Final game?

Earlier today Virginia Tech faced the Florida Gators for the SELC championship.  Florida had a hard path to the final winning two close games against Florida State and Clemson.  Virginia Tech on the other hand blew out both previous teams.  Both VT and Florida knew they were in for a battle.  Tech had a rough first half.  The offense turned it over almost instantly every possession, and the defense had either a slow/late slide or no slide at all.  Florida took advantage of a Hokie squad that let their guard down.  Half time score was 6-3 Florida, I believe.  After the break Tech started to fire on all cylinders scoring 5 straight to make it 8-6 VT.  Then the Gators got it back tying it at 8 a piece.  The game ended with the Hokies having the ball for the last minute and a half or so trying to catch back up to the Gators who were up 11-9.  Tech ended the game fighting and never gave up for a second.  Congratulations Gators, hey, at least we both hate FSU right?  Even though VT made it to the finals, Nationals are not guaranteed.  It is very possible that Florida and Florida State will advance.  FSU played a harder schedule and is higher ranked.  Hopefully we'll see the Hokies get called to Denver, but until the list comes out in early May I'd like to say thank you to all Hokie fans, and families.  To the team, this season has been an amazing experience, you guys are the reason I love this sport.  I look forward to another great year.  To the seniors, you have all been great teammates, leaders, and above all, friends.  Thank you all for everything.

Round Two Slaughter

The other semifinal game is still being played so I'm not sure who Virginia Tech will play, but the Hokies have advanced to the finals.  VT came into this game knowing they needed to show up or they could be the next to be upset by the Yellow Jackets.  The Hokies showed up in full force.  In the first quarter alone the Hokies managed to tie the season high for most goals allowed by GT for a whole game.  First quarter score was 10-2.  The second quarter was more of the same with a halftime score of 16-2.  The second half VT continued to roll but at a slower rate.  Final score was 22-5.  Tomorrow the Hokies will face the winner of Florida vs Clemson.  Virginia Tech has faced both teams before, they lost to Florida by one goal, and beat Clemson by five.  Tomorrow will be a battle for the title of SELC champions and an automatic bid to nationals.

Round One Results

What a first day.  Except for Virginia Tech, all other games were upsets.  Clemson beat Georgia, Georgia Tech beat Tennessee, and the big one of course, Florida beat Florida State.  Virginia Tech looked shaky at first, but got it in gear quickly.  Tech gave up the first goal of the game, but then answered back with two to close out the first quarter 2-1.  The second quarter was better for the Hokies as they finished the half with a score of 7-2.  The refs were calling lots of penalties all around, and there was even a 5 vs 3 situation for Wake Forest, but the Hokies managed to kill of all three penalties without giving up a goal.  The third and fourth quarters were played pretty well by Tech and ended with a score of 14-5.  The Wake Forest goalie faced many more shots than the Hokie goalies, and all made some excellent saves.  If the weather permits, Virginia Tech will play an underrated Georgia Tech team tomorrow afternoon.

Hokies are Headed to Atlanta

Virginia Tech closed out their season this weekend with games at ECU and at NC State.  ECU was up first and this was expected to be a blow out.  The starters for the Hokies were sat before too long and the score continued to rise.  The Hokies were up by 12 at halftime if my memory serves me correctly.  The third quarter was a horrid performance by Tech giving up 5 goals and scoring just 5 to match.  The final score was officially 22-8.  Although that may show up on the scoreboard as a blow out the Hokies played pretty lackasdaisically and showed a lot of holes in their game.

Earlier today Tech played NC State.  This was an important game for both teams.  This was the last game of the regular season for each team.  If NC State won they were going to Atlanta, if they lost, end of the road.  The Wolfpack came out fired up and ready to take it to the Hokies.  Just a week before NC State had beaten a tough Tennessee team by more than the Hokies had.  NC State got a quick first goal and it was clear the Hokies were taken by surprise.  Tech fired back soon and took the lead.  At the end of the first quarter it was a tie game.  End of the half the Hokies lead by 4 or 5.  It has been the Hokies' habit this year to cool down after they get a lead and let the other team back in the game.  Fortunately for Virginia Tech this wasn't the case this game.  They're defense tightened up, they're goalie made some good saves (and a couple nice outlet passes to create fast breaks too), and they're offense started picking apart the good NC State goalie.  Final tally was 16-7.  Next week Virginia Tech will be going down to Atlanta for the SELC tournament.  Check back for updates on who they play and how it went.

