us emotionally, in a lot of different ways, this is clearly a work in progress.”

The roster was finalized after a highly selective three-day tryout period at U. Maryland from July 30 to Aug. 1.

Though the tryouts ran similarly to those in previous years, changes in the U.S. program’s format shrunk the squad down from the usual 48 members to only 36 for this year’s team, Wills said.

Previously, the women’s national team consisted of two 24-member teams — one elite and one developmental, according to Wills.

The smaller roster placed additional pressure on the athletes and made for stiffer competition among newcomers and veterans alike, Wills said.

Having been a member of the team since 2007, Wills said that it was refreshing to return to the competitive setting as a veteran.

“Even though there were World Cup team members there, this was a new staff and new system so nothing was ever promised,” she said.

Olsen, a defender, joins the national team this year after playing on the developmental squad last year.

“There were going to be fewer people who were going to make [the team this year],” Olsen said. “[Tryouts] were more competitive, but it was pretty cool because you know when you made it, you made the national team, instead of developmental or elite.”

U.S. head coach Ricky Fried — who also serves as women’s lacrosse head coach at Georgetown U. — and other collegiate coaches whittled the final roster down to 36 after evaluating 80 potential players in scrimmages and drills, Wills said.

The U.S. team program has four primary squads — a men’s and women’s national team as well as a men’s and women’s under-19 team, according to the U.S. Lacrosse website. Athletes try out annually for their spots on the teams. U.S. players will prepare for the upcoming 2013 Federation of International Lacrosse World Cup, although no spot is guaranteed because the U.S. roster changes every year, according to Olsen.

The United States will look to defend its title in 2013 after winning the 2009 World Cup — the most recent championship — with an 8-7 victory over Australia. No stranger to the international stage, Wills led the 2009 team and was named Player of the Match after the cutthroat final against the Aussies.

Instead of playing games against international teams this year, the U.S. national squad will play elite Division I schools, according to Olsen. These games are “challenging,” Olsen said, because the players practice together on a daily basis, while the U.S. national squad does not hold practices nearly as often. While at Dartmouth, Wills — a three-time All-American and four-time All-Ivy League goalkeeper — led the Big Green to the national championship game during her senior season.

Wills ranks second on the Big Green’s all-time list in saves with 538 and started 70 of a possible 71 games during her undergraduate career. She has since built upon the fundamentals learned at Dartmouth, she said, and credits her international success to the efforts of Big Green head coach Amy Patton.

“Dartmouth has always been where it all started,” she said. “[Patton] always gave me the preparation and support needed to make the squad.”

Like Wills, Olsen also cited her experience playing lacrosse at Dartmouth as a key to her success on the national competitive level.

“We have some of the best defensive coaches in Division I,” she said. “I learned so much from them in game sense, communication, discipline — all the right things to do on defense that I think a lot of the other players haven’t been taught. I think I was one of the best-prepared players [at tryouts].”

Olsen added that the high caliber of her teammates’ playing ability also prepared her for national success.

“Going against [other Dartmouth players] every day in practices makes me feel like I can go against anybody,” Olsen said.

During her career at Dartmouth, Olsen combined for 120 ground balls and 90 draw controls while generating 68 caused turnovers. Olsen led the Big Green as captain during the 2010 season and ended her senior year with a scoring defense of 7.93, fifth best in the country.

The FIL has not yet announced the location and dates of the 2013 World Cup.

Throw together a new head coach, two new captains, and 10 incoming freshmen and you get a Harvard men’s lacrosse team with a very new look.

A new look might be just what the Crimson needs after a statistically disappointing 2010 campaign. Entering last season ranked No. 12 in the nation and boasting the third-ranked recruiting class in the country, Harvard faltered in conference play, finishing 2-4 in the Ivy League.

After the unexpected departure of third-year head coach John Tillman in June to take the Maryland head coaching position, first-year Crimson coach Chris Wojcik, along with new co-captains Dean Gibbons and junior Kevin Vaughan, hope to keep the team moving in the right direction.

Wojcik—a former Harvard soccer and lacrosse standout—took the first step in that direction earlier today by announcing the team’s incoming freshman class. While this year’s class may not boast a standout individual player, its depth should be a great asset to the Crimson, according to Geoff Shannon, associate editor of Inside Lacrosse.

“This class is probably deeper across the board,” Shannon said. “In the last couple of classes, they’ve had one superstar. I don’t know if this class has that guy, per se, but they have guys [that can contribute].”

Three players Shannon expects to make an impact as soon as they step onto the turf at Harvard Stadium are defenseman John Rose, midfielder Eric Slingerland, and attackman Carl Zimmerman—three Under Armour All-Americans.

“Those are your three stars,” Shannon said.

While in high school, Rose anchored the defense for Deerfield Academy, a team that spent time ranked No. 1 in the country during his senior season. Along the way, Rose picked up three All-New England nods.

“[Rose is] up-tempo—he can push the ball,” Shannon said. “But he is a lockdown defender as well.”

Slingerland is expected to aid the Crimson’s midfield, which claims just six upperclassmen at the position. Slingerland, who reportedly boasts a strong shooting touch, should help Harvard offensively. While at Phillips Exeter Academy, the new Crimson asset notched a school record for most career points by a midfielder with 154.

Zimmerman should also add some pop to Harvard’s offense. The six-foot attacker described by Shannon as a “strong athlete” set a school record at Homer High School (N.Y.) with 188 goals and 267 points.

“Zimmerman could really come in there and work with [Jeff Cohen] and be effective,” Shannon said.

The Crimson’s latest class is rounded out by an additional three midfielders, two defenders, one attackman, and one goalkeeper.

Head coach Amanda O’Leary announced last week that Caitlyn McFadden, the reigning two-time ACC Player of the Year, NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player and recent National Champion, will be a new assistant lacrosse coach for the Gators.

“This is a slam dunk hire,” O’Leary said. “Caitlyn is one of the most decorated lacrosse players ever and is the epitome of a successful student-athlete.”

McFadden, a current member of the United States Women’s Lacrosse National Team, captained the 2010 Maryland Terrapins which won the national title and just concluded a decorated career that saw her claim numerous accolades including All-American honors and female Scholar Athlete of the Year awards.

“As a player, I was fortunate enough to be part of a national championship team and I know the amount of dedication and hard work that it takes to get there,” McFadden said.

McFadden’s hiring came on the heels of the departure of assistant coach Jennifer Ulehla. With a spot to fill, UF jumped at the chance for an impactful hire.

“We looked at all the options available and Caitlyn’s name kept popping up,” O’Leary said. “Everyone said great things about her and I met with her at a tournament we were both at. She was very interested. UF was an easy sell.”

Despite her youth, McFadden’s transition from player to coach will come very easy to her, O’Leary said.

“It is a different dynamic,” O’Leary said. “But it is all about respect. Our players have seen her play. They’ve seen her work ethic, commitment and determination. She’ll command respect.”

McFadden is no newbie to coaching, as she has worked camps across the country since 2007.

The Phoenix, Md., native worked as an instructor for Elevate Lacrosse Camps and Maximum Exposure Lacrosse Camps. She also conducted youth camps with the National Team.

Coach O’Leary referred to McFadden as a “student of the game” and said she will be involved in all aspects of coaching.

Innovative offensive and defensive schemes are just some of the things McFadden will bring to the UF lacrosse program. O’Leary also said recruiting will be impacted by the hire.

“Every kid knows who Caitlyn McFadden is,” O’Leary said. “The name recognition will certainly help us because who wouldn’t want to come and be coached by one of the best players in the country.”

When Jeff Tambroni took over the reigns of the Cornell lacrosse program in 2001, he knew he had some big shoes to fill.

Tambroni was to replace the legendary Dave Pietramala, the 2000 Coach of the Year, and to continue the always-present legacy left by Richie Moran, who led the Big Red to three national championships in 29 years at the helm.

Facing huge expectations, Tambroni delivered. The 2009 USILA Coach of the Year brought eight straight Ivy League titles and three Final Four appearances to Ithaca in 10 years.

