Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 17, 1992 TAG: 9201170019
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
LADY CAVS NO. 1 AT UVA
It was what you'd expect of ACC basketball.The near-packed house, emotionally engulfing the game, made so much noise you couldn't hear the officials' whistles at times. Catcalls cascaded during free throws. The concession lines on the concourse snaked around corners.
And, the leading scorer in the game was named Heather.
However, it was no surprise that the largest crowd of the season at University Hall saw Maryland upend top-ranked Virginia 65-63 on Wednesday night. The only thing small about women's hoops at UVa, compared to coach Jeff Jones' men, is the circumference of the ball.
While UVa announces a capacity of 8,864 for men's games, that attendance is dotted by no-shows, those contributors who get tickets and don't use them. The 8,662 who saw the female Cavaliers lose for the first time this season were there in body and spirit. And the gathering wasn't simply a statement on the matchup between teams ranked first and third in the nation.
The Terrapins left U-Hall with their ears ringing. Maryland coach Chris Weller was asked if the atmosphere, which is seldom experienced by women's basketball teams, helped the Cavaliers on two futile comeback runs.
"I think it helped us," Weller said. "It's just more exciting to play in front of a lot of people. You have to take a breath, calm down. That's the whole challenge of the competition. I think this crowd got us really peaked, directed, focused."
Weller's program is solid and has had national success in the past. However, the Terps are averaging only 574 spectators per game at Cole Field House. Through six home games, Virginia is averaging 5,601 fans. Seven of the state's 11 Division I men's programs have lower average crowds this season.
Two seasons ago, coach Debbie Ryan's team averaged only 1,201. That's a decent figure for women's games, but for this season, UVa sold 3,600 season tickets after losing the NCAA championship game in overtime last April. It isn't just the sale of tickets that's remarkable. It's the support. The people who bought the tickets use them, too.
"It started last year," said Ryan, in her 15th season as UVa's coach. "We started to see more enthusiasm then, but the crowds now are unbelievable. They're not just basketball fans; they're women's basketball fans. They react to our players, whether it's during the games or if they see one or two of them at Kmart.
"They make signs and banners. They do the Wave during games. Last year, when we played Penn State, we couldn't hear the 30-second clock horn or the game horn. We had to buy new ones."
Certainly, the Cavaliers' flash-and-dash style produced by stars Dawn Staley and Tammi Reiss makes Ryan's team intriguing. Ryan advocates a wide-open style that calls for creativity. Fans love success, and the Cavaliers have won 59 of their past 66 games.
Consider, however, that their smallest home crowd of the season is 4,270, and the road average only 1,900.
Ryan recalls her early years on the UVa sideline, when the program was just starting to walk. "We had games where I know we had less than 200 in the stands then," she said. "To see how wild people are about the team now really is gratifying."
The noise by the UVa women's fans isn't just a game-night love affair, either.
"When we don't cover them the way our readers expect us to, people really raise hell with us," said Jerry Ratcliffe, sports editor of the Charlottesville Daily Progress. "The reaction is unbelievable. We don't hear anything close to that about the men's team."
Equality remains the major issue for most women's programs. At Virginia, Ryan's express doesn't worry about keeping up with the Joneses. B6 B4 UVA UVa