Kiara Porter ran for the United States at the 2012 World Junior Championships.

RICHMOND, Va. – Her name is Kiara Porter. She’s 5-feet tall, from Yorktown, and is most likely faster than you. In the time it takes you to walk to the copier, she can win a gold medal.

Just a sophomore, she’s already broken or assisted in six school records, won seven conference titles and represented the United States in the 1,600-meter relay at the World Junior Track and Field Championships in Barcelona last summer, where she won – you guessed it – a gold medal. Earlier this month, she was named the most outstanding performer of the Atlantic 10 Conference Outdoor Championships after winning four events. By several units of measure – particularly at 400 meters – she’s the fastest woman in VCU in history. It’s not by accident.

“Everything I put on paper, she tries to hit it,” says VCU Track Coach Jon Riley. “She’s just focused. Her work ethic and her work capacity to do a lot of intensity is high. She has a high threshold for pain. That makes her very successful.”

All that pain has been worth plenty of gain for the rising junior. While many of her peers are just starting to hit their athletic stride, figuratively speaking, Porter is eying the next big thing. For her, that’s reaching in the NCAA Championships in Eugene, Ore. in June.

On May 24-25, Porter will run the 400 at the NCAA East Preliminary meet in Greensboro, N.C., where the field will first be paired down from 48 runners to 27. The quarterfinals will then decide which 12 will head to Oregon. Last year, Porter survived the first cut. But in the quarterfinals, she placed fifth in her heat in 53.28, the 15^th-fastest time, three spots from advancing.

While she would have liked to move on, she was one of just two freshmen in the top 15. Porter was already blowing expectations out of the water.

“I really enjoyed regionals,” Porter says. “It was really fun for me to run against those girls. Some of those girls, I’ve run against before during the season, some of them I haven’t. So, it was great competition and running at that caliber, with those girls, trying to get to nationals. I was happy with the place I came in. I think I was ranked 17^th going in and I finished 15^th, so I was very proud of that accomplishment.”

Heading into the weekend, Porter is again ranked 17^th in the East Region.

Two VCU women have reached the NCAA Championships in a track event –Beth Green and Maria Elena-Calle – none since 1997. The last Ram to advance to the NCAA Championships in any event was Tanika Brown in 2005. So, while Porter’s chase for a trip to Eugene represents a potential milestone in her career, it represents a similar opportunity for the VCU Track and Field program.

In five years under Riley, VCU will have made nine appearances at the NCAA East Regional, including Porter and thrower Jaleesa Williams this year. But an actual NCAA Championship qualifier has been elusive.

“I think it’s really important,” Riley admits. “Not only for her, but for the program, and she can do anything she puts her mind to.”

The importance and the scale of the event are not lost on Porter.

“It’s a great motivator,” she says. “Just getting to the NCAA Regional is a great accomplishment, but just leaving there and doing something farther than that is a great motivation for me.”

Porter with her four gold medals from the A-10 Championship meet earlier this month.

To survive and advance, Porter will likely have to run faster than ever before. A finance major, Porter is no stranger to the idea that numbers, however small, can have dramatic impacts. Like in finance, trimming a number here or moving a decimal point there can go a long way. The difference between a trip to Oregon and a ticket home last year for Porter was five-tenths of a second, less time than it takes you to check your review mirror. But that’s the difference at the elite level. At last year’s East Regional, the top eight finishers in the 400-meter quarterfinal were all separated by less than a second.

Although she’s run as fast as 53.07 this season, she and Riley know she’ll have to probably crack the 53-second barrier to break into the top 12. To do it, and Riley believes steadfastly she can, Porter will have to smooth the minutia of her mechanics and mental approach, things unnoticeable to casual observers. Riley has developed a game plan for Porter that he hopes will get her through the first 200 meters in around 25 seconds flat, about two seconds slower than her personal-best time in a 200-meter race this season. If she can do that, Riley says, an NCAA bid could be there for the taking.

Riley says he wants Porter to accelerate through the first 50 meters, then transition into a glide – settling into a comfortable pace – for the next 150. He hopes that will leave Porter with plenty of gas for the final 200 meters, when she can kick into overdrive.

What runners know that others may not, is that you can expend energy very differently over the same distance. How you run a race can make all the difference between having that final kick or fading away. There’s a balance to it all. Think of the scene in Apollo 13, in that, the sequences in which you turn on your equipment can burn differing amounts of energy.