Having done it successfully before, Tambroni is ready to succeed another prominent coach in Glenn Thiel, and to make his own mark in Happy Valley.

“I think it’s gonna be a process and we’ll certainly have to change some things, starting with the culture of Penn State lacrosse,” Tambroni said. “But I don’t think these kids are that far off. It starts with the attitude and the willingness to change certain things, to invest a little more discipline into the lifestyle of a Penn State student-athlete.”

Though leaving Cornell was admittedly difficult for Tambroni, ultimately the opportunities Penn State offered were too appealing to turn down.

Tambroni’s wife, Michelle, was an All-American field hockey player for the Nittany Lions, and returning to her alma matter to raise their three daughters in State College was a major plus for his family, Tambroni said.

As a lacrosse coach, the chance to turn a program around was a challenge Tambroni wanted to take.

Tambroni takes over a Nittany Lion squad that finished just 2-11 last season, and 1-4 in the Colonial Athletic Association.

And though he knows the challenge he faces in bringing the program to where he feels it can get, Tambroni is confident in his new team and coaching staff.

“There’s no false notion that this will happen over night or that one guy can change everything,” Tambroni said. “It’s gonna be a collective effort from our coaching staff. We’ve got a brand new coaching staff along with our seniors are really going to have to buy into a new philosophy, a new vision about where we see the program right now and where we see the program going.”

Tambroni’s ambition and drive to help his players improve was something that caught the eye of Penn State Athletic Director Tim Curley while searching for a new head coach.

A 109-40 overall record at Cornell and three Final Four appearances in the last four years proved to Curley that Tambroni was the right man for the job.

“His track record has been unbelievable and he’s done a super job academically with his student athletes and we just felt he was the top lacrosse coach in the country and wanted to see if we could interest him in the position,” Curley said. “Fortunately, we did.”

Curley isn’t the only one feeling fortunate to have landed a young coach of Tambroni’s caliber.

Tambroni’s new players look forward to the youthfulness and added level of intensity their new coach will bring to the Nittany Lions.

“That’s how you get better at a sport,” sophomore attackman Matt Mackrides said of Tambroni’s hardworking attitude. “You work hard with a coach that pushes you and asks for the best and demands the best like what I think coach Tambroni will do. With that, the sky’s the limit.”

Tambroni is eager to get working with his new team, in a new conference with a new atmosphere and is prepared to bring the Nittany Lions to a new level.

“I think it’s gonna be a one day at a time type of adventure for our staff and for our team but as long as we’re committed and Penn State is committed,” he said. “I think if the will is there and the attitude can change a little bit, the results will then follow.”

Venechanos’ decision to depart from UMass was announced Thursday by the Buckeyes’ Gene Smith, who heads the athletic department at OSU.

The four year coach for the Maroon and White will go out on a high note, as her squad successfully retained the Atlantic 10 championship back in late April.

When Venechanos first joined the Minutewomen program in 2006, she inherited a program that had not been keen on victory. Before her arrival, UMass had not been apart of the NCAA tournament for nearly a quarter century. Her leadership changed this, as she brought the Minutewomen to two consecutive NCAA tournament berths.

During her tenure as head coach, Venechanos led UMass to a pair of A-10 championships (2009, 2010), in three final appearances, and an A-10 regular season title (2009). Her total record for the Minutewomen stands at 36-38, with an 18-10 A-10 regular season record, and a 5-1 record in the A-10 tournament.

Venechanos started her collegiate lacrosse work at Maryland, where she competed as a goalkeeper for the Terps. Not only did she earn All-American honors and national accolades, but Venechanos earned two consecutive national championships with a team that went 83-15 during her tenure in the net.

The Yorktown native went on to be the first assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for Northwestern. From 2004-06, Venechanos helped lead the Wildcats to two of their five consecutive national championships.

While at NU, Venechanos focused primarily on assisting the defenders and goalkeepers hone their skills. Her help proved its worth in 2005, when Wildcat goalkeeper Ashley Gersuk earned national awards including American Lacrosse Conference Goalie of the Year.

Venechanos will be the second head coach in program history for the Buckeyes, replacing Sue Stimmel who resigned from her position in May.

Venechanos will enter into a program that went 9-7 during the 2010 spring season and faltered in the ALC tournament in a first round loss to Penn. State.

Missy Doherty was hired as the new head coach of the Penn State women’s lacrosse team, the Penn State athletic department announced in a press release Friday.

I’m extremely excited to be the next head women’s lacrosse coach at Penn State University,” Doherty said in the press release. “I want to thank Tim Curley and Sue Scheetz for the opportunity they have provided, and I’m looking forward to being a part of a program that is so rich in lacrosse tradition.”

After spending seven years as the head coach at Towson, Doherty will be the ninth Nittany Lions women’s lacrosse coach in program history. She has won a combined five national championships as a player and coach.

With the Tigers, Doherty compiled a record of 79-46, including three Colonial Athletic Association championships. Towson’s 13-4 record in 2010 earned them an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, where they lost 14-12 to Virginia.

“Missy is a rising star in collegiate women’s lacrosse and Penn State is fortunate to be able to bring her to Happy Valley to lead our program,” Director of Athletics Tim Curley said in the press release. “Missy has experienced success and is a proven winner as a player, assistant coach, and head coach. Her leadership and vision will positively impact our players. I am pleased and proud to welcome Missy to the Penn State family.”

“It was awesome playing for him for four years. He is a great guy and Cornell will miss him,” Hurley said.

Tambroni accepts the position at Penn State the same week that coach John Tillman, previously at Harvard, accepted the head coach position at Maryland. Tambroni was a candidate for the job, but declined an interview.

Tambroni will replace Glenn Thiel, who was at the helm of the Penn State lacrosse program for 33 years before retiring at age 66.

“I’m very shocked and surprised, but I support his family and his decision to go to Penn State,” said leading Cornell attackman Rob Pannell.

Tambroni told Pannell and several other players in-person on Thursday. Pannell said everybody was surprised and obviously unhappy, but still supportive.

“He might be the best coach of college lacrosse and will be successful wherever he goes,” Pannell said. “He certainly changed the program for Cornell and turned it around starting with his first year here.”

Tambroni was the Richard M. Moran Head Coach of Cornell Lacrosse for 10 seasons and finished with a record of 109-39. During his tenure, the Red won at least a share of eight consecutive Ivy League championships. Before he was head coach, he served as an assistant from 1997-2000.

At Cornell, Tambroni ranked fifth in win percentage among active Division I coaches, and in 2010 led the youngest squad in the NCAA tournament to the semifinals.

He was given the F. Morris Touchstone Award as the USILA Coach of the Year I 2009, as well as the NCAA Division I Coach of the Year honor (which he also received in 2007) after coaching his team to a national championship appearance against Syracuse.

DeLuca was a finalist for the head coaching position at Princeton one year ago, but withdrew his name from consideration.

But after a quick turn of events, it was announced Wednesday afternoon that Tillman was resigning as the Frisbie Family Head Coach for Harvard Men’s Lacrosse to take the head coaching position at the University of Maryland.

“I kind of saw myself [at Harvard] for as long as Harvard would want me,” said Tillman, whose team finished the 2009 season ranked 17th in the nation. “I didn’t really think that I would be leaving…I am still kind of taken aback.”

Events began to unfold earlier this week when Maryland officials contacted Tillman while he was on the road making preparations for the 2011 Ivy League season. After going through Nichols Family Director of Athletics Bob Scalise, the Maryland officials were granted permission to speak with Tillman.

When it came down to it, it was factors outside of lacrosse that made the Maryland job appealing to the three-year Crimson head coach.

“Being closer to my family was a huge, huge factor for me,” said Tillman, who lived in Maryland for 12 years while serving as the top assistant at Navy. “I think the one thing that I want people to realize was that this was not about, ‘I want to coach at Maryland more than I want to coach at Harvard.’ When jobs come up, you do weigh a lot of factors. It comes down to things that are important to me at this point in my life.”

