U.Va. lacrosse teams see return to field as a time to heal

By Hank Kurz Jr.

Virginia women's lacrosse coach Julie Myers said Monday her players were emphatic about continuing the season to honor slain teammate Yeardley Love, and that she encouraged coach Dom Starsia to have the men play on also.

"Lacrosse brought us together, and lacrosse is their common theme as well," Myers said a week after Love, 22, was found dead.

Cavaliers men's lacrosse player George Huguely faces first-degree murder charges in her death.

Since the tragedy, Myers said any time the teams spend together "can be really helpful."

The women's players were asked whether they wanted to continue the season during a gathering last Tuesday, Myers said.

"The girls were pretty emphatic that if we could, they wanted to" keep playing, Myers said. "They really thought it was going to be important in their healing and just doing it with Yeardley in their mind and Yeardley in their heart."

Starsia said he asked Myers last Tuesday what her team's intentions were, which seemed to surprise her, as though there was no question they would play on.

"I personally felt like it was helpful for the women to make a decision before we did anything," Starsia said, "and she said, 'Hey Dom, we want you guys to play.' "

Both teams, buoyed by the blessing of Love's family, will host first-round games in the NCAA tournament this weekend, with the men playing Saturday night and the women on Sunday.

Myers said the time her players spend with each other has seemed to help them the most. The women's team attended Love's funeral Saturday in Baltimore, and practiced in Maryland on Sunday.

"We've had a lot of opportunities to be together as a team and each one of them had been filled with emotion, but at the end of each meeting, we've felt a step closer to Yeardley and the Love family and a step closer toward trying to make sense of this," Myers said.

Starsia has had other family issues. His father, ailing since February, died Friday in Charlottesville, and Starsia was leaving for New York on Monday for a wake and funeral. He did not expect to return until late Wednesday.

That will give him only few days to get ready for his top-seeded Cavaliers' game Saturday night against Mount St. Mary's. The women play Towson on Sunday afternoon.

It was important for Starsia, he said, to reunite with the team at practice Sunday.

"These players are almost like family," he said. "There was a big hole there that needed to be filled and I can tell you, the players may have been looking forward to getting on the field, but I was really looking forward to seeing them and getting out there myself."

Myers said she has received a huge outpouring of support from inside - and outside - the tight-knit lacrosse community.

"How great is it that people want to see us do well?" she said. "Our real main focus is let's do it right, let's do it the way that Yeardley would want us to do it."

And by continuing to play, she said, the team will continue to heal.

"We really need to be here next week," she said, "so that we can get a little bit stronger."