“As long as we follow the game plan, I think we’ll have some success,” Riley says. “They have seven other people on the track, and they’re going to all follow a game plan, but it’s all about who runs the fastest to advance. But I like her chances based on what I’ve seen this past week.”

Sophomore Cindy Chala will be the first VCU woman to play in the NCAA Singles Championships since 2006

RICHMOND, Va. – It’s been a spring of change for Cindy Chala. Since January, she’s forged ahead in a new country with a new culture. School has been different, the people are new and the tennis has been a revelation.

All that change has added up to a pretty successful debut for the VCU sophomore, who will compete in the NCAA Singles Championships this week. Play begins in the singles draw on Wednesday, May 22 at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex in Urbana, Ill.

Chala, ranked 76^th nationally by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA), earned the Atlantic 10 Conference’s automatic bid for the field of 64. She’s the first VCU woman to earn a berth in the NCAA Singles Championships since Tatsiana Uvarova in 2006. Draws for the singles bracket will be released following the NCAA Team Championship on Tuesday evening. If Chala reaches the quarterfinals, as Uvarova did in 2006, she’ll earn All-America status.

It’s been a busy few months for the native of Versailles, France. Chala had been home schooled since she was 13 as she focused on her tennis career. But chronic back injuries led her rethink her options. As is the case for many European athletes, Chala eyed the unique opportunity provided by colleges in the United States to marry their academic and athletic pursuits.

The decision has paid off on both fronts for Chala, who is majoring in Business and Psychology, although she had to get used to the inside of a classroom again.

“It’s tough to stay focused,” she joked. “But I like it. The school is different here in the U.S. We have so many different classes, and I like it. It’s not like in France. You can touch on everything.”

She’s gotten acclimated on the tennis court quickly as well.

Chala finished 14-4 in singles play this spring for the VCU Women’s Tennis squad, which won the A-10 Championship. Chala’s losses have come to players currently ranked seventh, 12^th, 53^rd and 77^th, respectively, by the ITA. Three of those four have qualified for the NCAA Singles Championships. Chala was named the A-10’s Most Outstanding Player, as well as the ITA’s Atlantic Region Player to Watch, awarded to student-athletes expected to contend for a regional crown in 2013-14.

She credits the work of the VCU training staff, as well as Rams’ Assistant Tennis Coach Yana Carollo with keeping her healthy this spring. She also says VCU’s schedule, which usually features one or two matches a week, is easier on her compact frame than the five or six matches a week she played in France.

“It’s been a long time [since] I’ve played a few months in a row without injury,” Chala said. “I didn’t think I’d play that much, so I’m very happy.”

Chala began playing tennis when she was six years old, but jokes that she was “clumsy” and that “nobody wanted to teach me because I was so bad”. But she’s not clumsy anymore. Although she says she’s battled back trouble since she was 13, Chala is healthy as she looks ahead to the NCAA Singles Championships. Like most things during her first year at VCU, from the food, to school, to the people, to the tennis, she says she’ll keep an open mind.

“We’ll see,” she says. “I don’t have expectations because it’s my first year, but hopefully I’ll do well.”

Fans can follow VCU’s Cindy Chala, as well as Rams’ senior Max Wennakoski in the men’s draw, at http://www.fightingillini.com/ncaatennis2013/.

Former VCU Volleyball standout Anett Farkas is trying to crack into the world of fashion with FRSHSqueezed.com.

RICHMOND, Va. – While senioritis crept in on her peers, Anett Farkas chose to finish her college career with style.

Farkas, a three-year volleyball standout for VCU, graduated Saturday with a degree in Fashion Merchandising, but not before she got a head start on her career. In January, Farkas and friend Carlos Funn, a professional photographer, founded the fashion blog FRSHSqueezed.com. Farkas writes and edits the blog, while Funn’s photography gives the site a refined visual edge.

When the curtain fell on Farkas’ volleyball career in November, she looked to occupy her time with new projects. When she returned from winter break this year, she and Funn launched FRSHSqueezed.

“The blog is a really good place to channel my energies,” Farkas, who calls her personal style sort of an American-European fusion, says. “I didn’t think it would be this much work, but it’s a lot of fun.”

Online, Farkas models some of her favorite styles, provides fashion tips and reports on local fashion fare. She does so while appealing to more than just a Richmond audience. A native of Budapest, Hungary, the site is written in both English and Hungarian, which Farkas hopes will invite readers from her native country.