But even with his familial connections, making the decision to leave the Crimson was a difficult one for Tillman, who had grown emotionally connected to the players he had recruited and coached for the past three seasons and other faculty and staff at the university.

“Harvard is just an unbelievable place,” Tillman said. “I really did not sleep well for four or five days because I did really fall in love with Harvard…My biggest disappointment is not being able to spend as much time with the players and the incoming players.”

But when it came down to it, the opportunity to move closer to family was too much to resist.

Now Tillman takes over a strong ACC program that suffered just four defeats in the 2010 season and made it to the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament.

Unlike in 2008 when Tillman took over for a struggling Crimson team that finished the previous season 5-7, the coach will now already have many of the pieces in place to make another NCAA tournament run, as the Terrapins return 82 percent of their scoring.

In his three years as the Harvard coach, Tillman guided the Crimson to a 20-19 overall record, which included upset wins over Duke in 2009 and Princeton in 2010.

But more importantly, Tillman laid the groundwork for the future success of the Harvard lacrosse program, bringing in the third-ranked recruiting class in the nation for the 2010 campaign.

“It was important for me to lay that foundation,” Tillman said. “The future of this program is so bright.”

“We thank coach Tillman for the wonderful job he did developing our players and our program and leaving us in position for continued success,” Scalise said to gocrimson.com. “The effect of coach Tillman’s time in Cambridge will be long-lasting and we will always consider him a true friend of Harvard men’s lacrosse.  We will find a replacement to build from the momentum created by coach Tillman’s tenure.”

It was a battle for the ages and a game that lacrosse fans have been looking forward to for the last few years: NU, the sport’s latest dynasty, against U. Maryland, the sport’s most historic program.

In the end, tradition triumphed in a battle between lacrosse’s titans Sunday, and top-seeded Maryland earned its 10th national championship and broke NU’s streak of five straight titles, knocking off the Cats, 13-11.

“(Kelly Amonte Hiller) built (NU) from the ground up, they’ve had so many outstanding seasons, they’ve been so fun to watch,” Maryland coach Cathy Reese said. “We knew that and were prepared for that coming in. But winning five national championships in this day is extremely impressive.”

Equally as impressive was the Cats’ streak of 23 straight postseason victories, the longest in NCAA history, which was also snapped.

Fans from across the state of Maryland came to root for the home-state Terrapins, while there was plenty of purple in the stands, as 9,782 fans packed Johnny Unitas Stadium to watch the back-and-forth affair. It was the largest crowd ever to watch a U.S. women’s lacrosse game.

Early on, it looked like the nation’s best offense, belonging to NU (20-2), would best the nation’s top defense, Maryland (22-1). The Cats raced out to an early 6-0 lead, and Terrapins fans feared that it would be a repeat of last season’s title game shellacking, a 21-7 NU win over North Carolina.

Sophomore attacker Shannon Smith and freshman midfielder Erin Fitzgerald took advantage of several holes in the Terrapins’ vaunted defense, each tallying two goals in the first 10 minutes. Senior Danielle Spencer and junior Brooke Matthews also notched scores after winding their way into the eight-meter arc. In nine and a half minutes, NU tallied one fewer goal than the Terrapins’ defense had allowed per game.

“It felt like every shot they were taking was going in,” Reese said. “We needed to make a change defensively to allow (goalie Brittany Dipper) to save the shots she’s good at saving.”

After the Cats raced out of the gate, Maryland (22-1) shut down NU’s attack. The turning point may have come with 12 minutes left in the half, when Dipper stopped a Fitzgerald free-position shot from straight on. After that, the sophomore netminder recorded four more saves to close out the half.

“If you go down the stretch and play teams like Maryland, you’re not going to put any team away in the first half, even if we’re up 15-0 in the first half,” Spencer said. “We started to get a little casual when we were up six (to) nothing, and they made us pay.”

After the Cats pushed their lead to 8-3 halfway through the opening stanza, Maryland’s attack kicked into high drive. The Terrapins ended the half on a 5-0 run, winning the final three draws and edging the Cats, 10-7, in faceoffs. Thanks to its rally, Maryland went into intermission with an 8-8 tie and newfound momentum.

The teams traded goals to open the second half, but the Cats never got closer than when they tied the game at 10 midway through the period.

Struggling to fight from behind and facing a physical opponent slowed NU’s offense, but matters weren’t made any easier when star attacker Katrina Dowd was sidelined for about eight minutes in the second half after she slammed to the ground while jumping for a loose ball.

“We could have gone harder, we could have done anything,” Dowd said. “The game went the way it did. They did what they had to do to win it, and that’s that.”

Dowd, NU’s leading scorer and a Tewaaraton Trophy finalist, returned to the game with 13 minutes left, but her left leg still appeared to affect her. The NCAA tournament’s all-time leading scorer with 45 goals was held to zero goals and one assist, making Sunday the only contest Dowd didn’t score in all year.

“We weren’t afraid to play (Dowd),” Maryland defender Brittany Post said. “We respect her as an attacker. She’s an amazing player, but we were not afraid at all.”

The Terrapins also let Spencer score only twice.

On the other side, Maryland’s balanced offensive attack bombarded sophomore goalie Brianne LoManto from all angles. Secondary scorers Sarah Mollison and Katie Schwarzmann each found the back of the net three times, while Tewaaraton Trophy finalists Caitlyn McFadden and Karri Ellen Johnson combined to bury five goals.

Still, the Cats seemed poised for a run when Spencer charged past a defender and beat Dipper inside the left post with seven minutes left. But the officials waved off the goal and called an offensive foul, even though Spencer didn’t appear to initiate contact on the play. The call may not have had a direct impact on the outcome, but it seemed like that was NU’s chance to make a late comeback. Had the goal counted, the game would have been tied at 11.

It seemed only fitting that the team with the longest streak of national titles (seven) topped the team on a path to beat its reign.

“What an amazing night for the Terrapins,” Reese said. “I’m so proud of this team, the heart and the fight they displayed were outstanding. They showed such great composure and such great poise.”

It was only fitting that a shot worthy of myth would cap off one of the most dramatic five-year stretches for any sports team in history.

First came the canceled season and the questions about the program’s future. Then, the heartbreaking loss in the national title game to Johns Hopkins in 2007, and two more missed chances at the title in the Final Four. And, through it all, the looming specter of the 2006 scandal.

But Monday at Baltimore’s M&T Stadium, there was redemption—Duke won its first ever national championship.

On the sidelines were former players Zack Greer and Matt Danowski, reminders —along with fifth-year seniors Crotty, Mike Catalino, Tom Clute, Sam Payton, Steve Schoeffel, Devon Sherwood and Dan Theodoridis—of the program’s tumultuous recent history. All involved were fully aware of the win’s magnitude.

But after the game, in the safety of the locker room, the players did not think about the overarching significance. It was time—finally—to celebrate.

“We turned on the music and we danced around that trophy like it was a voodoo doll,” said Quinzani, who signed with Duke even when the program’s future was in question four years ago. “It was crazy, but that’s just elation.”

The game will go down in the history books as the lowest-scoring title game in NCAA Tournament history. The Irish, eager to stifle the high-powered Duke offense, were able to control the tempo and ensure that every Blue Devil shot had to be earned through bruising defenders and perhaps the nation’s best goalie.

“It wasn’t the game that people saw the other night with Virginia, but we certainly hoped it wouldn’t be,” Notre Dame head coach Kevin Corrigan said. “We didn’t think we would be in good shape in a game like that, but we thought we could win a game like this.”

Duke was able to only muster 13 shots in the first half, while the Irish had 19. Part of this was due to a deliberately slowed-down Notre Dame offense, which limited the number of possessions for both teams and created long stretches of scoreless play—in the second quarter, for example, neither squad scored until there was 1:24 left in the half.

