With Final Exercises behind us, Streaking The Lawn is spotlighting a number of University of Virginia student-athletes whose senior seasons have come to an end and are the newest members of the Wahoo Alumni community, faced with entering the real world. Earlier, we touched base with Josie Owen (women's lacrosse). Here is today's spotlight.

Next up in our post-grad series comes Virginia football placekicker Robert Randolph, who graduated this past weekend with a cumulative 3.2 GPA, majoring in environmental science. During his senior season at Virginia, Randolph went 32-of-32 on PATs and 16-of-23 on field goal attempts, including a 48-yard bomb against William & Mary.

In catching up with Robert, he told me that he's continuing to train and hopes to kick professionally. Whether that's in the NFL or elsewhere remains to be seen. This summer, though, he is planning to return home to Naples, Florida, where he'll keep training.

During his career, Robert was named a semifinalist for both the Lou Groza Placekicker Award and the William V. Campbell Trophy Award (which recognizes the best football scholar-athlete in the nation).

Robert considers himself a Denver Broncos fan, but don't expect to see him playing at Mile High Stadium any time soon. When asked where he'd like to land, Robert told me, "I would like to play for any team where it's warm or indoors." Not exactly what I picture Denver winters to feel like.

I asked him if he had any advice to incoming first years. He simply said,"just do as many things as you can and get involved in as much as you can."

Then, like a true veteran, he added, "Try to network and meet as many people as possible."

What will Robert remember most about UVA?

"One of my best moments was beating Florida State last year or beating Georgia Tech and having the fans storm the field."

Those are near the top of my list too, when I look back at his career. But what about his fake field goal attempt that led to a touchdown and ESPNU's No. 5 trick play of the year for the 2010 season? Did you miss it? Fear not, for video technology has you covered:

Thanks, Robert, for taking the time out for us, congratulations on wearing the honors of Honor, and best of luck!

A gorgeous day on the banks of the Delaware River turned sour for Cavalier fans as the stingy defense of the Notre Dame lacrosse team ended Virginia's chances to repeat as National Champions. The Irish would stretch the lead to four goals in the fourth quarter and ended up with a 12-10 victory when the final horn sounded.

The game ended the storied career of Cavalier Senior Steele Stanwick, but even in a loss the star went out with more of a bang than a whimper. Stanwick had two goals and five assists for seven total points. Interestingly, all five of his assists went to different players - Chris Bocklet, Rob Emery, Owen Van Arsdale, Colin Briggs and Matt White. His 80 points this season is second all-time at Virginia, trailing only Doug Knight's 86 points.

Notre Dame started the game quickly, taking a 2-0 lead less than four minutes into the first period. But the Cavaliers would keep it close, tying the game at 3, taking a 4-3 lead for a few minutes in the second quarter and tying it at 6, 7 and 8.

But that's when things started to turn. With 7:53 left to go in the fourth period, Virginia's Harry Prevas hit the stick of Notre Dame's Conor Doyle and the ball went flying out of bounds. It appeared that it should be Virginia's ball, but referee gave it to the Irish. The announcers said it went off his hip, but even on the replay I can't tell if that was true.

Twelve seconds later, Notre Dame's Ryan Foley made a shot unassisted from about 10 yards in front of the cage. On the play, Cavalier defender Scott McWilliams made contact with Foley after the shot. The hit was not vicious, it was with a shoulder (didn't lead with his head) and it appeared that a Notre Dame player held his stick leading to the hit being later than intended. But there was contact to Foley's head that appeared to knock him unconscious for a while and the Irish player was taken off the field on the stretcher after a tense fifteen minutes or so.

The Irish fans were livid that there was no flag and were saying lots of negative things about the Cavaliers in the aftermath. I have to imagine that it also had an impact on players on both teams. The Irish would score three more goals in a row to take a 12-8 lead and then would hang on as Virginia went on a rally over the last two minutes.

The Cavaliers might have had an earlier chance at getting back into the game, but a clear make up call came into play on an Illegal Body Check call on Matt Lovejoy with 3:12 left in the fourth. During a scrum near the sideline, Lovejoy was given what Quint Kessenich (not known for being nice to Virginia) called "a makeup call of the highest magnitude." At most, I could see them calling it a loose ball push. But for it to be a non-releasable penalty was atrocious.

For the record, it is my understanding that all tests were good for Ryan Foley and he was able to fly home with his teammates.

The Cavaliers end their season 12-4 while the Irish (13-2) advance to face Loyola in the semifinals.

I'll have some more editorial thoughts on some things from this game later in the week.

