Season Thus Far: Virginia

Virginia (10-1)
Highlights
* Fifth-year senior G Bud Petit makes his first start in three years in a 12-11 overtime victory over North Carolina.
* Record crowd of 7,579 watches 13-12 overtime win over visiting Johns Hopkins.

MVP
MF Brian Carroll, sophomore
Is the main reason Virginia's extra-man offense is converting 61.5 percent. He has nine EMO goals while playing as a crease attackman on that unit. As a midfielder, scored the winning goals in overtime against Syracuse and Johns Hopkins.

Keep an Eye on: Sophomore D Ken Clausen. Has rebounded from poor showing against Drexel A Andrew Chapman in the opener and leads team with 18 caused turnovers and 41 groundballs. Though the feeling persists, and strongly, that Virginia won't win a national title unless the defense improves.

Projected Seed in NCAA Tournament: 2
Directions to Foxborough: Best-case scenario would be to play a relative neophyte in the quarterfinals, i.e. UMBC or Drexel. Or to face a team against which it has a major mental edge, like UNC. Will want to avoid a 2-7 quarterfinal against Maryland in Annapolis; essentially that would be a road game. I think Cornell's great passing attack would be problematic in a quarterfinal, too. The Big Red gets goalies moving like few teams can. Defenses that ball watch (I'm also looking at you, Duke) will find Cornell a major problem.

By Christian Swezey |  April 7, 2008; 3:34 PM ET  | Category:  Virginia
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