Notre Dame, however, found a quick spark. The Irish erased their deficit quickly with a diving shot by David Earl that fooled freshman goalie Dan Wigrizer with only 1:19 gone from the clock. Aerial acrobatics by Zach Howell, who would finish with two goals, put the Blue Devils back on top, 4-3, at the 9:30 mark. But the lead proved to be short-lived, as Notre Dame midfielder Zach Brenneman rifled a shot with 1:12 left in the quarter past Wigrizer to bring the two teams to a tie going into the final period.

Coming out of the gate in the fourth, a quick series of shots by Justin Turri, Quinzani and Howell all failed to get by the hulking Rodgers, who finished the game with 15 saves. The Irish took possession, and with 11:56 left in the game, took their first lead since the beginning of the first quarter with a Sean Rogers goal.

Turri quickly tied it up, and neither team could take the lead during the contest’s final eight minutes.

“[Faceoffs] were a battle throughout the game,” Costabile said. “To come out clean, to get my hands in there and pull it out really quick—the ball popped out in front of me, it was awesome.”

“Winning—it’s awesome,” Danowski said. “But you also know that if the faceoff went the other way, I wouldn’t be sitting here, maybe, and it’d be 6-5. I’ve been around long enough to know that, too. It goes both ways.”Danowski had been on the wrong end for several years at Duke. But Monday, he, along with the rest of his squad, finally got to see what it’s like on the other end of the draw.

After what seemed like an eternity, Crotty made his move. He faked right, ran left, then, instead of shooting as the play was designed, he did something he’s statistically better than anyone else in the country at.

He passed.

Fellow senior Max Quinzani, finally free for the first time all night thanks to a bruising pick from junior Zach Howell, streaked across the field and snagged Crotty’s toss, then, whipping his stick, found nothing but the back of the net with only 12 seconds left in the game. After a bumbled attempt by top-seeded Virginia to answer, which failed when Brian Carroll was called for offsides, fifth-seeded Duke had the 14-13 win and its first trip to the title game since 2007.

“[The goal] was unbelievable. That game was so emotionally draining,” Crotty said.

Quinzani added, “My head went blank. I just was so tired but so happy.”

The goal capped a rollicking, back-and-forth affair between the two teams.

After a sloppy first half, Duke and Virginia had a combined 21 turnovers, and the attacking line of Quinzani, Crotty and Howell combined for only one point.

“We came in at the half and said, ‘Alright it can’t get any worse than that,’” Crotty said. “That was it. I would say that, overall, we played one of our worst games so far in the tournament and one of our worst games of all time, but the effort was always there and we made the plays when we needed to.”

Coming out of the locker room into the second half, the Blue Devils began to clear the ball better, clearing it 5-of-6 times in the third quarter, and 2-of-4 times in the fourth.

They also stayed consistent on the faceoff. In the first half, Duke was unbeatable from the X, winning 10-of-13 faceoffs. That percentage dropped a bit in the second, but the Blue Devils still proved to be the better faceoff team.

Still, after a goal from Virginia’s Chris Bocklet, Duke found itself down 8-5 early in the third quarter. An incredible scoring run was about to change that.

Duke rolled off seven unanswered goals, three of them by Quinzani, to completely change the momentum of the game from a three-goal Blue Devil deficit to a four-goal lead. With only 12:11 left in the game, Duke, which seemed lifeless and inert for much of the game, suddenly had a commanding lead.

But Virginia wasn’t quite done yet. Taking advantage of a couple of faceoff wins, the Cavaliers scored twice in rapid succession to cut the lead to two. “There was a time in the end of the third quarter, early in the fourth quarter, where maybe [the Cavaliers] were going to get a little tired,” head coach John Danowski said. “And their kids fought valiantly and fought hard and played just tremendously in that fourth quarter.”

With 6:55 left in the game, Virginia’s Carroll, who would later be called offsides on the last play of the game, scored with an assist from Matt White to pull the Cavaliers within one. Howell scored his second goal of the game with 4:27 left to put Duke up two and seemingly out of reach, but back-to-back scores from Steele Stanwick and Carroll tied it up.

Quinzani’s wrist flick a minute later decided the game for the Blue Devils.

For the first time since Crotty and Quinzani were freshmen in 2007, the Blue Devils are playing for the national championship. Their path to the game has mirrored that of a Shakespearean revenge drama, with Duke picking off each team that’s given them trouble over the years.

First, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, it was Johns Hopkins, who had a well-documented history of ending Duke’s seasons. The Blue Jays beat the Blue Devils in the national championship games in 2005 and 2007, and pulled off an upset in the national semifinal to topple Duke in 2008.

Then, in the second round, Duke took down North Carolina, which handed it a 13-7 loss back in March. And now, a win over Virginia, which previously won 16-12 against the Blue Devils this year’s ACC Championship semifinals.

Up Monday at 3:30 p.m. is another team Duke looks to settle a score with—Notre Dame, which won a February 20 matchup in Koskinen Stadium 11-7. According to the Blue Devils, they have improved tremendously since that loss.

“The team that we are now, as opposed to what we were then, is just night and day,” Crotty said.

“To be able to avenge that loss and get another shot at them is something we’re definitely looking forward to.”

The teams’ futures have been uncertain recently because of a first degree murder charge made against senior midfielder George Huguely of the men’s team for the death of Yeardley Love, who was a senior defender on the women’s team. Huguely scored four goals on the season and played in each of the team’s 15 games but never started. Love played in 15 of the women’s 18 games, starting in three contests.

Littlepage said he met with both teams Monday to discuss their options regarding the remainder of their seasons.

“It became clear over the course of that day that there was a certain amount of their attention that was on the future,” Littlepage said. “And although they didn’t speak about it and ask questions about it, certainly that was in the back of their minds. There was some uncertainty about whether this event would mean the suspension of the season or not. As far as conversation between the student-athletes and coaches, it was very clear to me that it was the desire of both the men’s and women’s lacrosse programs to continue playing.”

But before the teams could resume play, Littlepage added that it was imperative the athletes’ academic obligations were not hindered, particularly given the start of the final exam period.

“We felt very good about the possibility about both teams playing. We wanted to make sure before announcing anything that we had a clear idea of what accommodations would be made for the student-athletes — how they would handle their academic requirements. We are starting exams tomorrow, or Friday, and we wanted to make absolutely sure that any sort of resumption of formal activities — practices, etc. — was not going to in any way deter the academic requirements.”

Perhaps the most important factor, though, was that the teams had the blessing of the Love family, Littlepage said.

“And then the final piece in terms of wanting to make absolutely sure that this was the right thing was the acknowledgment on the part of the Love family that they would be as well firmly behind a decision for the team to play,” he said.

Littlepage was convinced that Love would have endorsed the decision to move forward and compete for a national championship.

“I had been told by our coach, Julie Myers, that Yeardley would have been PO’d with this kind of attention for anything other than this team continuing with its athletic goals and aspirations.”

The men’s team, which won the ACC Tournament for the first time since 2006 with a 10-6 defeat of Maryland April 25, concluded the regular season with an 18-9 victory against Robert Morris Saturday. The Cavaliers boast a 14-1 record and are expected to earn the top overall seed in the tournament.

Meanwhile, the No. 4-ranked women’s team finished the regular season with a 12-4 record but lost during the semifinals of the ACC Tournament to the Terrapins.

The men’s and women’s tournaments are scheduled to begin May 15 and 16, respectively.

Littlepage said that multiple spring teams have expressed a desire to wear a patch or bear some sort of emblem to honor Love as they continue to play their respective sports. The details of the plan, however, have not been finalized.

Men’s coach Dom Starsia, women’s coach Julie Myers and players of both teams could not be reached for comment.

Both Huguely and Love, members of the men’s and women’s lacrosse teams, respectively, were set to graduate May 23.

Charlottesville police officers were called to apartment 9 in the Camden Courtyard complex on 14th Street at 2:15 a.m. Monday to respond to a case of possible alcohol poisoning. Love was found unresponsive and appeared to have undergone serious physical trauma. Officials attempted to revive her, but those efforts were unsuccessful. Love was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police officials, who have yet to determine the cause of death, declined to discuss the nature of Love’s injuries but are treating the case as a homicide investigation.

