Preview: Virginia Men's Lacrosse Begins Quest for Three-Peat With First Round Game at Brown

Previewing UVA's first round game at No. 8 seed Brown on Saturday night in Providence

Photo courtesy of Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics Communications

Virginia will begin its quest for a third-consecutive NCAA men's lacrosse national championship when the Cavaliers visit No. 8 seed Brown on Saturday at 7:30pm at Stevenson-Pincince Field in Providence, Rhode Island. 

UVA's path to Championship Weekend will not begin at Klockner Stadium as the Cavaliers were surprisingly not given one of the tournament's top eight seeds when the bracket was revealed last Sunday. Virginia was the only team from the weaker-than-usual Atlantic Coast Conference to receive a bid to the 18-team field, while Brown was one of six Ivy League teams to make the NCAA Tournament and one of five Ivies to host a first round game. 

What awaits the Cavaliers at Stevenson-Pincince Field on Saturday night is sure to be an energetic, hostile environment and one with which UVA head coach Lars Tiffany will be quite familiar. A Brown alum and two-time captain on the Bears' lacrosse team in the 1980s, Tiffany also coached his alma mater from 2007-2016. He amassed a 96-56 record in those ten seasons, winning four Ivy League championships (2008, 2010, 2015, 2016) and advancing to the Final Four in 2016. 

Tiffany's familiarity with Brown and specifically, the atmosphere at Stevenson-Pincince Field, has led him to some unorthodox tactics this week as he prepared the Cavaliers for their first round game against the Bears. At the invitation of the team, 40 UVA students attended Virginia's practice on Tuesday night and did their best impersonation of the Brown crowd, heckling the Cavalier players and even Tiffany throughout the entirety of practice. "If you were a better coach, you wouldn't have had to leave Brown to win a national championship," one student yelled to Tiffany. Needless to say, the makeshift student section understood the assignment. 

Virginia and Brown played in back-to-back seasons in 2019 and 2020. UVA won the first meeting in Charlottesville 14-13 in overtime and Brown won the second meeting in Providence, also by a score of 14-13 in what ended up being the final game of the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season. Virginia leads the all-time series against Brown 12-3. 

This season, Brown turned in a 10-5 overall record in the regular season, including a 4-2 mark in Ivy League play. The Bears suffered a 14-11 loss to North Carolina in Chapel Hill back in February, but developed into one of the hottest teams in the country in the second half of the season. Brown had three consecutive top ten wins over Penn, Yale, and Cornell as part of a five-game winning streak to end the regular season before losing to Penn 14-9 in the semifinals of the Ivy League Tournament. 

Brown is one of the fastest-paced teams in the country and will try to score in transition at every opportunity. Both teams play a fast style of lacrosse, but the Bears take it to a whole different level in terms of tempo. One of the pivotal keys to the game will be Virginia's approach towards neutralizing Brown's ability to play fast and get opportunities to score in transition. The Cavaliers love to push the fast break as well, but it may often be the case in this game that UVA should slow things down and operate in a settled offense. 

Junior attackman Devon McLane is the team's leader in goals (46), assists (23), and points (69). The Bears have three other players with at least 20 goals on the season: Ryan Aughavin (28 goals, 13 assists), Darian Cook (21 goals, 16 assists), and Brian Antonelli (30 goals, 4 assists). 

Virginia holds a slight advantage at the faceoff x, as Petey LaSalla brings in a marginally higher faceoff percentage (.614) than Brown's faceoff man Matthew Gunty (.527) and LaSalla remains the nation's top faceoff man when it comes to posing as an offensive threat. Brown goalkeeper Connor Theriault gives up an average of 11.15 goals per game, as compared to Matthew Nunes' goals against average of 11.12, but Theriault has a better save percentage at .551 versus Nunes' percentage of .500. 

Virginia finished the regular season 11-3, including a 5-1 record in ACC play as the Cavaliers clinched a share of their 19th ACC Championship in program history. UVA's three losses came against Maryland, Richmond, and Duke and the Cavaliers picked up victories against Notre Dame, North Carolina (twice), Syracuse (twice), and Johns Hopkins. 

READ MORE: Connor Shellenberger Named One of Five Finalists for Tewaaraton Award

The UVA attack is led by the three-headed monster of Connor Shellenberger, Matt Moore, and Payton Cormier. Shellenberger, one of five finalists for the Tewaaraton Award, has 68 points on 28 goals and 40 assists so far this season. Moore has 23 goals and 23 assists and passed Steele Stanwick to become Virginia's all-time leader in career points scored. Cormier is the team's leading goal scorer with 43 goals so far this season. Midfielders Xander Dickson (29 goals, 7 assists) and Griffin Schutz (21 goals, 6 assists) have reached the 20-goal plateau for UVA this season and senior Jeff Conner (11 goals, 15 assists) has come on strong in the last several weeks after struggling with injuries early in the season. 

The Virginia defense is anchored by the ACC Defensive Player of the Year in Cole Kastner and the ACC Freshman of the Year in goalkeeper Matthew Nunes. UVA is the best ground ball team in college lacrosse, collecting 39.14 ground balls per game. Kastner was joined on the All-ACC Team by four other Cavaliers: Matt Moore, Connor Shellenberger, Jeff Conner, and Petey LaSalla. 

The winner of the Virginia-Brown first round game will face the winner of No. 1 Maryland and Vermont in the quarterfinals next weekend. Faceoff for UVA's game against Brown is set for 7:30pm on Saturday and the game will be broadcast on ESPNU. 

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