April 6, 2007

The Virginia field hockey team will host some of the nation's top teams in the 2007 Fun in the Sun Tournament on Saturday, April 7. In-state rivals ODU, JMU, Richmond, Longwood and Radford will join the Cavaliers along with top-20 teams American, Rutgers and Syracuse.

Teams will compete in two pools of five teams (Rutgers will field two squads) in a format modeled after the competition at the Olympic Games. Virginia is in a pool along with NCAA participant American, Radford, Rutgers (2), and Syracuse.

The Cavaliers returned to the NCAA Championships in 2007 under the leadership of National Coach of the Year Michele Madison and her staff of Associate Head Coach Chris Spice, Alex Kyser and Christina Kirkaldy. Virginia was ranked as high as No. 4 in the nation and advanced to both the ACC semifinals and the NCAA quarterfinals, knocking off three top-10 teams along the way. The Cavaliers finished with a record of 14-8 against the nation's fifth-toughest schedule.

Virginia's Inge Kaars Sijpesteijn earned first-team All-American honors while Traci Ragukas was named to the National All-Rookie team.

"I know the team looks forward to spring games," said Madison. "We get to tryout all the new things we have been working on in practice."

Competition starts on Saturday, Apil 7 at 9:30 am at University Hall Turf Field.