“We referred the case to our investigation division, which arrived on the scene earlier this morning, and at that point, our attention was drawn to Mr. Huguely,” Longo said.

Huguely, who graduated from the Landon School in Bethesda, Md., was reported to have dated Love in the past, Longo said, and officials arrested him Monday morning. Longo declined to discuss the evidence that connected Huguely with Love’s murder.

“It’s clear that at some point, they were involved in a relationship, but what the status of that relationship was at the time is not yet clear,” Longo said.

UVA president John T. Casteen sent an e-mail to students early yesterday afternoon with news of the tragedy. He expressed condolences to friends and family of Love and indignation that the crime appears to have been committed by a University student.

“That she appears now to have been murdered by another student compounds this sense of loss by suggesting Yeardley died without comfort or consolation from those closest to her,” Casteen said. “We mourn her death and feel anger on reading that the investigators believe that another student caused it. Like students who have contacted us in the last few minutes, we have no explanation of what appears now to have happened.”

Love was a resident of Cockeysville, Md., north of Baltimore, and graduated from nearby Notre Dame Preparatory School. She has been a steady contributor to the women’s lacrosse team during the past four seasons and scored during her first career game as a Cavalier against Virginia Tech in 2007. She has played in 15 games this season as a defender.

With the postseason for both men’s and women’s lacrosse teams nearing, athletic department officials said they have not yet considered suspending the teams’ seasons. It was “not even entering our thoughts,” Athletic Director Craig Littlepage told ESPN.com yesterday. Officials were still shocked by the loss of Love, he said, “a person who was described as an angel by teammates and friends.”

The Love family declined to comment at this time.

University officials centered their response to the tragedy on ensuring students received all necessary support. In an interview last week, University spokesperson Carol Wood described the University’s course of action when responding to any kind of death or serious incident involving the University.

“We always start off with a narrower focus, offering assistance to the victim’s family and close friends,” Wood said. “Once we have provided as much support as possible for the individuals most affected, we shift our focus to addressing the greater community.”

Counselors and deans made themselves available for students and athletes affected by the tragedy. Love is the seventh student to have passed away this academic year.

No homicides, however, have been reported in the Charlottesville area since January, when the remains of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington were uncovered at a farm just south of Charlottesville. Harrington disappeared Oct. 17 last year after a Metallica concert at John Paul Jones Arena. No suspects have been located in the case.

Officials identified Huguely as connected with the crime almost immediately and had arrested him just hours after Love was pronounced dead. In incidents involving students who have been charged with a crime, local police usually forward information to the University’s Office of the Dean of Students and the dean can bring up University Judiciary Committee charges against the student. But so long as the student is jailed and not enrolled in classes, he will not face trial with the committee, according to organization bylaws. UJC or Honor Committee proceedings are the only methods by which enrolled students can be dismissed permanently from the University.

Huguely, who was charged in November 2008 with public intoxication and resisting arrest in Rockbridge County, currently is in custody at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Jail.

Students expressed shock and outrage at the murder as it garnered attention from press outlets across the country, many of which were drawn to the case because Huguely was a member of the University’s top-ranked men’s lacrosse program.

“It’s been especially tough on students because [the news] has hit the mainstream media,” Student Council President Colin Hood said. “I think students are trying to keep a sense of community here and are still in a period of mourning and grief; they are trying to fill the gaps of uncertainty.”

Winning this defensive battle against Rutgers was what the Wildcats needed after losing to Lehigh in double overtime last week.  Rutgers had the first goal of the game when sophomore Kevin Hover found the back of the net at the 11:41 mark. Senior Paul Webber answered not even 30 seconds later when he took what could have been a dangerous man-down situation for the Wildcats and turned it into a goal.  Rutgers senior Gerard Beuhning put the Scarlet Knights back on top with an unassisted goal at 9:37.  The first quarter was capped off when ’Nova senior Co-Captain Mark Scioscia scored his 17th and 18th goals of the season with 9:12 and 4:15 respectively remaining in the quarter.

The beginning of the second quarter put the Wildcats up by two with a goal at 13:48 by junior Mike Brennan off a transition initiated by senior Bryan McCartney. At the 6:49 mark, Rutgers made the score a close 4-3 when Beuhning found the back of the net for the second time.

The Wildcats came out of half time looking to increase their lead, and began to do just that at the 12:12 mark when an assist from freshman Will Casertano allowed sophomore Matt Bell to score. With less than 30 seconds left to play in the third quarter, Casertano scored his own goal off a pass from Webber, making that 11 goals for the freshman this season.

A tough Wildcat defense in the third quarter stopped the Scarlet Knights from scoring any goals, meaning that the last quarter began with a three-goal Wildcat advantage. The first goal of the fourth quarter came late at the 4:44 mark when Rutgers senior Tad Stanwick attempted to close the gap on the scoreboard by assisting Hover. ’Nova retained its lead 38 seconds later when freshman Jack Rice scored off an assist from junior Andrew Henrich.

The Wildcats scored the final goal of the game and made the score an impressive 8-4 when Webber was able to net a Bell assist with only 1:28 left to play. Webber had two goals and two assists, making this his fourth game of the season when he scored at least four points.

Rutgers outshot Villanova 27-25 but was only able to put 14 shots on goal, while Villanova took 19 of 25 shots on goal and won nine of 15 faceoffs.

Freshman Billy Hurley had 10 saves for the day, earning his sixth win of the season, and sophomore Chris Creighton and junior Brian Karalunas led the Wildcats defensively with four turnovers each.  The Scarlet Knights had trouble maintaining possession and had a total 22 turnovers. Junior Chris Ficke and sophomore Nolan Vihlen added to the Wildcats defensive effort with a combined nine ground balls.  The goaltender for the Scarlet Knights, senior Billy Olin, had 11 saves in the loss.

The Wildcats travel to Providence, R.I., on Saturday to take on the Friars of Providence College at 2 p.m.

Both this Big East game and the game against Georgetown will bring the Wildcats one step closer to the end of the season and the NCAA Tournament.

Yet, with the same teams in the top-10 each year and most of the major conferences absent from the lacrosse world, it’s hard not to wonder whether lacrosse at the Division I level has stagnated.

For quite a few years lacrosse has been considered one of, if not the, fastest-growing sports in America. That growth generally stems from the youth level as lacrosse has spread to parts of the country as part of a grassroots movement. Adolescents tossing the baseball around the diamond have given way to youngsters cradling the lacrosse ball.

While this sport spent much of the 20th century confined to Long Island, upper state New York, New England prep schools and the Metro area, it has exploded at the youth level nationwide, and year by year is getting bigger at the high school level. States like Pennsylvania, which slowly adapted to lacrosse at the turn of the millennium, have seen it go from a prep school sport to one that is sponsored at the varsity level at public schools. The sport is now sanctioned by the state athletic association.

Growth has been astronomical at the youth level and has led to considerable expansion at the high school level, but there are only 56 Division I men’s lacrosse programs, some of which, like Johns Hopkins, compete at lower levels in every other sport. Big names like Duke, Syracuse, Ohio State and Virginia are there, but Michigan, Texas and even ACC schools like Wake Forest are nowhere to be found.

The reason for this lies in the faded football lines on lacrosse fields and in a 1972 federal law.

Football is one of the few sports that doesn’t have an alternative for women. Under Title IX there must be proportional equality in both programs and scholarships. So while big time college football hums along with no equivalent, schools are faced with the decision to cut men’s programs to abide by Title IX. Baseball, wrestling, even track programs are getting cut so that athletic departments can balance football and Title IX.

“In Division I with the Title IX issues and the gender equality issues, if a school is playing big time college football, which a lot do, it’s very difficult to add a sport,” men’s lacrosse Head Coach Dave Urick said. “What you do see is tremendous growth in women’s lacrosse and in women’s crew.”

