UVA Lacrosse Death Shakes a Tightly-Knit Sports Community

Photo by Alan Maglaque/Southcreek Global, All Rights Reserved On April 11, Virginia midfielder George Huguely (11) drives to the net during the Big City Classic game held at New Meadowlands Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Virginia Cavaliers defeated the North Carolina Tar Heels 7-5.

ALEXANDRIA, VA - Unless one is asleep in a cave somewhere, it is reasonably safe to assume that most people have heard of last week's lacrosse death on the UVA campus.

Perhaps the culture of private school privilege played a key role in that development; especially that of  private school privilege (the accused graduated from Landon in Bethesda).

But, it might also be safe to say that most student-athletes are competing in the sport of lacrosse merely for the love of the game.
 
Last week, the high school team of the slain UVA lacrosse player honored her memory by wearing orange ribbons in their hair at an Alexandria game.

Members of Notre Dame Preparatory of Towson, Md., also wrote the number one on their calves and put black tape on their lacrosse sticks at Tuesday's game at St. Stephen's and St. Agnes School in Alexandria.
 
One was Yeardley Love's uniform number; orange is the University of Virginia's colors.

The 22-year-old Love was killed last week in her apartment. Men's lacrosse team player George Huguely has been charged with first-degree murder in her death.

Notre Dame Prep defeated St. Stephens and St. Agnes 17-9. It was the Blazers' last game of the season.

On a brighter note, as the spring semester comes to a conclusion shortly in Northern Virginia, here are the public high school boys lacrosse developments.

In the PATRIOT DISTRICT PLAYOFFS: T.C. Williams, West Potomac, Robert E. Lee and South County were all defeated in quarter-final action.

In the semi-finals (May 10), Annandale defeated West Springfield 11-8 and W.T. Woodson defeated Lake Braddock 12-7, setting up an Atoms-Cavaliers final on May 14 (weather...permitting).

In the NATIONAL DISTRICT PLAYOFFS: Hayfield, Wakefield, Falls Church and JEB Stuart were all defeated in quarter-final action.

In the semi-finals (May 10), Washington-Lee defeated Edison 11-9 and Yorktown defeated Mount Vernon 8-4 - setting up a Generals-Patriots final on May 14th (weather...permitting).

In the LIBERTY DISTRICT PLAYOFFS: Thomas Jefferson, G.C. Marshall, McLean and Fairfax were all defeated in quarter-final action.

Yeardley Love.

In the semi-finals (May 10th), Langley defeated South Lakes 18-3 and Madison defeated Stone Bridge 18-16 - setting up a Saxons-Warhawks final on May 14th (weather...permitting).

In the CONCORDE DISTRICT PLAYOFFS: Both Centreville and Herndon were defeated in quarter-final action. (The Concorde only houses six schools, whereas the other three Districts house eight schools apiece).

In the semi-finals (May 10), Chantilly defeated Oakton 9-6 and Robinson defeated Westfield 9-8 - setting up a Chargers-Rams final on May 14th (weather...permitting).

**The upcoming Regional Tournament will commence next week - with all 16 teams that advanced to their respective District semi-final round participating.

**In terms of the two South Alexandria schools that advanced to this years Regional Tournament, namely Edison and Mount Vernon - both the Eagles and the Majors have some key seniors participating for both of their schools.

[Edison Seniors]: Zack Broome, James Deal, Alex Dougherty, Marcus Flemming, Kyle Gardner, Edwin Gonzalez, David Hatcher, Andrew Long, Jackson Pennie, Caleb Russell and David Shepard.

[Mount Vernon Seniors]: Habib Balde, Matthew Booker, Tre Hughes, Theo Johnson, Tim Kashaninejad, Zach Kuhn, Sam Nimo, Ken Peterson, Edgardo Pleitez, Austin Roher, Luke Sienkiewicz, Gabe Terrell, Joshua Thompson, Ryan Tracey, Mitch Vasasiri and Charlie Zyzyk.

The Washington Nationals continue to show dramatic improvement in the current campaign compared to their previous five seasons in the Nations Capital.

In looking back, the '05 squad finished 81-81 overall.

Things headed somewhat south the next four seasons with the '06 squad finishing 71-91; the '07 team finishing 73-89; the '08 squad finishing 59-102 (only 161 games) and the '09 team finishing 59-103.

As of May 11th, the Nationals weigh-in at second place in the National League East with a very respectable record of 18-14 overall - following a May 10th 3-2 win versus the N.Y. Mets.

First-place Philadelphia sits at 19-12, third-place New York Mets sit at 17-15, fourth-place Florida sits at 15-17 and fifth-place Atlanta sits at 13-18.

Of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball, only Tampa Bay (22), Minnesota (21), N.Y. Yankees (21), St. Louis (20), Toronto (19) and Philadelphia (19) - have more wins at this juncture than the Nats.

In terms of batting average, the Nats are paced by: Ivan Rodriguez (.365), Ryan Zimmerman (.325), Christian Guzman (.293), Alberto Gonzalez (.281), Nyjer Morgan (.270), Josh Willingham (.268), Ian Desmond (.264), Adam Dunn (.250) and Adam Kennedy (.244).

As a team in the National League batting pecking order, the Nats weigh-in at 10th overall - hitting .255 as a squad.

Milwaukee (.275) weighs-in at tops; whereas Houston (.225) weighs-in at bottom (16th).

After a rather long road trip, the Nats return to D.C. on May 19th.