Virginia, UMass reach NCAA lacrosse final

PHILADELPHIA (AP) _ Undefeated Virginia beat Syracuse 17-10 Saturday to advance to the NCAA men's lacrosse championship, taking a big lead in the first quarter and scoring three goals early in the

Saturday, May 27th 2006, 6:07 pm

By: News On 6

PHILADELPHIA (AP) _ Undefeated Virginia beat Syracuse 17-10 Saturday to advance to the NCAA men's lacrosse championship, taking a big lead in the first quarter and scoring three goals early in the fourth to put the game out of reach.

The top-seeded Cavaliers will play for the title Monday against Massachusetts, which upset second-seeded Maryland 8-5 in the first semifinal to reach its first championship game. UMass is the first unseeded team to reach the finals since the Terrapins did it in 1997.

Virginia (16-0) was led by Matt Ward with four goals and Garrett Billings with three. The Cavaliers built an 8-2 lead in the first quarter, keyed by consecutive goals from Billings and fellow freshmen Danny Glading and Steve Giannone.

It was the second time this year the Cavaliers beat the Orange. Virginia topped Syracuse 20-15 in March as the Orange sputtered to a 1-4 start.

``Beating Syracuse once in a season is a notable feat, beating them twice is particularly noteworthy,'' Virginia coach Dom Starsia said.

Syracuse (10-5) rallied with five second-quarter goals to cut Virginia's lead to 10-7 at the half and stayed close through the third quarter. But the Cavaliers poured it on the final quarter, getting three straight goals to go up 15-8.

``Anytime we got any kind of a run on them ... they'd come back with a goal,'' Syracuse attackman Brian Crockett said.

Glading, Jared Little and Matt Poskay added two goals each for Virginia. Crockett, Brett Bucktooth and Kenny Nims each scored twice for Syracuse.

Bucktooth, Syracuse's leading scorer, was a nonfactor after scoring two first-half goals.

``When I'd go through the middle, I'd get cut off by a short-stick,'' Bucktooth said.

Orange goaltender Peter Coluccini had a tough time in the first quarter against the Cavaliers, which scored on all eight shots they took. The freshman goaltender didn't have a save until 10:22 left in the second quarter.

``We thought the kid in goal, Coluccini, had been playing much better for them. We really thought if we got to him early in the game, we would be able to dictate the flow of the game a little bit better,'' Starsia said.

In the opener, Massachusetts got three goals from Sean Morris while Brian Jacovina and Jake Deane tied the record for fastest consecutive goals by one team with two in 5 seconds. Army (1999) and Butler (2004) are the only other teams to accomplish the feat.

The Minutemen (13-4) held Maryland's star attackman Joe Walters without a point for only the third time this season. Walters, who came into the game as the leading active scorer in Division I with 227 career points, was last held scoreless in Maryland's 11-5 loss to Virginia in the ACC finals.

``We played a lot of defense, especially in the second and fourth quarter,'' UMass coach Greg Cannella said. ``I thought the plan on defense was great and we did a great job on some talented players.''

Maryland rallied with a pair of goals early in the fourth to cut the lead to 6-4, but Jim Connolly halted the run with his second goal of the game. Maryland (11-6) scored once more before Morris sealed the game and got the hat trick after stutter-stepping by a defender to beat goaltender Harry Alford with 6:33 to go.

``We really needed (the final goal) for momentum at that point. It killed what they had going and got us going back on defense,'' Morris said.

Maryland has had a tough time in the tournament the last five years _ losing twice in the semifinals and three times in the quarters since 2001. The Terrapins haven't won the title since 1975. UMass was making its first appearance in the semifinals.

The semifinals drew 49,562, the fourth straight year the event has set an attendance mark.

The sport of lacrosse has come under some scrutiny this year following the suspension of Duke's team in late March amid allegations that players raped a stripper hired for a team party. Three players have been charged in the case. Duke lost in the championship game last year to Johns Hopkins.