No. 7 Virginia Bounces Back, Beats No. 16 North Carolina 11-4 to Complete Season Sweep

The Cavaliers held the Tar Heels to just one second-half goal for the second time this season and remained undefeated in ACC play

Matt Newton | Apr 9, 2022

Completing the season sweep over the Tar Heels was going to be no easy feat for the Cavaliers to begin with. But Virginia also had to deal with the additional factors of missing fifth-year attackman Matt Moore due to injury, faceoff specialist Petey LaSalla not being 100% healthy, and Connor Shellenberger having a poor shooting performance.

No problem for Lars Tiffany and the Cavaliers.

After getting burned for 17 goals in an upset loss at Richmond last week, the UVA defense bounced back and held Chris Gray and the Tar Heels to just one second-half goal for the second time this season, as No. 7 Virginia took down No. 16 North Carolina 11-4 on Saturday at Klockner Stadium.

It was an uncharacteristically low-scoring first quarter for a Virginia-North Carolina lacrosse game. In the last four meetings between these two teams, all taking place in the last two seasons, the combined scoring output in the first quarters of those four games was 32 goals. In the first quarter of Saturday's game, UVA and UNC combined to score just three goals.

Virginia scored within the first two minutes of the first quarter as Payton Cormier collected a rebound off of a save by UNC goalie Collin Krieg and put it in the back of the net for the first goal of the game. But, UVA would not score again until nearly 17 minutes later.

North Carolina star attackman Chris Gray, who came into the game second in the nation in points with 61, scored back-to-back tough goals with Cole Kastner guarding him closely to give the Tar Heels the lead at the end of the first quarter. Gray managed three goals and an assist in the game, but Kastner largely held Gray in check and prevented him from creating open shots for his teammates.

Both goalkeepers delivered solid performances in between the pipes, especially early on. Colin Krieg and Matthew Nunes made four saves apiece in the first quarter. Nunes was outstanding in cage for the Cavaliers, making 13 saves on 17 shots on goal for an impressive save percentage of .765. Krieg was no slouch for UNC, saving 11 shots versus 11 goals allowed for a .500 save percentage.

Virginia finally scored again a few minutes into the second quarter as Evan Zinn got the feed from Xander Dickson and scorched the back of the net for his fourth goal of the season.

Chris Gray largely ended up being UNC's only offense, as he scored or assisted on all four of the Tar Heels' goals in the game. Gray fed Cole Herbert for a goal on the crease to put UNC back in front, but Virginia responded with a gradual 5-0 run that stretched into the second half.

Petey LaSalla won a faceoff and drew a penalty, resulting in a man-up goal for Patrick McIntosh. LaSalla, who was questionable to play in this game after missing the entire second half against Richmond last week with an injury, went 8/16 at the faceoff x for Virginia.

Griffin Schutz beat his man on a dodge from the right wing and scored to put UVA back in front, then Cormier scored back-to-back goals to end the half with Virginia up 6-3. Cormier led the Cavaliers with four goals and one assist.

Jeff Conner scored early in the third quarter to make it 7-3, but Chris Gray scored his third goal of the day on a beautiful fadeaway jump shot to end a 20-minute North Carolina scoring drought. The Tar Heels would not score again in the remaining 18 minutes of the game, as the UVA defense matched its performance at Chapel Hill on March 10th in which UNC scored only one goal after halftime.

Connor Shellenberger, known for his good shot selection and accuracy, continued to struggle to shoot the ball. After scoring just one goal on ten shots at Richmond, Shellenberger missed his first five shots against UNC before finally finding the back of the net on a very contested shot that beat Krieg low to make it 8-4 early in the fourth quarter.

Just as the North Carolina defense defended Shellenberger well, the Virginia defense shut down every Tar Heel scorer other than Gray and also caused eight UNC turnovers. UVA's short-stick defensive midfielders won their matchups against North Carolina's midfielders and any open look that came from a defensive breakdown was saved by Nunes.

Schutz, Cormier, and Zinn tallied goals in the fourth quarter and Virginia cruised to the 11-4 victory.

Virginia remained undefeated in conference play with the win, improving to 8-2 overall and 4-0 in the ACC. The Cavaliers face a quick turnaround as they head to Durham this Thursday to play at No. 15 Duke at 6pm.

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