“I thought it would be a good idea because I didn’t want the Hungarian aspect to be lost,” Farkas, 21, said. “I’m actually very excited that I’m building my Hungarian followers, and I’ve had quite a few likes on Facebook that are from Hungary and people that I don’t know, and that’s what gets me super excited.”

Although still in its infancy, Farkas and Funn have already seen modest success. Earlier this year, they struck a partnership with Dillard’s in Short Pump which allows Farkas to choose styles directly off the retailer’s floor and model them on FRSHSqueezed. Recently, Richmond, Virginia Fashion Bloggers (RVAFB, for short) featured FRSHSqueezed on their “Saturday Spotlight”, which casts a light on local fashion bloggers. FRSHSqueezed’s Facebook page has already accumulated nearly 3,000 “likes”.

A 6-foot-2 outside hitter, Farkas averaged 2.33 kills per set in 2012.

Farkas also worked as a runway model for VCU Catalyst, a show featuring clothing by VCU Fashion Design and Merchandising students, at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts on May 5. Not only did Farkas model at the show, but she was able to report on it for FRSHSqueezed.

Now that she’s graduated, Farkas says she plans on investing herself in the site even further. There are a number of plans in the works, she says, and she and Funn hope to monetize the site in the near future.

“It’s definitely evolving,” Farkas, a two-year starter at outside hitter for the Rams, says, “But I’m excited that school’s ending because I can really dive into it.”

While it’s a labor of love for Farkas, she says there are other motivations for the blog. Farkas, who recently completed a marketing internship with Sue Williams and Colleagues in Church Hill, says she’d like to find a job in the fashion industry in the United States, and the blog could help her stand out. What better way to market yourself than with a successful blog that incorporates modeling, writing, marketing, fashion forecasting, social media saavy, smart aesthetics and a heap of initiative? It’s like a LinkedIn profile meets Vogue.

“I can kind of have that as a reference, [and say] ‘This is my thing, I built it from zero to here in this much time. I think I can do that for your company, and I do have ideas.’”

Click to follow FRSHSqueezed on Facebook or Twitter, or search FRSHSqueezed on Instagram.

Will Wade spent four years as an assistant on Shaka Smart’s staff. The Rams won 111 games over that stretch.

I can’t remember who said it, but a basketball coach once told me that he wanted assistant coaches on his staff that wanted to be head coaches someday. It’s a simple point, but an important one. It all goes back to drive and motivation and self-actualization, but in the end, everybody benefits.

You can also usually tell how successful a coach has been by the number of assistants who have become head coaches somewhere; guys who have theoretically developed under his leadership and become great leaders themselves. It also means you’re hiring great coaches to begin with, but you get the idea.

At a press conference in Tennessee Tuesday, Will Wade will be introduced as head coach at Chattanooga, the third Smart assistant to become a Division I head coach. He joins Mike Jones (Radford) and Jamion Christian (Mount St. Mary’s) on Smart’s “coaching tree”.

Jones and Christian each walked into rebuilding situations, as Wade will with the Mocs, and each has earned a measure of success in a short time. Mike Jones, about as good a guy as there is in coaching, took over a one-win debacle and has won six and 13 games, respectively, the during his two seasons. In the two years prior to Christian’s arrival in Emmitsburg, Md., The Mount won 19 games. Last year, his first at the helm, it won 18 and reached the NEC Championship Game.

I have no doubt that Wade will enjoy similar success. He’s about as good a basketball mind as I’ve met. A terrific recruiter, the guy literally lives to coach basketball. He’ll do fine. Wade will be missed, however. Even at 30, he’s probably forgotten more about hoops than I’ll know. I enjoyed the conversations I had with him following VCU’s Final Four run when we were putting together a commemorative Ram Report. He gave me great stuff, especially about the Rams’ unforgettable overtime win over Florida State. From the magazine:

I thought the most improbable of the wins was Florida State. I had the scout going into that game, and Coach Smart looked at me and said, ‘what are we going to do to beat them?’ I said, ‘it’s going to be tough.’

Florida State’s fourth, fifth and sixth post players would start on any team in our league. That’s no exaggeration. Their fifth and sixth post players would’ve started at center for us. I just thought their depth and the bodies, that was the one team that physically [was a problem]. It didn’t do me any better when I went and watched them during shootaround.

