VIRGINIA LACROSSE 2020

[Typical Lax Dad]

I guess Dom knew what he was doing when he signed the 8th grader. PC will rule.

The first time I heard Cormier’s name was from a Canadian player coming off an AA campaign as a senior. Payton was playing against college guys as an 8th grader and was holding his own. He had no doubt that he was going to be a good player. He was right.

[OCanada]

Cormier is predicted to run with the 1s by uslaxmagazine.

I heard about him from a Canadian player when he was a senior. He thought he had the potential to be a great player.

[Cooter]

Virginia's day on Lax magazine:
https://www.uslaxmagazine.com/college/m ... rginia-men

Projected starters:
A – Michael Kraus – Sr. – 39 G, 36 A
A – Ian Laviano – Jr. – 51 G, 11 A
A – Matt Moore – Jr. – 46 G, 43 A
M – Dox Aitken – Sr. – 44 G, 8 A
M – Jeff Conner – So. – 4 G, 10 A
M – Peyton Cormier – Fr. – (injured)
FO – Petey LaSalla – So. – 58.7 FO%, 8 G
LSM – Jared Conners – Sr. – 57 GB, 27 CT
SSDM – John Fox – Jr. – 20 GB, 11 CT
D – Kyle Kology – Jr. – 33 GB, 16 CT
D – Quentin Matsui – Fr. – (high school)
D – Cade Saustad – So. – 46 GB, 13 CT
G – Alex Rode – Jr. – 50.6 SV%, 10.22 GAA

[wgdsr]

"Only their own cockiness from last year can hurt them (besides Penn State and not remembering how lucky they were)".
-- anonymous coach

sounds like he could post on fanlax with the rest of us. wonder if he ever puts his name to it.

[Lenwood117]

"Only their own cockiness from last year can hurt them (besides Penn State and not remembering how lucky they were)".
-- anonymous coach

sounds like he could post on fanlax with the rest of us. wonder if he ever puts his name to it.

Look for Benkowski to get some play at mid.

[blue angels]

"Only their own cockiness from last year can hurt them (besides Penn State and not remembering how lucky they were)".
-- anonymous coach

sounds like he could post on fanlax with the rest of us. wonder if he ever puts his name to it.

Yep, An educated guess would be Corrigan. Not to spoil the pre season platitudes, but Lars was also quoted as saying, "we can definitely score but can we stop anybody" He said he didn't realize until Fallball how much the Hoos actually lost on D that now has to be rebuilt. Chemistry will, of course, be critical and you just don't know if you have it till you do.

[wgdsr]

"Only their own cockiness from last year can hurt them (besides Penn State and not remembering how lucky they were)".
-- anonymous coach

sounds like he could post on fanlax with the rest of us. wonder if he ever puts his name to it.

Yep, An educated guess would be Corrigan. Not to spoil the pre season platitudes, but Lars was also quoted as saying, "we can definitely score but can we stop anybody" He said he didn't realize until Fallball how much the Hoos actually lost on D that now has to be rebuilt. Chemistry will, of course, be critical and you just don't know if you have it till you do.

i'm guessing saustad was out for (a lot of) the fall, and may still be out... or not 100%.
that would probably change the dynamic of what you're looking at.
when he is back, they have their best defenseman, a 3 year starter, goalie, and arguably the best lsm duo in the country. that's a pretty good place to start.
greco was very good, but this is college and no one is here forever. and talented d men are on the roster, if inexperienced.
biggest hole is of course ssdm, but 2 very talented returners are there, hopefully they can find 2 more.

i suspect part of what he may be referencing... their ssdm play (overall) was wanting... for quite a while the last 2 years. they got demonstrably better by year end as a group, as did the close d. helping a great deal for the playoffs was rode making more saves. as many teams attack that ssdm unit, yeah it'll take some time to build it back up and adjust accordingly to back them up if need be until they're crushing it. you really need at least 4 guys.

but again, they return quite a lot. once saustad is back on the diamond, it'll look a lot less raw. my guess.

[dek]

Hoos look like they have six in the mix at ssdm with Merle, Parker, Brennfleck, Sallade, Fox, and Maloney, and might have a few additional options if needed - for example Tygh is reportedly very good on defense. Have to see how that shakes out in games, but I expect Hoos will run four in games at ssdm. Coach Lori was probably a huge factor in the improvement at ssdm you saw through the season last year, and Hoos are very lucky to have him back again this year.

[molo]

I agree. That's one of the reasons that despite the loss of a captain and their best dm in Dzama, I have them number one preseason. The offensive talent is unquestioned, and the d improved steadily last season. Saustad has not been playing recently. He's a big loss if he is not ready to go.

