Rhamel Bratton Remains Suspended for Cornell Game

Virginia men's lacrosse head coach Dom Starsia told the media today that senior midfielder Rhamel Bratton's suspension would not be lifted for Saturday's game against Cornell in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championships in Hempstead, NY.

This will be the fourth game this season that Rhamel has sat out due to a suspension, including last week's overtime thriller over Bucknell, and the senior day rout of Penn.

"His status is unchanged for this week," Starsia said on Tuesday. "He will not be activated. He has some academic matters to attend to in town this week and may join us at Hofstra."

Rhamel is a Face-Off Yearbook Preseason All-American who has played and started in 12 games this season. His best production came against No. 20 Ohio State, tying his career-high of four goals. This year, he has 17 goals and five assists for 22 points. He is also tied for 14th on UVa's all-time midfielder goal leaderboard, with 59 goals.

Rhamel was drafted in the third round of the MLL Draft as the 17th overall pick to his hometown team, the Long Island Lizards. The Lizards have not made any public comments with respect to his status, nor have the Boston Cannons, who drafted the dismissed brother, Shamel Bratton.

Virginia defeated Bucknell 13-12 in overtime, despite being down 10-6 late in the third quarter. The 7th seeded Hoos will face No. 2 seeded Cornell in a battle between Tewaaraton Trophy Finalists Steele Stanwick at Virginia and Rob Pannell at Cornell. The two teams met earlier this year on March 12 in Baltimore at the Face-Off Classic, where the Hoos came back from behind to take an 11-9 victory over Big Red. Rhamel had contributed two goals in that winning effort. Stanwick had no points, while Pannel had four goals to his name.

Face-off on Saturday is scheduled for 12:00 noon and will be televised on ESPN 2.