This might be why Division III lacrosse has seen its number of men’s lacrosse programs double in the past 29 years while Division I has held relatively stagnant, never reaching above 60 programs. Meanwhile, women’s lacrosse has thrived at Northwestern and was just started at football-centric Florida.

But while the interest in lacrosse is there, the money is not.

“You look at the schools that have added the sport over the last five or six years, you’re talking about St John’s, Robert Morris,” said Patrick Stevens, a former Washington Times sports writer, who now runs the blog D1scourse.com. “You’re talking Jacksonville, Presbyterian Detroit, Mercer’s adding the sport next year. You’re talking about non-football schools, private schools, which have an interest in trying to be a little bit different and provide something [that] similar schools might not.”

Take Wake Forest for instance. If Wake Forest, which is one of the eight ACC schools without lacrosse, wants to be successful at both football and lacrosse — assuming being successful means dishing out the full allotment of scholarships — they could be using roughly 97 scholarships for these two sports alone.

Good bye, Demon Deacons’ baseball.

That is not to say that college lacrosse isn’t doing better than ever, because it is.

Games are broadcast weekly on the ESPN “family” of networks. The Final Four has become a huge event over Memorial Day weekend and is broadcast nationally on ESPN. Next year, quarterfinal games will also move to big venues like Gillette Stadium. Events like the Big City Classic or the Day of Rivals at MT&T Stadium have increased the sport’s visibility and the crowds have gotten bigger.

While there may not be a true ACC conference, a big step was taken this year with the formation of the Big East lacrosse conference featuring traditional powers Syracuse and Georgetown and up-and-comer Notre Dame.

Having a true BCS conference definitely adds credibility to the sport, but only time will tell what this does for lacrosse.

One option being thrown around is to reform Title IX so that football is treated as its own beast. This would increase sports at big time football schools, many of whom have football and not much else on the men’s side. The biggest winners in such a situation would be baseball, wrestling and lacrosse, but lacrosse in particular because of its popularity at the youth level.

For the foreseeable future, lacrosse’s presence on ESPN will continue, but the lockout among major athletic departments won’t change until either lacrosse truly begins to churn a profit or Title IX is revisited and revised.

Heading into a rematch of the 2009 National Championship game against No. 2 U. North Carolina, No. 1 Northwestern U.  had a 41-game winning streak and had not lost in Evanston since 2004—an NCAA-record 58 straight home wins.

Both streaks hit zero Sunday.

After a high-scoring first half ended in a 12-12 tie, the Tar Heels’ attack struck first and let their defense do the rest. The Wildcats converted only four of their 15 second-half shot opportunities and never reclaimed the lead from North Carolina, which held on to stun NU 18-16.

“This team needs to step it up,” coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said. “This has been something that I’ve been saying for the past four weeks, and it hasn’t really penetrated. I think it has just penetrated their minds and their hearts.”

In Amonte Hiller’s nine seasons at NU, the Cats have never allowed more goals than they did Sunday. NU jumped out to a 6-2 lead midway through the first half, but North Carolina bombarded NU with six unanswered scores in less than five minutes to pull ahead 8-6.

The Cats mimicked the outburst, immediately following the Tar Heels’ run with a 6-0 streak of their own. With two minutes to go and NU leading 12-8, North Carolina roared back with four goals to end the half, including two in the final 15 seconds.

“It was little things like we couldn’t come up with a ground ball or we’d turn the ball over, and that led to two or three goals on their end,” Amonte Hiller said. “Those are things that I’ve been saying all season long that we’ve been doing.”

The final statistics mirrored the close score. NU took two more shots and recovered three more ground balls, but North Carolina had one more save and four fewer turnovers. The teams finished even with 18 draw controls.

Yet with the game on the line, the Cats’ offense faltered while North Carolina goalie Logan Ripley stepped up. After Jenn Russell put the Tar Heels ahead 18-15 with 7:31 to play, Ripley shut NU down on three free position opportunities. The Cats converted both such chances in the first half but did not find the back of the net on their five looks in the second stanza.

Ripley, last season’s IWLCA National Goalkeeper of the Year, was taken out of the game during the first half to settle her down and reignite the defense. Her struggles in the opening minutes did not carry over into the second half, as her seven saves prevented NU from mounting a comeback.

“(Ripley) is a great goalie, and I’m glad that she finished as strong as she did,” North Carolina coach Jenny Levy said. “She was the margin of victory down the stretch.”

While the Tar Heels got all six of their second-half goals from different players, the Cats relied mostly on Katrina Dowd. The senior attacker scored three of NU’s four goals in the half on her way to tying a career high with seven.

Though the Tar Heels had difficulty stopping Dowd, they successfully contained her fellow attackers and Tewaaraton Trophy nominees. Sophomore Shannon Smith scored twice and senior Danielle Spencer failed to record a goal for the second time this season.

“I just have to find a way in practice this week to work on my dodging and shooting and improve that shooting,” Spencer said. “I’m disappointed in myself, but from a team perspective maybe a loss is what we needed, a little jump start forward.”

Since its creation in 2007, Lakeside Field had never hosted an NU loss. The record-setting 1,705 fans at the game saw the scoreboard flash a Cats’ defeat for the first time. More than half of the NU players lost their first collegiate game.

NU’s streaks are over but the season is not, and the schedule remains tough. Next up is No. 9 Vanderbilt, followed by the only team to beat North Carolina, No. 5 Virginia.

Less than one month after their loss to Pennsylvania in 2008, the Cats got a second chance to beat the Quakers in the National Championship game. NU got revenge, captured its fourth consecutive title and kept the momentum going for 35 more games.
For the upperclassmen who experienced the loss to Penn, the mentality is the same—learn from the mistakes, step up and move on.

“We have to look inside ourselves, we have to let this fuel us and we can’t forget this easily,” Dowd said. “Never in my career have I lost on this field, so it means a lot. We can’t get down on ourselves. We have to push that much harder.”

The No. 5 Blue Devils did more than just defeat the Cavaliers in their 13-9 victory Saturday night. They dominated Virginia in all facets of the game and head back to Durham with a newfound confidence.

The Cavaliers (11-1, 2-1 in the ACC) scored the first three goals of the game before Duke (11-3, 1-2) got on the scoreline. Senior Steve Schoeffel found redshirt sophomore Justin Turri in front of the Cavaliers’ net for Duke’s first goal with just more than a minute remaining in the first period.

“[The goal] was big because the longer it takes to get the first one, it seems like you’re never going to score,” head coach John Danowski said. “Psychologically and emotionally, I think the guys really did settle down and take a deep breath and said, ‘It’s going to be okay.’ If you had said to me at that moment, ‘You’re going to score 13 goals tonight,’ I would have said, ‘You’re crazy. That’s not going to happen.’ It was an emotional goal for everyone.”

Just 14 seconds into the second quarter, Turri struck again, this time off a pass from senior Parker McKee. Two minutes later, senior Ned Crotty got in on the action with his 12th goal of the year.

On the next Blue Devil possession, Crotty was knocked down in the offensive zone and flipped a pass towards the front of the net. Senior Will McKee grabbed the bouncing ball and scored the Blue Devils’ fourth goal of the game.

The Cavaliers were not prepared to lose their undefeated season easily. Virginia ended the half with three goals of its own to give it a 6-5 lead at halftime.

After the break, Crotty showed why he is one the leading candidates for the Tewaaraton trophy, given to the nation’s best player. The senior entered the game leading the country in assists, and in response, the Virginia defense backed off him and played the passing lanes, hoping to limit Crotty’s playmaking ability. Instead, Crotty adjusted his game and attacked the net, scoring two more goals within the first five minutes of the second half to put the Blue Devils up 7-6.

“They were playing him to be a feeder, so Ned just recognized what the opponent was doing,” Danowski said. “He knew he had to go to the goal. He played like a senior and not only scored goals, but made a lot of great decisions with the ball.”

