THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 24, 1996 TAG: 9603240191
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BOB MOLINARO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
About 30 minutes before tip-off of Saturday's second NCAA tournament game, Jim Jarrett returned to his seat at University Hall with a soda he had purchased from a concession stand.
``I may have trouble drinking out of this,'' he said, holding up a large plastic cup decorated in Virginia blue and orange.
On the sides, in large letters, were printed the words, ``Go Hoos.''
``Maybe,'' Old Dominion's director of athletics said, ``I should have asked for a neutral cup.''
While he was at it, Jarrett might have requested a neutral court for his team. Not that it would have done him any good.
Women's basketball isn't a big enough draw to risk playing tournament games on neutral sites. So it is, then, that ODU, the No. 2 seed in the East Region, had to play U.Va., the No. 3 seed, on the Cavaliers' home court, in front of a largely pro-U.Va. crowd.
After ODU's season ended with a 72-60 loss, Wendy Larry was asked if the day would soon arrive when the women could do as the men - play off campus, on courts that favor neither team.
``I would like to tell you, on a day that we lost to Virginia at Virginia, yes, but I don't think so,'' said ODU's coach.
``My concern is that we'll go to a facility to play on a neutral floor and play in an empty gym.''
The gym was nearly full Saturday. It was full of noise. And color. Full of anticipation, too, as ODU and U.Va. took the floor.
``Beating U.Va.,'' senior Sarah Willyerd said after the game, ``would have put us on the map.''
For the greater good of the women's game - to keep it on the map - the atmosphere at these events is important. More important than seeing to it that every team is given an equal shot at winning.
``There was a great deal of emotion out there,'' said Larry. Then she added, ``At times, the crowd became their sixth man.''
Perhaps. But this underestimated the impact of ODU's solid, loud support system, which had plenty to cheer about in a game that went back and forth.
The Lady Monarchs opened the game with a 7-0 burst. U.Va. regrouped, and with a minute gone in the second half, led by 10. Then ODU bounced back. Larry's team led by three with 9:13 remaining.
From there, U.Va. seized control. The ``home'' team closed out the game with a 23-8 sprint.
A neutral court might have made a difference for ODU. But just as likely, the ``visitors'' might have done better had U.Va. not neutralized Ticha Penicheiro.
``Ticha was really tentative,'' Larry said of her point guard.
Blame a throat infection, perhaps, for some of that. But in lieu of a doctor's note, credit for stifling ODU's quarterback goes to Jenny Boucek.
``As soon as I saw ODU was in our bracket,'' said the senior guard, ``I decided I wanted to guard her.''
The talk all week in the papers was about U.Va.'s unwillingness in recent years to play ODU. The hype may have interested the media and alumni, but the Cavalier players shrugged it off.
The game, said Boucek, ``didn't mean something special to us, except, of course, that it was in the tournament. The rivalry hasn't been alive since we've been here.''
This rivalry, if it can be revived, will always mean more to ODU than U.Va.
``It was a big deal,'' Willyerd said of Saturday's lost opportunity, ``because the recognition we deserved has always gone to U.Va.''
It will again, along with the privilege of playing Tennessee Monday for the right to reach the Final Four.
But with a 29-3 record and the school's best tournament performance in almost a decade, ODU's efforts warrant few regrets. It was a season that leaves fans feeling anything but neutral. by CNB