Originally Posted by Anonymous
Originally Posted by Anonymous
Good for Duke but UVA is terrible (again). The alums and fans continue to tolerate that staff squandering talent year after year after year.

More nonsense, if UVA is terrible, what does that say about the other 100 or so programs below them? There are currently 118 Division I women's lacrosse programs and UVA is certainly one of the Top 20 teams and probably one of the Top 10 to 15 best programs year in and year out.

I will say however that the Virginia coaching staff needs to evaluate their schedule and make some adjustments going forward. Not only does Virginia play one of the most difficult schedules they also play way too many games on very short rest. Two or three days rest may not be a factor when competing against weaker teams but if you are playing a competitive team on two days rest and your opponent has had a week off you will be at a disadvantage. Short rest not only puts physical pressure on the athletes, it gives very little time to prepare (game plan) for your next opponent.

Duke has been given a lot of garbage on here for their weak out of conference schedule but they needed to make the switch and lighten the load several years ago because they were a "Top 20" team and did not make the tournament.

Virginia started their season with 6 games in 17 days, I don't think you will find another team that did that. During that stretch the Cavs played Maryland on 4 days rest (after playing Cal on 2 days rest), they then played Princeton on 2 days rest, then Boston College on 3 Days rest, then Stanford on 4 days rest. After that gauntlet they took a week off before playing 3 games in 7 days... Notre Dame then Richmond and Syracuse both on 3 days rest. After that they had a 5 day break before playing Pitt then 2 days before meeting up with JMU.

Sorry, just not enough rest when playing the caliber of teams that they play. Virginia has too relax their schedule a bit in the future.

UVA is hardly terrible, and maybe they do need to be more careful with OOC scheduling, but I sure hope they don’t go as lame with it as Duke. Duke has a strong, experienced roster this year and it’s a shame they didn’t play a few better OOC matchups.

UVA should be able to handle it with all their top ranked recruits, but I don’t observe them to be as gritty and mentally tough as other teams. Yes, they played 6 games in 17 days but the first two were against Cal and Elon. Other teams play 3-4 tough games bunched together. Arizona State just played 4 ranked teams in 10 days, 2 of them cross country. They lost the first 3 but pulled off the upset in the 4th.