The VMI Keydets struck first, but Steele Stanwick sparked a 6-0 run to lead the No. 1 Virginia Cavaliers to a 19-5 victory to improve to 2-0 on the season. With seven points coming from two goals and five assists, Stanwick broke his long drought of games without any points at all...one. The Hoos are now 19-0 against VMI.

Ten different Cavaliers found the back of the cage in tonight's home opener at Klockner. Matt White and Mark Cockerton each led the way with three goals apiece. Along with Stanwick, Chris Bocklet, Owen Van Arsdale, Colin Briggs and Matt Cockerton all had two goals. Chris Clements, Ryan Tucker and Chris LaPierre all made it into the box score as well, with one goal each.

Virginia struggled tremendously on face-offs tonight, winning only eight of 28 attempts. Specialist Ryan Benincasa won 4 of 13, while Mick Parks won 3 of 10.

Senior Rob Fortunato only needed to play 30 minutes in the cage tonight, where he gave up three goals and had four saves to pick up the win. Redshirt freshman Austin Geisler saw 19:29 in playing time, adding a save and not giving up any goals. Conor McGee had a quiet 4:47 in the cage, while Rhody Heller gave up two goals and made one save in 5:44 of playing time.

Virginia hosts a down Stony Brook this weekend (down? Or regressed-to-the-mean?). The Seawolves lost their season opener to Fairfield in large part due to a 5-1 run in the third period. The game is scheduled to face off at noon and will be on ESPN3.

Top-ranked Virginia men's lacrosse escaped on the road from No. 20 Drexel on Saturday, coming out with a 9-8 victory to start 1-0 on their quest to defend their 2011 national championship.

The Dragons used a string of runs in the back-and-forth game between the two, including a 4-1 run in the first half and a 3-0 run in the second, each time to come back to take the lead.

Redshirt freshman Owen Van Arsdale and sophomore Rob Emery led the team in scoring with two goals apiece, with Van Arsdale adding an assist. Senior middie Colin Briggs had one goal and two assists as well.

"I felt pretty good coming out," Van Arsdale said after the game. "I knew that I had some other guys to defer to. I didn't need to do too much by myself, but when I had the chance, I was glad that my teammates had the confidence in me to put the ball in my hands a couple of times. I just got lucky, I was in the right spots at the right times."

"It's definitely going to only get cleaner from here," Emery, who gave Virginia its winning goal, added. "Knowing that this is what we're working from is a good start, given the effort and the quality of play."

Between the pipes was senior Rob Fortunato, who earned just his second collegiate start (the other also coming against Drexel). Fortunato finished the day with eight goals allowed, 11 saves and five ground balls.

Senior face-off specialist Ryan Benincasa, who won 50% of his face-offs last season, won nine of 14 against Drexel, including seven of nine in the second half. The Cavaliers won 12 face-offs to Drexel's nine.

Virginia faces a suspect VMI squad on Tuesday in the Hoos' home opener at 7:00 p.m. In the meantime, you can enjoy video highlights of the win over Drexel on VirginiaSportsTV.

The 10th-ranked Virginia women's lacrosse program upset No. 7 Loyola today, 14-9, in its season opener at Klockner Stadium in front of the brand new ticket booth for Klockner and Davenport Field. The Hoos had previously lost their last two season openers, both against Loyola.

Senior attacker Ainsley Baker tied a career-high five goals. She was supported by Liza Blue, Charlie Finnegan and Jess Loizeaux, who put up two goals apiece. Josie Owen, Courtney Swan and Katie Slater each also contributed a goal in the winning effort. Senior and Tewaaraton Trophy Watch List nominee Owen had career six assists, four of which were to Baker.

Keeper Kim Kolarik allowed nine goals and had 11 saves on the day.

The Cavaliers will host Richmond in a midweek game on Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. as a tune-up game before facing No. 12 Syracuse to round out a three-game season-opening home stand. The Spiders lost to No. 5 Duke on Thursday 17-13, despite a 6-5 second-half rally.

Spring is near, which means it's time for a bunch of dudes to run around on a field and beat each other with sticks under a pretense of getting a ball into the net. Fresh off the program's fifth NCAA national title, the Virginia men's lacrosse team begins the 2012 campaign this week in what promises to be one of the most exciting seasons yet. Virginia, ranked No. 1 across all four major preseason polls, faces a grueling schedule of 13 opponents stretched over six states, including a trip out to the lacrosse capital of the west, Denver, Colorado.

Of this year's 13 regular season opponents, eight of them are ranked in the top 20 of at least three of the four major polls, including six of the top seven after Virginia. Seven of the teams saw postseason action in 2011, and every single one of them could potentially make a 2012 run.

Virginia Personnel

The Cavaliers return 30 letterwinners and seven starters from last year's title team. Gone are the leaders of D Bray Malphrus, M/A John Haldy, and G Adam Ghitelman, as well as face-off specialist Garrett Ince and storyline makers Rhamel and Shamel Bratton. During the off-season, attackman Connor English made the decision to transfer to Cornell. English was the seventh ranked recruit coming out of high school in 2009, but last year played in only 11 games, starting five of them. During that time, he put together 6 points (5 goals, 1 assist).

In any event, this is not to say that Virginia is not still fully loaded for the 2012 campaign.