I thought Florida State was the toughest matchup. They’re so long, so big. They’re huge at every position, they have a 27-year-old guy in the post against D.J. [Haley]. The way they fly at the 3-point line I thought was going to give us problems. Our guys did a good job of making the extra pass. I thought it was a poor matchup for us.

– Will Wade (April, 2011)

I appreciated his candor. It really helped make the magazine memorable. I wish Will the best of luck. Like Mike Jones and Jamion Christian, he’s a terrific guy, easy to root for.

Moving forward, Smart will undoubtedly fill his staff with men he thinks will make great head coaches one day, and VCU will benefit, at the very least, in the short term. And everybody wins. The beat goes on…

P.S.: We will miss this suit combo most of all. Thanks to thegalen for the screen cap.

I may be combining my Camden Yards trips, but I remember we had great seats, third base side. I do know it was close enough that if you wanted to heckle Lou Pinella to the point where he’d give you a death glare, you could do that. Not that I…I mean you, would. I’m just saying. Let’s move on.

Bobbleheads in hand, we headed out to Fell’s Point for an evening of revelry and a dead-ringer of a Darkness cover band. We capped our night at the Sip & Bite on Boston St. Behind the counter was a man who could have passed for John Turturro’s character from “Mr. Deeds”, if he had been fired from his job as Adam Sandler’s butler and confidante and been forced to take a job at a late night diner in Baltimore. Our Turturro doppelganger took quite an interest in our Palmeiro bobbleheads. It was late, but I would swear to you that he would literally pop up, unannounced, from behind the counter every 15 minutes or so to say, “you want bobblehead? How much? I give you 10 dollars.” I think he upped his offer to as much as the hard-to-refuse amount of $12.75. Defiant pseudo-baseball collectors that  we were, we declined these increasingly strange plays for our wobbly trinkets. So much for that. While my Raffy bobblehead collects dust somewhere in my attic, I could’ve at least picked up a couple of I love Delaware t-shirts at the I-95 truck stop on the way home.

If you were thinking that reading through that meandering account of some baseball game I attended nine years ago was going to yield some kind of payoff to you, the reader, well, think again…I mean, you’re right!

That Palmeiro bobblehead was the last one I bothered to collect, until now. On Friday, May 17 (7:05 p.m.) the Richmond Flying Squirrels will give away a limited number of Shaka Smart bobbleheads. I need one of these for my office, like, yesterday. Four years ago, people didn’t really know who Shaka Smart was, but when the Squirrels conducted an online poll in the offseason to ask fans who they’d like to see on a bobblehead, Shaka Smart’s name topped, among others, Frank Beamer (there is a Frank Beamer bobblehead night July 19, but Shaka won the poll, so take that, Hokies!). So get there Friday and get your bobblehead. Put in your kid’s room to scare them at night, adorn your bookshelves with them, use them as a conversation piece on your coffee table, whatever you want, just get to The Diamond early. I hear some guy who looks like Knish from “Rounders” plans on buying up as many of them as he can. Click for Flying Squirrels ticket info.

VCU senior Troy Daniels will work out for NBA scouts May 22-23 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

RICHMOND, Va. – Troy Daniels made a career out of connecting on long shots. So what’s one more?

Daniels has been invited to an NBA workout May 22-23 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. Representatives from all 30 NBA teams are expected to attend.

“It’s time to get a job now. This is a lot different than college,” Daniels said Thursday. “It’s a great feeling. “It’s something that you dream about when you’re younger and it’s finally coming true now.”

Despite his sharpshooting credentials – Daniels ranks second in school history in 3-pointers (251) and owns the top two single season marks – the senior from Roanoke, Va. likely faces an uphill battle. He’s currently not expected to be drafted and is not listed among the top 100 NBA prospects by NBADraftExpress.com, NBADraft.net or CBS Sports’ Jeff Goodman.

But Daniels, who will graduate from VCU Saturday with a degree in criminal justice, says that won’t be a deterrent. He’s says he’s been working out twice a day, fine-tuning his skills and hopes to grab the attention of scouts and executives in Brooklyn. He’s also recently worked out with former Ram Eric Maynor of the Portland Trail Blazers, who typically spends much of his offseason in Richmond.

“I’ve been doing two-a-days lately, been working in my ball handling, working on different stuff that NBA scouts look for,” said Daniels, who averaged 12.4 points per game this season. “They know I can shoot the ball, but they want to see some more stuff, so I’ve just been working on that stuff.”

