Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 27, 1995 TAG: 9505300022
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
It has been Dom Starsia's practice in his three seasons as Virginia men's lacrosse coach to present each player with a list of strengths and weaknesses and preseason goals.
``For me, he put down, `Lead the team in goals,''' sophomore attackman Doug Knight said. ``I thought to myself, `That seems kind of odd. We have four returning All-Americans and I barely played last year.'''
As it turns out, Starsia was being conservative.
On a team without another 30-goal scorer, Knight has 51. He easily eclipsed the school record of 44 set in 1991 by Kevin Pehlke, who had shattered the previous mark of 37.
``It still seems kind of strange,'' said Knight, who was sixth on the team last year with 18 goals. ``With all the great lacrosse players who have come through here, who would think that I would hold the record?''
Knight started the season with a career-high nine points (five goals, four assists) against Navy and has had three six-goal games, the most recent coming Saturday in a 16-13 victory over Brown in the NCAA quarterfinals.
That set up a rematch today at 3 p.m. with Syracuse, a team the Cavaliers defeated 15-14 in the semifinals last year in College Park, Md., also the setting of this year's final four.
Knight came off the bench to score the game-tying goals in regulation against both Syracuse and Princeton, which defeated UVa 9-8 in the championship game.
It's doubtful either program was very familiar with Knight, who signed with Virginia in the fall of 1992 when he had no other Division I scholarship offers.
``He's kind of an unorthodox player,'' Starsia said. ``Most of our kids come from a more pedigreed lacrosse background and the expression on their faces when they first saw Doug Knight was, `Dom, what are you doing here?'''
Knight, a 5-foot-10, 190-pound left-hander, is hardly the picture of fluidity. He has a bow-legged gait when he runs and tilts his head to compensate for a problem with double vision. A typical goal leaves Knight sprawling after a dive across the goal crease.
``He has better range than you would think,'' Starsia said, ``but he works awfully hard to get close to the goal.''
Knight's 51 goals have come on 103 shots, a remarkable shooting percentage (.495) in lacrosse. Of the six shots he took in the second half Saturday, four resulted in goals and a fifth hit a pipe.
Most of Knight's damage came at the expense of Brown defenseman Dennis Fitzgibbons, who was the player Starsia came to see when, as the Bears' head coach, he discovered Knight in the spring of 1992.
``I didn't hear from Dom for a month,'' Knight said. ``Then, he called the day after he got the Virginia job and told me, `You can throw away the Brown stuff.'''
Knight briefly considered playing three sports at either Williams or Amherst, but his only other Division I feelers were from Harvard and Yale, which have non-scholarship programs.
Knight, whose home is in Katonah, N.Y., preferred ice hockey when he elected to spend his last three years of high school at The Westminster School in Simsbury, Conn.
``He came here as a soccer-hockey player,'' said Dennis Daly, head football and lacrosse coach at Westminster, ``but kids here have to play three sports. I can remember taking him to a lacrosse camp at VMI before his junior year and the coaches taking one look at him and saying, `Division III.'
``He only really had a left hand, but after the first scrimmage, the same coaches all came back and said, `Division I.' He's [Knight] not the most flashy kid around, but I haven't had anybody who was as great a competitor. He's a kid who does not evaluate himself while he's playing. His only focus is the ball.''
Knight is the first to admit that he owes much of his success to a surrounding cast that includes junior Tim Whiteley, one of the best feeders in college lacrosse, and sophomore Michael Watson, who two years ago was the nation's No.1-ranked attackman coming out of high school.
``I still think Michael Watson draws the best guy,'' Starsia said earlier in the season. ``I'm not sure my opponents are convinced that [Knight] warrants their lead guy, but if they've got a guy who's clearly their third defenseman, then they've got problems.''
There has been a big turnaround for Knight since the fall of 1993, when he admittedly thought about quitting. He became ill from a parasitic infection shortly after arriving at UVa and felt intimidated by the credentials and more impressive fundamentals of his fellow recruits
``I think we're all a little bit stunned by what he's done,'' said Daly, the men's lacrosse coach at Washington and Lee from 1984-89, ``but you watch Doug Knight play lacrosse and it's like you're looking at a Picasso. You know it's supposed to be beautiful; you're not just sure why.''
NCAA lacrosse Virginia vs. Syracuse at College Park, Md., in NCAA final four. 7:30 p.m., ESPN2 (same-day tape).
by CNB