[bam1972]

How about shellenberger

[molo]

Shellenberger has been the topic of some discussion on the UVA form. From what I can discern, Cormier will come out of the box as a middie until Kraus graduates, opening up the lefty spot at attack. Evidently, Cormier is a big finisher whose game is in front of the goal or on the wing, where it really doesn't matter if he is playing attack or offensive midfield. I envisioned Shellenberger in a Herring role, a fourth attackman coming through the box to invert in settled offense until a spot opens for him at his natural attack position, but it sounds as if they are leaning more towards a midfield unit of Aitkens and Cormier with the third guy a natural middie like Conner or Bienkowski (sp.).
I haven't seen much of Shellenberger, and I know he took some wings at STAB, but my impression is that he is a natural x attackman a la Stanwick and is not especially well-suited to playing midfield. There is a logjam at attack with Moore and Kraus as AA caliber player and Laviano as good a finisher as any righty creaseman this side of the Canadian at Yale.
It says something about this team that the guy rated the number one offensive player coming out of hs may have trouble getting minutes.

[dek]

Sounds like there’s talk about a RS. More than anything, I think the Hoos recruited Shellenberger as a qb-type attack you can run the offense through, like Hoos got from Moore last year. RS would give an additional year between Moore and Shellenberger, and looking at the Hoos recruits, I’m not sure they’ve got any attack like Moore and Shellenberger in the pipeline in 20 or 21 classes. Hoos offense benefit hugely from last year from having two players at attack that could carry and create in Moore and Kraus. Who knows what happens at attack next year when Kraus graduates?

[wgdsr]

being posted now that redshirting is being evaluated (or may have been decided).
he sat out scrimmage one, that's a flag unless he's nicked up. guess we'll see.

[molo]

I saw the redshirt rumor.

[Matnum PI]

UVA is good. Undeniably. And... It surprises me that so many people have them as #1. Being National Champions aside, based solely on a side-by-side evaluation, people were not hot on UVA last season. Even during their National Championship run, people did not get on the bus. There was a point last season where FanLax's Computer Ranking had UVA at #1 and people went bananas. (In the name of accuracy, most of the banana-going was outside of FanLax within other social media outlets.) Setting the trophy aside, people do not regard UVA highly. I guess it's hard to set the trophy aside...

[wgdsr]

it's preseason and it means nada, but who are these people (sounds like a majority) that don't regard uva highly?

[Dip&Dunk]

Shellenberger was run where the coach thought he could get the most from him. Sometimes that meant attack so he could be on the field more. Sometimes that meant middie because they weren't getting the ball enough and when they did, they wanted Connor to have it.

He developed a reputation as a distributor because he would be doubled walking out of the locker room. For example, a lot of Emmett Barger's (freshman, ND attack) success was due to how Connor was played (yes Emmett deserves credit too).

I would disagree on RS but I would understand it. Connor did not re-classify at any point so he is a true first year (in UVA parlance) by age too.

[blue angels]

UVA is good. Undeniably. And... It surprises me that so many people have them as #1. Being National Champions aside, based solely on a side-by-side evaluation, people were not hot on UVA last season. Even during their National Championship run, people did not get on the bus. There was a point last season where FanLax's Computer Ranking had UVA at #1 and people went bananas. (In the name of accuracy, most of the banana-going was outside of FanLax within other social media outlets.) Setting the trophy aside, people do not regard UVA highly. I guess it's hard to set the trophy aside...

I am not sure, who, if any of the other top ranked teams returns as much as Virginia does?. Virginia got hot at the right time and surely got fortunate but they still had to beat a bunch of great teams and did. Virginia last February bore little resemblance to Virginia on Memorial Day.Were they the Nation's most improved team over the course of the season? Did you watch the Yale Game? It was a complete physical beat down so disrespect the Hoos at your own risk. Yale got manhandled.

[hens62]

"Only their own cockiness from last year can hurt them (besides Penn State and not remembering how lucky they were)".
-- anonymous coach

sounds like he could post on fanlax with the rest of us. wonder if he ever puts his name to it.

Yep, An educated guess would be Corrigan. Not to spoil the pre season platitudes, but Lars was also quoted as saying, "we can definitely score but can we stop anybody" He said he didn't realize until Fallball how much the Hoos actually lost on D that now has to be rebuilt. Chemistry will, of course, be critical and you just don't know if you have it till you do.

LOL ... the pettiness knows no bounds. Wouldnt the better guess be Tillman?

[youthathletics]

Virginia last February bore little resemblance to Virginia on Memorial Day.

That really prompts the $10k question..."Was that change measurable and how". I personally believe much of it stemmed from slowing the defense down at the right time. Those fellas were so wound up and eager to get after it based on the high paced practices, that it translated into game time. By slowing them down just enough, a click each game, it allowed them each to see more clearly, and the game actually slowed down for them come NCAA Tourney time....ultimately making them better defensemen.