Duke continued its domination throughout the third quarter, scoring two more goals, and emerged with a 9-7 lead. At the beginning of the fourth period, the Blue Devils ensured that Virginia wasn’t going to save its perfect season.

Sophomore CJ Costabile took the faceoff to start the final 15 minutes, and after a tough battle, won the draw. Costabile then dished the ball off to junior Zach Howell, who fired it past Virginia goalie Adam Ghitelman for his first goal of the game to give the Blue Devils a three-goal advantage.

A minute later, Quinzani sprinted around the net and bounced a shot past Ghitelman for his second goal of the game. Just 22 seconds after that, Howell added his second score, and Duke never looked back.

After a tough start to the game, Duke dominated the final three quarters. The defense shut down the Virginia midfield throughout the entire second half, surrendering just 11 shots and three goals in the final 30 minutes.

But though the victory was big for the Blue Devils, the team knows that it still has a lot left to play for this season.

“It’s a big win because of confidence,” Howell said. “I don’t think we get much further than that, because we have to get up and play them again on Friday in the ACC tournament.”

After Saturday’s performance, Friday can’t get here quick enough.

Now it’s senior attacker Danielle Spencer’s time to shine. Spencer has contributed to the Wildcats’ last three championships and won’t accept anything less than winning one more to conclude her NU career.

“It’s all that matters to me,” Spencer said. “Northwestern, my education, I really value all that, but the reason I came here is to win a national championship—and not just one year. I want to be the best player I can be and I want our team to be the best it can be. I’m not going to be satisfied if we end up with anything less (than a national championship). I’m really not.”

That’s who Spencer is. She has a big body. She has a bigger game. She has the biggest goal.

At 6-foot-2, she’s among the tallest in the nation and the tallest player on the Cats’ roster by five inches.

Standing next to fellow senior attacker Katrina Dowd, who is 5-foot-4, Spencer’s height is further magnified. “It was everyone’s impression,” Dowd said of when she first met Spencer. “You look at her and you’re like ‘You playing the right sport? Volleyball? Basketball?’ But she went the smart route—she uses that size in a unique way that not many lacrosse players are used to.”

With 166 goals and 37 assists so far at NU, Spencer has established herself as one of the best to ever go through the lacrosse program.

Spencer put her talents on display earlier this season on the road against Syracuse, where top-ranked NU was facing its toughest challenge of the season, trailing by a score seven minutes into the second half. A loss would have ended the Cats’ bid at an undefeated season and snapped their winning streak at 34.

Spencer took it upon herself to make sure that did not happen. She tallied NU’s next three goals, putting the Cats in control 12-11. NU ultimately won the game 13-12 behind Spencer’s six scores.

Though Spencer seems like a natural at the game, she only started playing when it was forced upon her by Rich Curtis, the varsity coach at Brighton High School in New York.

“In seventh grade he even got me a stick to start playing, and I didn’t want any of it,” Spencer said. “I was playing field hockey, I was doing track and travel soccer, and just wasn’t really interested.”

When she finally agreed to give lacrosse a shot in eighth grade, Curtis assigned a freshman named Hilary Bowen to give Spencer a rundown on lacrosse fundamentals. Little did either of them know this interaction would be the start of a friendship that would last from high school to college and beyond.

And little did either of them know that would start the revolving door of star lacrosse players to lead NU to national title after national title.

THE ‘ODD COUPLE’

Spencer is among the most prolific scorers in NU history, but she has a ways to go to surpass her best friend. Bowen concluded her NU career last season with 219 goals and 80 assists, third and fifth all-time, respectively. A more important number is four—how many national championships the Cats won when Bowen was in Evanston.

In hindsight Bowen looked like a genius, since she committed to NU the summer before it won its first national championship. While Bowen was exploring all options, Spencer narrowly focused on the top teams at the time. “I remember her having on the backburner this school Northwestern,” Spencer said. “I had never even heard of Northwestern before.”
As Bowen went through the recruiting process during her junior year, Spencer tagged along and observed the various schools interested in Bowen. Then one day, Kelly Amonte Hiller came to Bowen’s house, and she instantly made her choice.

One year later it was Spencer’s turn to play at NU’s summer camp and receive a house visit from Amonte Hiller. The duo had fantasized about going to college and playing lacrosse together, and with Bowen declaring NU, it seemed Spencer would surely follow suit. She picked NU without visiting any other schools but insisted Bowen was not the only factor in her choice.

“She was recruiting me without even doing it intentionally,” Spencer said. “Through Hilary, I had been learning about the school and researching it for a year. So when it came time to make my decision I already knew I wanted to go to Northwestern.”

Spencer and Bowen earned the nickname “The Odd Couple” because of the 10-inch height difference between the inseparable friends. Bowen, unlike the rest of NU, saw Spencer grow from a 5-foot-7 high school freshman into the 6-foot-2 presence she is today. During Spencer’s physical growth her friendship with Bowen also grew, with the two developing traditions and lasting memories along the way.

This season, Spencer is without the comfort of having her best friend on campus with her. She got used to playing without Bowen during the second half of last season when Bowen tore her ACL, but the off-the-field adjustment has been more challenging. The two communicate almost daily via text message and call when possible.

Spencer has filled the void Bowen left by replicating her approach to lacrosse. Taking what she learned from her mentor, Spencer has made a more concentrated effort to remain poised and confident during games, while also distributing the ball to make her teammates look good.

“She was always my idol, even though I was bigger than her,” Spencer said. “She was always someone I looked up to and someone I wanted to play like.”

Together, Spencer and Bowen may be the most accomplished pair of high school and college teammates in the history of lacrosse. Brighton is a highly successful high school lacrosse program, winning 11 sectional titles and two state championships in the past 12 years. And during their three years together in Evanston, the Cats had more national championships (three) than games lost (two).

That string of dominance all started when a high school freshman was told to convert an eighth-grade soccer player into a lacrosse player in a gymnasium basement.

“It’s one thing to be successful in high school. It’s one thing to be successful in college. But to be able to do all that with your best friend by your side at the same time is just an unbelievable experience,” Bowen said. “It’s something I’ll remember forever, and it’s something I’m sure we’ll reminisce about forever. Because it’s hard to top the story we’ve had together.”

SIZE DOES MATTER

Spencer’s story seems perfect on the surface, but she suffered several setbacks in getting to where she is today. She considers growing to 6-foot-2 both a blessing and a curse. As a 5-foot-7 high school player she stuck to the midfield, yet once she shot up in height she was permanently assigned to the attack.

Her rapid growth caused more problems than just switching positions. At the end of her senior year in high school, Spencer suffered an avulsion fracture, which put her on crutches for two weeks and then impeded her from working out for two additional months. The injury is common in young athletes who are still growing, since their strong muscles are pulling on not fully formed bones.

This left Spencer at a disadvantage heading into her freshman year at NU. Bowen referred to Spencer at that time as a “string bean.” Former teammate Hannah Nielsen described her as “tall and lanky.” Spencer remembered scoring at will at the high school level, then coming to NU and everyone being faster and more physical than her.

“Every time I got the ball, Christy Finch checked the ball out of my stick—every time,” Spencer said, referring to the former standout NU defender. “I hadn’t really been lifting weights, I hadn’t played at that level. The change for me my freshman year was huge.”

After spending the first several games on the bench, Spencer knew she was not where she wanted to be. She persevered on the field and pushed herself to earn playing time. Sure enough, by season’s end she constantly found her way into games, including all six NCAA tournament contests.

Through her experience as Spencer’s teammate and now as an assistant coach at Penn State, Nielsen appreciates how much more difficult Spencer is to defend as a senior than the days when she could not hold onto the ball.

“She’s developed into such a strong and athletic player,” Nielsen said. “Since her freshman year, she’s learned a ton. She’s soaked up all that Kelly has taught her and has improved her game and taken it to the next level.”

Spencer’s height and strength are only part of what make her a tough player to defend. If defenders try to step in and take a charge, she uses her quick first step and cutting ability. Dowd said having Spencer slashing and putting her stick above the rest makes it easy to pinpoint passes and set up easy scores.

