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Friday, July 4, 2025

My Charlottesville Journey

Since I was a freshman in high school, lacrosse has been a huge passion of mine. I've played in dozens of games in the past four plus seasons, but the opportunity to be purely a spectator has been rare. This is why I was excited to find out that one of my teammates on the Longwood club team was going to the University of Virginia (UVa) vs. Syracuse game earlier in March, and would be providing rides to those that wanted to go.

To give you a background on the history those two teams above have, they have combined for 15 of the 40 all-time NCAA championships of the modern era; Syracuse, with 10, has the most of all teams. Virginia has five, with only three teams (Syracuse, Johns Hopkins and Princeton) holding more. The Cavaliers are also the defending champions, and have won four of the last 13.

I've been a lifelong UVa fan, yet had never been to a lacrosse game there until that Sunday. I bought and printed my ticket that morning, and before I knew it, I was on my way to the great city of Charlottesville with Cody Swain, Ross Garner and Kyle Feathers.

We left around 2:00 p.m. so we could allow plenty of time to grab our seats for the 4:30 p.m. faceoff. After 80 minutes or so of "colorful" small talk, we finally got to the UVa campus. Riding around "Grounds," as it is called up there, brought back all the memories of the many trips I've taken there with my family.

"I've been a lifelong UVa fan, yet had never been to a lacrosse game there until that Sunday."

We finally got to the Virginia Sports Complex, which holds John Paul Jones Arena (basketball), University Hall (the old basketball arena), Davenport Field (baseball) and Klockner Stadium, the site of the game and one of the nicer Division I lacrosse facilities in the nation.

While the others parked, Ross and I walked to the concourse, and I was able to get a free program, poster and magnet. We finally all met up and decided where we would sit; the seats are general admission. We had a multitude of options - Klockner's bleacher section seats 3,600 with enough hillside seating for about 3,500 more. We opted for upper-level seats, which offered a fantastic view of the action.

Warm-ups ended and there were two ceremonies before the opening face-off. The first was the raising of the National Championship flag in commemoration of last year's win over Maryland in the championship game. After that, UVa head coach Dom Starsia was presented with a plaque in honor of him becoming the all-time leader in wins among Division I lacrosse coaches. Then the real fun began.

It was chilly, but the four of us were in good spirits, as our great seats provided a good look at UVa players Matt White and Ryan Tucker's goals, the first two goals of the game. Syracuse then grew really hot and made it 6-3 in the second, and a goal by Virginia's Colin Briggs made it 6-4 at halftime. I went to grab a bite to eat and eventually met up with someone who plays lacrosse on my old high school team, Highland School in Warrenton, Va. I spoke with him for about 20 minutes about the upcoming season and wished him luck.

After halftime, Cavalier fans (including the four of us) had reason to cheer, as UVa's Chris Clements, Rob Emery, Matt Cockerton and Chris Bocklet scored four goals in a row to give UVa a lead that they wouldn't relinquish. Syracuse, always a tough team, kept things pretty tight in the end, but the UVa lead was never less than two after that.

White iced the game after Steele Stanwick, arguably the best player in the country, with a goal with 2:47 left to give UVa a three-goal lead. The final score was 14-10 for Virginia.

My birthday was the following day, but I didn't really do much because seeing my Wahoos, the number one team in the country, beat the Orange, the number three team, was a present itself. I can't wait to go back to Klockner and see another win.

 

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