Third-ranked Virginia is in the midst of yet another NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament run, and the team showed its resolve with a dominating 4-0 win in the quarterfinals against #11 Stanford. The semifinal berth is the program's third in a row and its fifth appearance in the last six years.

Early on, the match looked to be a competitive one. The battle for the all-important doubles point went back and forth, as UVA and Stanford won on one quart each. It came down to Jarmere Jenkins and Drew Courtney, who prevailed 7-2 in a tiebreaker, giving the Hoos an early 1-0 lead.

Once singles began, it was apparent that the Hoos would not be tolerating any more excitement. Cavaliers prevailed in five of six first sets, and Courtney, Mitchell Frank, and Justin Shane all quickly defeated their opponents in straight sets. Upon the match's completion, Jenkins and Alex Domijan both held leads over top-40 ranked opponents as well.

Video highlights of the quarterfinal victory, along with discussion from coach Brian Boland, are up on VirginiaSportsTV. Boland praised the team's effort and was especially happy with the energy that his squad showed: "We came out with a lot of energy. It was something that stayed with us throughout the match. I thought we had a little bit of a lull in our match against Cal, but today that energy level stayed up throughout the match, from start to finish. They played with a great purpose."

UVA's title hopes were buoyed by the events that took place later on in the day, when 7th-seeded Pepperdine upset the 2nd-seeded Georgia Bulldogs to earn the chance to take on Virginia. While the Waves have a strong squad that is peaking at the right time, they lack the sheer talent that UGA brings to the table. Additionally, the tournament is hosted in Athens, GA; avoiding a match in front of a raucous and hostile crowd eliminates another potential danger zone for the Hoos. The short turnover between matches (the semis take place today at 5) should also benefit Virginia, who rolled to an easy victory in which no athlete saw a third set.

On the other side of the bracket, which is up on NCAA.com, USC and UCLA compete for a berth in the final. USC seems posed to win on paper, but the Bruins already own an upset victory over their conference rivals just one month ago. USC and Virginia met in last year's final with the Trojans winning a 4-3 thriller. To set up a rematch, both teams must still get past their lower-seeded semifinal opponents. Both matches kick off today at 5 PM in Athens. You could follow live stats and a video stream on Georgia's website and look for more coverage right here, as the Hoos strive for their first ever NCAA tennis title.

Yes, I like hypotheticals.

Assuming that this sets the ACC to be destroyed, what will happen to UVa?

Just a question first:

1) Is UVa joined at the hip with VT?

I think that if the answers are no and yes, respectively, UVa would end up heading to the B1G. Very appealing to me. Hopefully they would take us.

If it is yes and yes, then SEC would be a likely landing spot, since I haven't heard much about VT and the Big 12. I prefer the Big 10 to the SEC.

And, we could end up staying in the ACC. Two ways this could happen: first, ACC doesn't actually get gutted and maybe replaces a few teams with somewhat equal teams (EX: FSU leaves, ACC gets Notre Dame). Second way, the Hoos stay in likely the fifth league in college football, and end up being maybe a high-level mid-major, like say, Utah was. Very unappealing.

What do you think is best for UVa, and where do you think they will end up in the superconference era?

Former Virginia women's basketball star Val Ackerman will be speaking at today's Valediction ceremony as part of UVa's Final Exercises. Stream the entire ceremony right here or on the University's main website.

Ackerman graduated from the University of Virginia in 1981, where she was a four-year starter and three-year captain for the Cavaliers. After graduating from the University, she played basketball professionally in France, and earned her law degree from UCLA in 1985, after which she became a staff attorney for the NBA.

She is most well known for being the founding president of the WNBA in 1996. She was also instrumental in creating the US Women's Basketball team that finished with a 60-0 record and a gold medal in the 1996 Olympics. In 2005 she became the first female president of USA Basketball. She currently serves on the board of directors of USA Basketball, the executive committee of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Board of Trustees for the March of Dimes.

It wasn't pretty and all of the Cavalier faithful in attendance certainly were a little nervous heading in to the ninth inning, but in the end they were rewarded with the Hoos showing why they are one of the top teams in the ACC.

Heading in to the ninth inning trailing by a run (2-3) the Hoos decided they had had enough. Stephen Bruno lead the inning off with a double. Derek Fisher followed suit with a walk on a wild pitch which is where the game turned in UVa's favor. If it wasn't for the wild pitch, Jared King would have bunted the runners over, Kenny Towns would have likely been intentionally walked, and the pressure would have been on Brandon Downes and Nate Irving with one out. Instead, King walked to load the bases for Towns who was hit by a pitch to tie the game. Brandon Downes hit a short fly ball for the first out but Nate Irving came up behind him and walked to give UVa the lead they wouldn't give up. Werman got an RBI of his own on a bunt that scored King and Chris Taylor then put the exclamation point on the inning, the game, and Maryland's life by placing a ball about 40 feet past the left field fence for a grand slam.