Sounds like the type of player every team would want. Yet with a low supply, only the top programs can get tall athletes. Amonte Hiller knows that first-hand. The tallest player on the 2006 roster—the year after the Cats won their first National Championship—was 5-foot-10.

“When I first got the job here at Northwestern that was the trend: to get all big kids,” Amonte Hiller said. “But we changed that a little bit with having a lot of speed and smaller kids when we won in 2005.”

Fast-forward to the 2010 team. The freshman class features 5-foot-9 Taylor Thornton, 5-foot-9 Alexa deLyra and 5-foot-8 Ali Cassera. Win five national championships, and a program can get the players it wants. Spencer sees the sport potentially evolving into a game of taller players, especially as it becomes a race among the elite teams to keep up with each other.

If lacrosse does turn into a size-based game, Spencer will be the prototype other teams look to emulate. At NU she harnessed her strength and speed to complement her size, making her what Bowen descriped “unstoppable” and “a force to be reckoned with.”

For Amonte Hiller though, physical size is not the primary factor she looks for when recruiting. She has had success with players barely taller than five feet, and said what those players lack in height, they make up in effort.

Of course, a combination of the two doesn’t hurt.

“For me, it’s not about their size, it’s about the size of their heart,” Amonte Hiller said. “Danielle, she has both. She has a really big heart and she’s a big girl. She’s really a winning combination.”

WINNING IS THE ONLY THING

Spencer is not shy about expressing her desire to win and be the best. That’s why she instantly thinks back to NU’s last loss—at Penn in 2008—as when she finally understood what it took to be a part of the Cats’ winning tradition.

In the week leading up to the contest, Amonte Hiller told the attackers to shoot the ball low since the Penn goalie was strong at defending high shots. “And I remember my one shot when we were losing, my one opportunity to make a difference in the game, I shot it high right into her stick,” Spencer said. “After that game I didn’t change much physically, but I did just in the way I thought about practices, everything we do outside of practice, the team and the coaching staff.”

It’s hard for Spencer not to let her passion show. Bowen calls her “the most intense”  lacrosse player she has ever met, and Nielsen’s simply said Spencer “wants to be a winner.”

It is more than just striving to win for Spencer—especially now that she is a senior. It is her opportunity to claim her place in NU history with Nielsen and Bowen. It is her chance to prove she can lead the Cats to another championship. It is the only way she can satisfy her competitive spirit to be the best.

She has come to embody one of Vince Lombardi’s most famous quotes: “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.”

In their final road trip of the regular season, the top-ranked Wildcats extended their winning streak to 40 games with wins over two top-ranked opponents.

NU (11-0, 2-0 ALC) never trailed over the weekend and kept its foot on the gas after jumping out to early leads. Behind two four-goal efforts from senior attacker Katrina Dowd, NU knocked off No. 6 Pennsylvania 12-8 on Friday and No. 18 Penn State 13-6 on Sunday.

Against Penn (9-3) the Cats tallied the first two goals of the game, which would be the only two scores of the first 15 minutes. The Quakers rallied to tie the game, but goals from Dowd and sophomore midfielder Jessica Russo sent NU into the half leading 4-2. The Cats’ 5-1 run early in the second stanza gave them a six-goal cushion.

“(Penn’s) defense scattered us very well,” Dowd said. “We were a little timid offensively and it took us a while to get out of that shell and set our minds to being threats.”

NU’s victory over conference rival Penn State (7-5, 0-3) proved eerily similar to Friday’s game. The Cats again pounced early, racing to a 4-0 advantage. Yet in less than two minutes, the Nittany Lions clawed back with three goals of their own. NU scored twice before halftime, and then sophomore attacker Shannon Smith and junior midfielder Brooke Matthews sparked a 4-0 run to start the second half.

“We had a couple of flurries in both games when they scored back-to-back goals, but we’re getting less of that,” coach Kelly Amonte Hiller said. “We’re always looking at it from a critical eye, and looking to get better. We haven’t fully matured, but we’re looking to push this team.”

In the Cats’ two lowest-scoring affairs of the season, Dowd and Smith carried the offensive attack. Dowd’s eight goals on the weekend and Smith’s five accounted for more than half of NU’s total production.

Senior attacker Danielle Spencer, the final cog in the attack trio along with Dowd and Smith, tallied two goals against Penn and did not score at Penn State. Sunday was the first time this season Spencer has failed to find the back of the net.

The Cats had success in dictating the tempo of the game—something Amonte Hiller emphasized leading up to the Penn matchup. NU adjusted its offensive gameplan based on how long the defense spent guarding the net.

“Offensively and also in the transition we needed to possess the ball,” senior defender Sara Harrington said. “When (Penn) gets the ball, they really settle on their offense. We knew possession was huge in both games.”

The setting for the rest of the regular season may get easier for the Cats, but the opponents will be just as challenging. No. 3 North Carolina, No. 5 Virginia and No. 10 Vanderbilt are among the upcoming visitors to Lakeside Field.

Regardless, the opportunity to stay put and play in front of a friendly crowd is something NU is looking forward to.

“We need to improve a lot,” Amonte Hiller said. “But the ability to stay at home will definitely give us more time to focus in and do the things that we need to do.”

Though former NU star Hannah Nielsen won’t get a chance to watch the games in person like she did Friday at Penn, she will likely follow the games online. After the win over Penn State, Amonte Hiller and the players got a brief chance to chat with the current assistant coach.

“I only talked to her a little bit, but I got a hug in there and a hello,” Dowd said. “It was good to hear her Australian accent again.”

The Cavaliers (11-0, 2-0 ACC) got off to a quick start in the contest, knocking in five unanswered goals, which included an impressive behind-the-back score from sophomore attack Steele Stanwick with 11:25 remaining in the second quarter. The Tar Heels (10-1, 2-1 ACC) responded with their own four-goal scoring run, however, bringing the score to 5-4 in the third period.

But Virginia clung to its narrow lead, adding two more scores in the third and fourth quarters to seal the victory.

The Cavaliers wrap up their ACC schedule Saturday, as they face No. 6 Duke at home and look to end a seven-game losing streak against the Blue Devils, which extends back to 2005.

“It has a lot of meaning to be able to play on the same field as the guys you see playing on Sundays,” junior midfielder Rhamel Bratton said. “It’s something you have over Eli [Manning] and those guys.”

The Big City Classic, which also features a match between Delaware and Hfstra and a game between No. 3 Syracuse and No. 4 Princeton, is expected to draw more than 20,000 fans in just the second year since its inception.

Although the game is only the second of Virginia’s (10-0, 1-0 ACC) three ACC games, the matchup will decide the regular season conference champion. So far, the Cavaliers have maintained an unblemished record but are not flaunting their success.

“You kind of have to remind yourself almost every day that you haven’t won anything yet,” Rhamel Bratton said. “Being No. 1 is sweet, but being in the driver’s seat, you always have people that want to stab you in the back.”

Rhamel Bratton and his twin brother junior midfielder Shamel Bratton have been key contributors in many of Virginia’s victories, especially against then-No. 12 Johns Hopkins, during which both brothers notched hat tricks.

“We haven’t really had both of us playing at a high level here yet until this season,” Shamel Bratton said. “I think both of us being on the same line, playing well and being healthy and giving guys all they can handle.

North Carolina will have to handle the Brattons in addition to many other scoring threats from Virginia.

Nevertheless, Virginia will have to prepare well for the Tar Heels’ (10-0, 2-0 ACC) challenge. Even last year, when North Carolina was at the bottom of the ACC and ranked 10th in the nation, the Cavaliers only edged past them 11-10. This season, Virginia faces an undefeated North Carolina squad.

“I think the only difference is that they are practicing at 7 a.m. now,” Shamel Bratton joked before adding, “I think the guys are a little more invested and committed to the program this year.”
The game begins at 4 p.m. Saturday and will be televised on ESPNU.