Cavaliers Now

Takeaways from Virginia Lacrosse's Win Over Utah

Aidan Baller

Virginia Athletics

On Saturday, Virginia men's lacrosse earned its second straight win with a 14-9 victory over Utah. Truitt Sunderland led the way with three goals and three assists followed by two goals and three assists from McCabe Millon. Defensively, Matthew Nunes anchored the Cavaliers with 11 saves while John Schroter had three groundballs and three caused turnovers. Here are our takeaways from the game. 

Griffin Schutz and McCabe Millon Ignite the Hoos’ Hot Start 

McCabe Millon found a cutting Griffin Schutz on the opening possession to give Virginia an early lead. Showing his vision, Millon then made a crossfield pass through the defense to Truitt Sunderland up top, who buried his first goal of the game before Schutz backdoor-cut the Utes' defense a second time to give the Cavs a 3-0 lead. 

After a Utah goal, Virginia earned a two-man up opportunity where Schutz returned the favor with an assist to Millon, giving Virginia a 4-1 lead that propelled the Hoos to victory. Schutz completed his hat trick in the second quarter by dodging down the left alley. 

On the ensuing faceoff, Millon rocketed a pass to Ryan Colsey on a fast break to give himself a hat-trick of assists in the first half. Then, with 45 seconds left in the quarter, Millon ripped a low-angle shot to give him two goals and three assists. The Virginia offense looked extremely fluid against Utah with constant ball-movement.

Virginia Defense Continues to Cause Chaos 

Since Virginia's win in the Lone Star State, the Cavs defense has been lights out, causing 10+ turnovers in each of the last three games. Against Utah, the trend continued, with Virginia causing 12 turnovers led by Griffin Kology and John Schroter, who each caused three. This year's defense has solidified itself as another chaos-inducing velociraptor defense under Lars Tiffany that will need to keep up their play if Virginia wants to make a run in the ACC. 

Matthew Nunes in Form Headed Into ACC Play 

The season opened in a goalie battle, with Kyle Morris starting the first five games. Then, after a 13-12 loss to Johns Hopkins, Coach Tiffany and staff made the move to slot Nunes in goal against Towson in his home state of Texas. Seizing the moment, Nunes did not disappoint, picking up 15 saves. Since that performance, Nunes has started every game, and on Saturday against Utah, Nunes had 11 saves and a 55% save rate, giving the Hoos confidence moving into the second half of the regular season. In addition, Nunes has helped Virginia's clear-go 68/72 over the last three games. 

Injuries Have Begun to Pile Up 

With ACC play set to start next Saturday, having a primarily healthy team did not look good for the Cavaliers. Against Utah, Anthony Ghobriel, Mack Till, Joey Terenzi, Wills Burt, and Tucker Mullen all did not play. Not having Ghobriel was felt at the faceoff x with the unit of Andrew Greenspan and Henry Metz only combining for a 10/26 mark from the stripe. As for the rope unit, not having Wills Burt, Mack Till, and Joey Terenzi for Syracuse next Saturday will make it difficult. Time will only tell who suits up against the Orange this upcoming week with Lars Tiffany classifying all the injuries listed above as day-to-day. 

Virginia closes its homestand next Saturday against Syracuse, with the opening faceoff set for 1 pm. 

Published
Aidan Baller
AIDAN BALLER

Aidan has been writing for Virginia Cavaliers On SI since January of 2023 and covers UVA football, basketball, men's soccer, and men's lacrosse. He is from New York and is currently in his fourth year at the University of Virginia, enrolled in the M.S. in Accounting program.