Cavaliers Now

Virginia Lacrosse All-American Cole Kastner Transferring to Play Basketball at Stanford

Matt Newton

Cole Kastner collects a ground ball during the Virginia men's lacrosse game against Maryland at SECU Stadium.
Cole Kastner collects a ground ball during the Virginia men's lacrosse game against Maryland at SECU Stadium. / Virginia Athletics

Cole Kastner is staying in the Atlantic Coast Conference next year. But he's not playing at Virginia and he's not playing lacrosse.

UVA's 6'7" All-American defenseman announced on social media on Wednesday evening that he will using his final year of eligibility to transfer to Stanford to play basketball for the 2024-2025 season.

A former high school basketball standout growing up in Palo Alto, California, it seemed the most likely outcome that Kastner would end up back home at Stanford when he entered the transfer portal last spring, looking to use his final year of eligibility to return to the sport of basketball. Kastner strongly considered the basketball route while he was at Menlo School, as he was a three-year starter on the basketball team and averaged 17 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 assists and had 17 double-doubles in his senior season.

Kastner ultimately decided on lacrosse and wound up being a critical part of Virginia's run to the National Championship in 2021 as a true freshman. Three years later, Kastner seems well on his way to another All-ACC and All-American season leading the Cavalier defense. Kastner was the ACC Defensive Player of the Year in 2022 and was an All-American and All-ACC selection in both 2022 and 2023. This year, Kastner joined teammate Connor Shellenberger on the list of 25 nominees for the 2024 Tewaaraton Award.

For his career, Kastner currently has 64 games played, 48 starts, four goals, two assists, 113 ground balls, and 83 caused turnovers. And those numbers will continue to grow as Kastner looks to bookend his career with another national title.

But no matter how this season ends, it will be his final spring at the University of Virginia, as Kastner is now officially headed back home to Palo Alto, where he'll look to revive his basketball career.

In an interesting byproduct of conference realignment, Kastner will play against the Virginia men's basketball team next season, as the Cavaliers will make the cross-country trip to face the Stanford Cardinal in their first season as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Kastner became the first transfer to commit to Kyle Smith, who became the new head coach at Stanford last month after spending the previous five seasons at Washington State, where Tony Bennett previously coached.

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Matt Newton
MATT NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.