Virginia Tech Remains Undefeated At Home

On Saturday the Hokies played Clemson, a team they lost to in the Fall.  Virginia Tech knew they had something to prove.  Clemson also knew they had a target on their backs and came to play.  The Hokies were in the lead the whole time, but never pulled away.  Both defenses were playing well, and both goalies were making important saves.  At half time the score was only 3-2 Virginia Tech.  In the 3rd quarter VT started to pull away scoring 4 to make it 7-3.  After that it returned to a back and forth game.  The final score was 11-6

On Sunday Tech had a divisional game against South Carolina.  If the Hokies lost they could pretty much kiss both the SELC and national tournament goodbye.  South Carolina had beaten Pitt the day before so Tech knew they had to really take it to um.  At halftime it was 9-4.  A 5 goal lead is just enough to make a team relax and let the other team back in the game; sometimes.  Luckily for the Hokies they didn't slow down one bit, in fact, they actually picked it up and looked sharper.  The final tally was 20-6.  Next weekend the Hokies finish out the regular season with away games at ECU and NC State.

Pitt fought but fell

Virginia Tech scored early and often.  After jumping out to a 5-0 start the Hokies started to slow down.  Pitt fought back and started to make a come back.  At halftime the Hokies were up 7-4.  Virginia Tech went into the half knowing they could play better, but definitely with momentum.  The VT offense scored 3 goals in the last 40 seconds of the first half.  The rest of the game was back and forth.  Tech had multiple 10 second possessions where they would clear it, run down, shoot, and not back up the shot.  Now, Tech's transition game is good, but there were too many careless turnovers.  Tech outscored the Panthers 7-5 in the second half making the final score, 14-9.  Hokies play Clemson tomorrow and South Carolina on Sunday.  Check back in for those recaps.

Wake Forest Worries Tech

These two teams played each other in the Fall tournament at Clemson.  During that game the Hokies played well and the Wake goalie showed his talent, but Tech came out well on top.  This spring game was very different.  Tech came out pretty flat and wake capitalized early.  At the end of the first quarter it was 2-1 Wake and at the half it was 5-4 Wake.  Then after being getting a moment at halftime to regroup and get fired up, the Hokies came out swinging.  Wake never gave up a large lead, but the Hokies remained in the lead the rest of the game.  Both teams goalies' played well making many clutch saves, but the fire power of Virginia Tech was too much in the end.  The final score was 10-8.  Wake falls to 3-1 in the division and Tech moves to 1-0 (6-2 overall).  The Hokies have Easter weekend off, but the next weekend they host Pitt, Clemson, and South Carolina for Friday, Saturday and Sunday home games.  Check back in for recaps of the Hokies last three home games.

Florida State Battle

I thought the game against Tennessee was good, but the VT vs. FSU game was a battle.  Lead changes back and forth in the first half lead to a tie game at the half, 6-6.  Then Florida State really turned it on in the third quarter scoring six more goals to the Hokies two to lead 12-8.  Early in the fourth quarter the Seminoles scored another to get the largest lead of the game.  Then the Hokies started fighting back scoring five to make it a one goal game, 14-13.  With less than one minute left David Stanton shot hard and the ball trickled passed the goalies legs, unfortunately for the Hokies, it didn't role passed the goal line too.  As the sidelines erupt thinking it had gone in, they slowly realized that it didn't count and were still down by one.  The final whistle blew and Tech suffered another close, one goal loss.  The difference between losing by one to Florida State and losing by one to Florida is that against FSU the Hokies actually played well.  Against Florida, Tech played a very sloppy second half and had to face the consequences.  Virginia Tech is now 5-2, with the last four games being decided by one goal.  They play Wake Forest at home on Wednesday and then have Easter weekend off.  Check back in for the recap of their first division game.

Vols Fall

Tennessee has been overlooked, they lost to Lindenwood by just one earlier this season and now suffer another close game loss.  This match up was expected to be a good one and it delivered.  This was a battle; a very physical, gritty game.  There wasn't ever a large lead because there just weren't many goals scored.  At halftime the Hokies were up just 3-1.  In the fourth quarter the Vols came back and tied it up twice.  As the fourth quarter came to an end the scoreboard read 8-8.  Virginia Tech midfielder Steve Smith won the face off in overtime and just 12 seconds later the Virginia Tech sidelines stormed the field.  The Hokie defense played great all game, shutting down the Vols extra man offense most of the night.  C.J. Babb had a lot of ground balls and good stripping checks.  The story of the game, though, has to be back up goalie Ryan Alfieri stepping up huge in the absence of Kevin Hia.  Alfieri had many clutch saves and on every clear his passes were dead on.  Tomorrow is the biggest test so far for the Hokies, Florida State.