One thing is certain. Daniels’ shooting ability is not in question. The 6-foot-4 guard shot 40 percent (124-of-308) from beyond the arc in 2012-13. Daniels ranked seventh nationally in 3-pointers per game (3.44) and hit a Division I season-best 11 in a game at East Tennessee State on Jan. 2. More importantly, Daniels has shown he is comfortable from NBA 3-point range – 23 feet, 9 inches – which is three feet deeper than the college arc. Frankly, there are few spots on the floor, save the water cooler, where Daniels didn’t look comfortable pulling up from three.

If nothing else, NBA history is littered with notable 3-point specialists (Craig Hodges, Steve Kerr, J.J. Redick, Kyle Korver), not to mention undrafted-to-renown players (John Starks, Gary Neal, Mario Elie, Jeremy Lin, J.J. Barea, Brad Miller, Bruce Bowen, Avery Johnson, Ben Wallace).

Two former Rams, Maynor and Larry Sanders of the Milwaukee Bucks, are currently playing in the NBA. In recent years, a number have also secured workouts with individual teams and/or a spot in one of the NBA summer leagues. Bradford Burgess, Jamie Skeen, Jamal Shuler and Nick George have all received varying levels of NBA interest in recent years.

It’s highly likely that Daniels will have the option of playing in Europe, should he not garner further NBA interest. A number of former Rams, Shuler, Skeen, George and B.A. Walker, to name a few, have carved out solid pro careers across the pond. But first, Daniels wants to fully explore his NBA options.

Daniels ranked seventh nationally in 3-pointers per game this season (3.44).

“This is something that you dream about, and you just want to work at it as hard as you can,” he said. “I don’t want to close any doors, but obviously the NBA is my first goal and everybody wants to play in the NBA,” he said. “So it’s going to be different going out there and seeing your goal right there.”

As many as 45 draft-eligible hopefuls are expected to take part in the two-day workout for scouts, including familiar faces Khalif Wyatt of Temple, the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year, Brandon Triche of Syracuse, Nate Wolters of South Dakota State and Phil Pressey of Missouri. While the workout schedule isn’t yet available, Daniels says he’ll be prepared regardless.

“I can tell you I will be ready,” he said. “This opportunity only comes once, maybe, so I’m going to definitely take advantage of it.”

The NBA Draft will be held June 27 at Barclays Center. The NBA Las Vegas Summer League will be held July 12-22, while league training camps will open in October.

Players expected to attend (via Chad Ford, ESPN): Pierre Jackson, Nate Wolters, Phil Pressey, Matthew Dellavedova, Peyton Siva, Josiah Turner, Larry Drew III, Julius Mays, Ricky Ledo, Vander Blue, Khalif Wyatt, Brandon Paul, Michael Snaer, Carrick Felix, Brandon Triche, Marcos Knight, Troy Daniels, Angelo Sharpless, Solomon Hill, James Ennis, Rodney Williams, Christian Watford, C.J. Aiken, Robert Covington, Trevor Releford, Amath M’Baye, D.J. Stephens, Laurence Bowers, Richard Howell, Alex Oriakhi, Romero Osby, Elias Harris, Trevor Mbakwe, Jack Cooley, Marshawn Powell, Jamelle Hagins, Arsalan Kazemi, Colton Iverson, Kenny Kadji, Marcus Dedmon, Jared Berggren, Jake Cohen, A.J. Matthews, Jason Washburn.

Sophomore Heath Dwyer is 6-5 with a 2.88 ERA for VCU this season.

RICHMOND, Va. – The son of two part-time actors, VCU sophomore Heath Dwyer appears to have inherited a flair for the dramatic.

Dwyer, who nearly majored in theater at VCU, has played the part of a hero of late, delivering a handful of potentially season-saving performances. In his last three starts, the left-handed pitcher has thrown three complete games and is 2-1 with a 1.73 ERA.

He should’ve taken a bow after his last effort. On May 4 against first-place Saint Louis, Dwyer outdueled Alex Alemann, one of the Atlantic 10’s top pitchers, spinning a five-hit, 10-strikeout, complete-game shutout. The win helped the Rams take two of three from the Billikens and kept VCU’s A-10 Tournament hopes alive. Gutty and important as Dwyer’s gem was to VCU, especially for a sophomore, it did not catch Rams’ Coach Shawn Stiffler by surprise.