On the mound for the boys Scott Silverstein continued to struggle with his command a bit. Scott gave up three walks and seven hits which lead to three Maryland runs over 3.2 innings. Fortunately for UVa fans everywhere, Nick Howard came on and was lights out the rest of the game. Howard held Maryland scoreless over the rest of the game only giving up two hits and striking out one to earn the victory.

The seed was already assured, but the Hoos gave themselves the 4 seed for the ACC tournament in Greensboro. We'll know who they are really paired up with after today's games, but if the season was over right now, UVa would be paired up with #1 FSU, #5 Miami, and #8 Georgia Tech. The Hoos had success against GT and Miami while they struggled against FSU early in the season. Lately though, UVa and FSU have been different teams and I am sure the boys would love another chance at the Seminoles.

Game three of the series starts at 1 pm today. If you are in the DMV area make sure you listen to it on the radio. No use in going up there because it is a dump of a stadium and they charge $8. It's ridiculous. Anyways, cheer on the boys and of course, GO HOOS!

Coming off of a narrow but spectacular victory over the Princeton Tigers, the Cavaliers travel to Philadelphia this weekend for a second round NCAA match-up with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Notre Dame is a relative newcomer to the world of college lacrosse, though their performance in recent years has been top-tier. They have appeared in the NCAA tournament every year since 2006, losing to Duke in the finals in 2010; head coach Kevin Corrigan has been an outstanding leader on and off the field.

Virginia's 2012 NCAA seeding is quite opportunistic. The Cavaliers match up well against the Fighting Irish, with a wicked offense and a stifling defense that shut down a vaunted Princeton offensive unit. Readers may be questioning Virginia's offensive capability, and at this point in the season they are certainly trending downward; before stumbling against Duke, Virginia averaged just over 13 goals per game. In the four games since and including Duke, Virginia has been averaging 7.5. These numbers may appear alarming, but there are a few caveats. Many of our higher-scoring games came against lesser opponents like VMI, Vermont, and Mount St. Mary's, thus our early season numbers are certainly inflated. I would treat every Duke game as a statistical outlier, at least until such point in time where the Blue Devils are no longer Cavalier Kryptonite. Tyler Fiorito, Princeton's goalie, was a man on fire during last Sunday's game; Virginia could easily have scored another 5-7 goals on fairly routine one-on-one looks, thus Princeton remains somewhat of an outlier as well.

In my opinion, this 2012 Virginia squad averages in the range of 9-13 goals against top-tier opponents. I expect our offense to come out firing against Notre Dame, for a couple of reasons. Matt White being substituted in at attack makes a big difference on the field; he is a threat to score from behind the crease as well as nearly any point 0-10 yards in front of it. He keeps pressure off of Steele Stanwick, assists with quarterbacking, and has excellent dodging skills to complement midfielder Colin Briggs. If our midfielders can initiate close dodging either in the alley or from goal line extended, this creates more open looks for our talented spot shooters Rob Emery and Chris Bocklet. Colin Briggs has come on strong in the late season, and a few weeks of needed rest should have the boys ready to go.

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We all knew that the Hoos were entering in to a dangerous place this weekend when they traveled to College Park to take on the Terps. We didn't know they were going to barely escape with not only their lives but a victory as well!

It certainly wasn't pretty, but few Cavalier victories are right? If they won by four or five runs, there wouldn't be any fun in that!

Entering the ninth with a 7-5 lead (after being down 0-2 earlier in the game), Justin Thompson wanted to make sure everyone's heart medicine was working and up to date. After giving up a run due to some shaky fielding and pitching, Thompson escaped the ninth to secure the victory by flipping a double play with runners on first and third.

At the plate Derek Fisher, Stephen Bruno, and Brandon Downes continued their hot hitting ways with six of the ten UVa hits. The three also accounted for three of the seven RBI and two of the seven runs scored.

With the victory the Hoos pushed their record to 35-15-1 overall and 17-11 in the conference. The win also was UVa's eighth straight. Wake Forest was able to steal a game from Clemson last night which means the Hoos essentially have a two game lead over the Tigers for the four seed in the ACC tournament. Any UVa victory or Clemson loss over the next two days will assure the four seed! In other news, VPISU lost to UNC and is now on the outside looking in for the tournament.

Game two of the series is tonight at six in College Park. I've got my bullet/knife proof vest ready to go and would appreciate any prayers that could be said on my behalf. Go Hoos!