The 2011 Field Hockey season has not gone as the players, fans or coach Michele Madison would have hoped. But according to Madison, the team never gave up. 

That never give up attitude was on display Saturday as Virginia hosted the sixth-ranked Duke Blue Devils on the turf field in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers and Blue Devils traded scores in both halves and ended regulation in a 2-2 tie. After two scoreless overtimes, the game came down to penalty strokes.

The penalty stroke session started off evenly, with both teams making their first three strokes. When the fourth and fifth Duke players missed their strokes, the Cavalier players streamed onto the field and celebrated their first ACC win of the season (take a look at a celebration photo here).

Junior Britt Knouse and Freshman Rachel Sumfest scored the two goals in regulation for the Cavaliers. Sophomore Elly Buckley assisted on both goals. The penalty strokes by Virginia were made by Freshman Jess Orrett and Sophomores Carissa Vittese, Chloe Pendlebury and Buckley. Nice to see the youngsters being involved in the big win.

In an ironic twist, the Blue Devils will get another shot at the Cavaliers on Thursday in the quarterfinals of the ACC Championships. Virginia is the sixth seed, while Duke is the third seed. That game will be at 3:30pm in College Park, MD. If Virginia manages to beat the Blue Devils a second time, they'll face second seed and host Maryland at 3:30pm on Friday. The Championship match is Sunday at 1pm. 

After each game this weekend, Virginia Field Hockey Head Coach Michele Madison may have a different answer to the question of how the rebuilding effort of her team is going. 

On Friday, the Cavaliers did their best impression of the Women's Soccer team and pounded in-state foe VCU by a score of 8-1. Six different players scored for Virginia in the effort. Junior Britt Knouse and Sophomore Elly Buckley each had two goals. Freshmen Jess Orrett and Rachel Sumfest and Sophomores Hadley Bell and Carissa Vittese scored the other four goals for the Cavaliers. One would have to think that Coach Madison was pleased with the performance of her young players.

On Sunday, facing their first ranked opponent of the season, the 'Hoos dropped a 0-3 match to #8 Penn State. While the Nittany Lions had three goals from three different goal-scorers, Madison's Cavs only had 4 players even attempt a shot. Those four players were Britt Knouse, Elly Buckley, Rachel Sumfest and Hadley Bell. Hmm... that sounds like a familiar list. In the post-game, Coach Madison commented that the team didn't play like a team and that they "played like everyone was alone out there."

The Cavaliers now hit the road for seven consecutive non-conference road matches, beginning this Friday against Towson. That match is being played at the University of Maryland in College Park at 3pm. The 'Hoos then travel to Old Dominion on Sunday for a 1pm contest. That is, assuming ODU's field isn't flooded. 

On Monday, we discussed the significant losses of the Field Hockey program since the 2010 season. There are a lot of big, important names missing from the 2011 roster. But there's still talent on this team - plenty of talent.

Today, we're going to discuss what that remaining talent is going to face this season. The Cavaliers enter the season ranked third in the country in the pre-season poll. That sounds pretty good. But the two teams ahead of them? Both ACC teams and of course both on the schedule. Ouch.

Let's dive in after the jump.

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Michele Madison has turned the Virginia Field Hockey team into a powerhouse. If not for a couple of their ACC brethren, they'd be easily the best team in the country. Last year, they finished with an 18-4 record. All four of those losses were to ACC foes (three of them to North Carolina) and three of the four were in overtime. The final loss was to North Carolina in the final four - the second consecutive year Carolina has knocked the Cavaliers out in the semifinals. 

With such a successful 2010 season, and their top five scorers back for this year, it would seem Virginia was poised for a breakthrough year, right? Not so fast, fellow Cavalier fans.

Fourth years Paige Selenski (who I once referred to as a beast - sorry Paige!), pictured right, and  Michelle Vittese - U.Va.'s top and fourth-ranked scorers in 2010 - are taking leaves of absence from U.Va. to train with the U.S. National Team and prepare for the 2012 Olympics. If that wasn't bad enough, they do need to replace their goalie - the graduated Kim Kastuk - and one of Madison's assistant coaches is out on maternity leave. Yikes.

But this is still a very talented team. You don't make it to the final four in a team sport like Field Hockey on the backs of just one or two players. So there is little doubt that Virginia will be competitive once again. How competitive remains to be seen.

Like we did with women's soccer earlier, we're going to take a look at the players first. On Wednesday, we'll take a look at the schedule and what our expectations are for the season.

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Record: 18-4 (3-2 ACC) Finish: Loss vs. UNC in NCAA semifinals

MVP: Paige Selenski

Selenski emerged as the dominant leader of the talented squad. She didn't just lead the team with 27 goals, but made them count - 7 of them were game-winners. Her list of accolades includes being first-team All-American, All-ACC, and Virginia Collegiate Athlete of the Year.

Overview: UVA was third in a decidedly orderly hierarchy in field hockey this year. The Hoos finished with 4 losses, one to NCAA champion Maryland and three to runner-up UNC. All four games were decided by one goal, and three of them needed overtime. The team played 11 other games against ranked teams and won them all, led by Selenski and sophomore forward Elly Buckley.

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