“I’ve never looked up and thought, this occasion is too big for him,” Stiffler said. “[He has] a maturity level of, you can drop him in New York with a quarter, and he can get home.”

Dwyer’s recent efforts suggest a potentially climactic ending to the Chandler, Ariz. native’s breakout season. In 12 starts, including four complete games, the 6-foot-3 southpaw is 6-5 with a 2.88 ERA. He’s thrown an Atlantic 10-high 90 2/3 innings and has struck out a VCU-best 72.

While Dwyer has been VCU’s best starting pitcher for much of the season, he’s elevated himself to an all-league level in recent weeks, performances he says are the result of improved command.

“The key to starting pitching is being able to have three pitches you can locate in the zone,” Dwyer says. “And that’s a fight for me. That’s my fight, is to able to throw my fastball, curveball and changeup in the zone, and when I can we see what happens, like Saint Louis, I can just, groove.”

Dwyer has come a long way in a short time to become the protagonist of VCU’s rotation. Two years ago, he didn’t have a Division I scholarship offer. He was planning on heading to junior college until former Ram Jamie Brewington, who pitched briefly in the majors, provided late VCU Coach Paul Keyes with a tip on Dwyer. Brewington had seen Dwyer’s effortless motion, his mid-80s fastball, solid changeup and sweeping, 12-to-6 curveball and told Keyes the Corona Del Sol High School senior deserved a look.  Keyes was already traveling to Arizona to recruit current Ram Jordan Weymouth, so on Brewington’s advice, he scouted Dwyer as well. He obviously liked what he saw.

“I’m happy I got the opportunity,” Dwyer said. “I guess all I needed was one [offer].”

During his official visit, Stiffler says it was obvious Dwyer would stand out from his peers. Growing up, Dwyer fell in love with acting and was involved in several stage productions. In high school, he portrayed Hamlet in a spoof of the Shakespearean tragedy. Dwyer also plays the guitar and enjoys strumming Rush hits like “Tom Sawyer”, an appropriately individualistic jam.

“If you knew Heath, you would know he’s a guy, him moving to the East Coast as an 18-year-old kid, he would not be scared of that,” he said. “He would say, ‘bring on that challenge.’ On his visit, he wanted to go downtown, look at the architecture…he wanted to go see Shockoe Slip. It was different to him. He likes those challenges. He’s not afraid of stuff like that, and that’s kind of how he pitches.”

Dwyer says his parents, Jack and Susie, passed along their love of acting to their three children.

Dwyer’s freshman year was marked by many of the pitfalls freshmen face: consistency, level of competition and an increase in demands. But amid the ups and downs, Dwyer turned in some notable moments, including two solid outings against ranked East Carolina. Dwyer finished the season 3-4 with a 4.55 ERA, but it was clear the Rams had something in their freshman hurler.

Dwyer rested his arm most of the summer, but dedicated himself to the weight room and added strength to his 200-pound frame, which has paid dividends this season. Since returning to campus, he says he’s stuck to a strict throwing routine.

“He didn’t have a goal necessarily to lead us in wins,” Stiffler said. “He had a goal to lead us in innings, which for me is, I almost enjoy that more than guys telling me they want to win 7-8 games because you want to win 7-8 games, you’ve got to pitch deep into games.”

Not only is Dwyer pitching deep into games – he’s gone at least six innings in each of his 12 starts and seven in all but two – but he’s getting stronger in the later innings. In the first three innings of games this season, Dwyer’s ERA is 4.75. From the fourth inning on, it’s 1.65.

But success, Dwyer says, isn’t just about being able to physically perform. It’s his ability to believe in those physical attributes that has allowed him to become one of the A-10’s best arms.

“I can trust that I’ve put in the work to throw a full count breaking ball for a strike, he said. “I have put in the effort off the mound to be able to trust my success on the mound, and then again, I can’t speak enough for my defense because I don’t have to try and throw my most amazing pitch every single pitch.”

Down the stretch, the Rams will need to lean on their ace. Dwyer will get two final regular-season starts as the Rams look to erase a three-game deficit that stands between them and the A-10 Tournament. The pressure will be on, and many eyes will look to Dwyer to deliver. But the VCU sophomore says he’s ready. Actors like a big stage.

“The aspect of, this could be the game that loses our season for us. That’s never going to go away, but that’s the excitement of it,” Dwyer said. “What would be the fun of playing if we were never pushed or never put under pressure? Adrenaline’s my biggest tool.”