While the Cavaliers are short Adam Ghitelman, senior Rob Fortunato is ready to mind the net. Fortunato received the starting nod last year when Ghitelman was suspended for the Drexel game for a violation of team rules. There, Fortunato made 12 saves and allowed 9 goals in his first collegiate start. He finished the season with a .543 save percentage. Behind Fortunato is redshirt freshman Austin Geisler, who was competitive in last week's scrimmage against Navy, and who may very well see his first collegiate playing time in the second game of the year, against a spotty VMI team.

Returning on offense is, of course, Steele Stanwick, the 2011 Tewaaraton Trophy winner (32 goals, 38 assists) and Colin Briggs, the 2011 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player (29 goals, 12 assists), both of whom, along with junior midfielder Chris LaPierre, were named to the 2012 Tewaaraton Trophy Watch List just yesterday. But those two aren't the only options, as redshirt reshman Owen Van Arsdale, the 2010 Virginia Prep League Player of the Year and No. 28 incoming attackman in 2010, earned a start in the Navy scrimmage. Virginia head coach Dom Starsia also has up his sleeve junior Matt White (20 goals, 7 assists and a first round game-winning goal against Bucknell last year), Mark Cockerton (13 goals, 4 assists), Chris Bocklet (44 goals, 5 assists and No. 10 last year in the nation in goals per game), and Rob Emery (13 goals, 7 assists) all available to play at either attack or midfield.

More on the Cavaliers' personnel and a breakdown of each team on the 2012 schedule, after the poll and jump.

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The Virginia lacrosse team placed three men and three women on the 2012 Tewaaraton Trophy Watch List. The men's side is highlighted by 2011 Tewaaraton Trophy winner senior Steele Stanwick, who is joined by senior midfielder Colin Briggs and junior midfielder Chris LaPierre. The women's side includes senior attack Charlie Finnigan, senior midfielder Julie Gardner, and senior attack Josie Owen.

Steele Stanwick is one of the 2012 captains and is a preseason first team All-American by Face-Off Yearbook. Last year, he was third in the nation in assists per game and fourth in the nation in points per game. He was also the ACC Player of the Year.

Colin Briggs is also one of this year's captains. Last year, he was named the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament. He racked up 41 points on 29 goals and 12 assists. He earned USILA second-team All-American honors.

Chris LaPierre led the team last season with 92 ground balls, earning him USILA third-team All-American and All-ACC honors.

Charlie Finnigan led the 2011 team with 43 goals and added 14 assists, 18 ground balls, seven draw controls and five caused turnovers. On a completely unrelated note, she is the team's first-ever international player, hailing from England.

Julie Gardner, one of the 2012 team captains, has started every game of her collegiate career. She earned third-team All-American honors last season, and was also named to the 2011 Tewaaraton Trophy Watch List. She led the 2011 team with 60 points coming from 33 goals and 27 assists. She also contributed 27 ground balls, 14 draw controls and 13 caused turnovers

Josie Owen is another of the 2012 team captains, having scored 40 goals and 16 assists last season, including a goal in every single regular-season game.

Both the men and the women will be in action this Saturday. The ladies take on Loyola (Md.) in Charlottesville at 2:30 p.m., while the guys travel to Philadelphia to take on No. 20 Drexel at 2:00 p.m.

Inside Lacrosse revealed their 2012 Face-Off Yearbook Division I Rankings yesterday, and the Virginia Cavaliers landed atop the list, as the Hoos look to defend their national championship. Duke checks in at No. 2 and North Carolina is No. 6, while Maryland rounds out the ACC at No. 8. Future conference member Syracuse comes in at No. 7. While Virginia's and the ACC's 2012 schedules have not yet been released, the Hoos will face at least seven of the top 20 teams.

This is going to be one of the most exciting lacrosse seasons. While Virginia lost the heart of the team in Bray Malphrus to graduation, as well as key guys like Adam Ghitelman, John Haldy and Garett Ince. Of course, Shamel and Rhamel Bratton are also no longer on the team.

But among the returning role players is attackman Steele Stanwick, the 2011 Tewaaraton Trophy winner. Expect an ongoing storyline this upcoming season comparing Stanwick with Cornell's Rob Pannell, the USILA Player of the Year and a guy who some thought would take home the Tewaaraton. Virginia defeated Cornell last year in the NCAA Quarterfinals, 13-9, en route to the national championship.

Together with Stanwick, midfielder Colin Briggs, defenseman Chris Clements and midfielder Matt Kugler are the four 2012 captains. Briggs was last season's Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship, scoring five of Virginia's nine goals over Maryland.

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The high and low points of the season are pretty obvious:

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Record: 9-9 (1-4 ACC); Lost in first round of NCAA Tournament.

MVP: Liz Downs

I'm a sucker for an opportunity to give the top award to a defender. This year Senior defender Liz Downs really deserved it. Just look at the list of honors: 2011 All-ACC Team; Second Team IWLCA All-American; three-time All-South Region First Team; finalist for the Tweaaraton Trophy. And oh yeah, she was a co-captain all four years on the team and  made the All-ACC Academic team twice. An all-around impressive woman.

Overview: Coming off what had to be the most tumultuous season in women's lacrosse history last year, it was a little unclear how the team would react when the new season began. The early polls had the Cavaliers around 7th in the country - a ranking they would hover near for most of the season.

The season started off rocky with a loss to Loyola, but the Cavaliers rebounded by absolutely trouncing Richmond and Syracuse - both on the road - by a combined score of 44-24. But then there was the Maryland game (more on that after the break) and the 'Hoos never seemd to really recover, going 7-7 down the stretch including losing the last 4 contests by a total of 25 points.

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