ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, May 25, 1996 TAG: 9605280110
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
VIRGINIA EXPECTS TO SEE a congested attack area when it plays in the NCAA men's lacrosse semifinals.
Dom Starsia sounded like a man on a mission, not necessarily to win the Division I men's lacrosse championship, but to prove Virginia can play against a zone.
``I'm not trying to bushwack anybody,'' said Starsia, whose Cavaliers meet Johns Hopkins at 3 p.m. today in the national semifinals at the University of Maryland. ``If you want to play us in a zone, we'll play you 60 minutes and be happy going into the game that way.''
Third-seeded Virginia defeated No. 7 Johns Hopkins 14-9 when the teams met March 22 in Charlottesville, but the Blue Jays went to a zone after halftime and made it fairly respectable after trailing 12-3.
``In two of our games, against Princeton and Hopkins, a team threw a zone at us in the second half and we didn't score a lot of goals,'' Starsia said. ``So, you think Virginia's zone offense isn't that great? We had a 10-goal lead in both of those games.
``What do you tell your kids offensively with a 10-goal lead against a team that's sitting in front of the goal, packing it in? We're not attacking the goal with the same urgency that we would at the beginning of the game.''
Nevertheless, Starsia is aware of comments made by North Carolina coach Dave Klarmann, who said a coach would have to be crazy to play man-to-man against Virginia after his team beat UVa 13-11 in the ACC championship game.
``We didn't shoot the ball great,'' Starsia said. ``We hit the post four or five times, but I've always liked us in a zone offense. We have maybe the best feeder [Tim Whiteley] in the game of lacrosse. We don't have the outside shooters we've had, but we're not bad.''
Also, the Cavaliers (11-3) have regained the services of the leading scorer in Division I, junior Doug Knight, who had four goals before he suffered a separated shoulder. Knight celebrated his return to the lineup Sunday with five goals in a 23-12 victory over Harvard.
``I watched [the replay] when I got home,'' Starsia said, ``and they said the Virginia coaches were blowing smoke because Doug played so well. He's an unusual boy, a really tough kid, but he's hurt and he's not going to be fine until the middle of the summer.''
Johns Hopkins (8-5) will be going on the road after enjoying home games for the first two rounds of the playoffs. Starsia speculated that the crowd would have been more hostile if Maryland had advanced.
``I don't know that Hopkins ever will be the favorite in College Park,'' Starsia said. ``Hopkins, frankly, is a little bit like the New York Yankees. Hopkins has a strong, rabid following and everybody else in the lacrosse world roots against them.''
Virginia has beaten each of the other three teams in the semifinals, including Princeton and Syracuse, who meet at noon. However, Starsia is quick to point out that UVa lost to Syracuse in the semifinals last year after beating the Orangemen in March.
LENGTH: Medium: 60 linesby CNB