Florida and Georgia

Over the weekend the Hokies traveled to Athens, Georgia to play two games.  On Saturday was Florida and Sunday was Georgia.  Saturday's game was was the tale of two halves.  The Gators were the first to score but Tech answered quickly and gained a four goal lead.  Florida scored three quick ones right before half time to make it 10-8 with the Hokies still in the lead.  After halftime the momentum had changed and Tech just ran out of gas.  Florida was clearly better conditioned.  Simply put, Virginia Tech didn't play a full 60 minutes and Florida did.  The final score was 14-13 Florida.

Then on Sunday, Tech looked flat.  Maybe it was the rain, the travel, or the disappointing loss the day before.  No matter what, there is no excuse for how they played.  There were good plays, don't get me wrong, Tech did have some pretty goals, but everyone had a lot they could improve on.  Again, Tech failed to show up in the second half and let Georgia right back in the game after having a pretty good lead early on.  Georgia tied it up with a couple minutes left.  The Hokies had two penalties at the end of the game, the second coming as an early release of the first making the Hokies play man down the last minute and a half of regulation.  The man down squad stepped up big with C.J. Babb making a clutch interception in the final seconds to force overtime.  A minute or so into overtime the ball was fed to Kevin Hayden on the crease who dumped it in for the win.  Virginia Tech is now 4-1 and faces two tough opponents, Florida State and Tennessee, next weekend in Knoxville.

Marquette comes and goes

On Thursday the Hokies had their first home game of the season.  Marquette is on spring break and stopped in Blacksburg after visiting East Carolina earlier in the week.  Virginia Tech came out strong and gained a four goal lead within a few minutes.  After the resulting time out taken by Marquette things started to slow down.  The lead was 9-3 at half time.  The refs were calling it very tight for both teams.  If you checked hard you got called, no matter where you hit.  There were some very pretty goals, but the stand out player in my opinion was Steve Smith, the face off man for Virginia Tech.  He won the first four or five face offs giving the Hokies a constant stream of possession.  It's hard to retaliate if you're Marquette when you can't get the ball in your offensive zone.  Without him Marquette could have answered back early and not let Tech get some momentum.  Check back in tomorrow to see how Tech fares against their toughest opponent yet, the Florida Gators.

Complete turn around

As I said, the Hokies wanted to improve in a lot of areas, and improve they did.  In Sunday's game against Purdue, Virginia Tech looked unstoppable.  They came out to a 6-0 start in the first quarter and built on it throughout the game.  The score was 11-2 at halftime.  Again, Jonathan Tuttle had one of the nicest goals of the game.  He caught it with his back facing the goal and tucked it between his legs without looking.  By the end of the game the score was 16-3 and the Boilermakers looked deflated.  After Virginia Tech's lackluster performance Saturday, today was a much needed reassurance that they are indeed still a force to be reckoned with in the SELC.  The next game is March 18th at home against Marquette.  Until then be sure to check in when I will be posting pictures of the new equipment and apparel, and yes, they are rocking the brand new Cascade Pro 7.

First game

The Hokies just won their first game against Vanderbilt.  They couldn't get it going at the start as the Commodores drew first blood.  The Hokies answered quickly and got the lead back.  After that the flood of penalties hit, and both teams faced many odd man opportunities.  The Commodores even had three separate two man advantages.  All in all the refs were calling it tight for both teams.  Both man down squads were doing a decent job, but the fire power of Virginia Tech couldn't be held back forever.  The defining moment of the game was when Jonathan Tuttle had a behind the back goal in the fourth quarter to give Virginia Tech a solid lead.  The final score was 13-10 Hokies.  They face Purdue tomorrow and look to improve in a lot of areas.

Season starts in two weeks

The Virginia Tech club lacrosse team kicks off their regular season in two weeks with a trip to Nashville, Tennessee.  They will be playing Vanderbilt on Saturday the 27th and Purdue on Sunday the 28th.  Since the entire state, it seems, is covered in at least a foot of snow the Hokies have only been able to practice a fraction of their normal days and look to shake off some rust on opening weekend.  The team has depth as always, but whether or not losing two all star defenseman in Pat O'Keefe and David Gouldey will have some effect remains to be seen.  In the fall the Hokies went to Hood College for a few games and Clemson for a tournament.  In Clemson the Hokies came out with the best record, only losing one game, but had a surprising loss to Clemson.  It's obvious that Tech has new motivation for their rematch on April 10th, but a lot of this season is still a mystery.  Speculation is pretty worthless after all, this is all just a preview and no one watches a preview and thinks they've seen the movie.  Check back in for actual scores and thoughts as the season continues.