Virginia Men's Lacrosse "Getting Back to the Basics" Ahead of NCAA Tournament

Matt Newton | May 11, 2024

The Virginia men's lacrosse team huddles during the game against Robert Morris at Klockner Stadium. / Virginia Athletics

If the Cavaliers are going to continue their trend of playing their best lacrosse in May under Lars Tiffany, they'll have to reverse course and divert from the last four weeks that have been far from it. Virginia comes into the NCAA Tournament on a four-game losing streak, the longest losing skid for the program since dropping six in a row in 2013.

But thanks to the nation's third-toughest strength of schedule, a No. 5 RPI ranking, and notable wins over Michigan, Richmond, Towson, Maryland, Albany, Harvard, and North Carolina, UVA not only made the tournament, but is still hosting a game as the No. 6 seed in the bracket. That opportunity gives hope for a hard reset and a fresh start, as the most important time of the year arrives.

What will it take for Virginia to find its stride again? For the defense at least, the Cavaliers are just trying to get back to doing the simple things well.

"Just getting back to the basics of what Virginia lacrosse is and what Virginia's defense is and what it's been in the past. A big thing is aggression, we want to be a lot more aggressive and lot more confrontational on ball and we know that we can do that and we have the personnel who can do that," said senior defenseman Mike Prestipino. "We think we've gotten a little too complex in some of the things that we've been doing. So, that goes with getting back to the basics and getting back to the way that we normally slide and help each other on the backside."

Lars Tiffany agreed with that statement, indicating that the reason for some of Virginia's recent defensive lapses - allowing 18 goals apiece to Duke, Syracuse, and Notre Dame - came from overdoing it on adjustments and making things a little too complex.

"I have a tendency to tinker and with an older group, it works. With a team that has less experience, as I keep reminding myself, that's this team; our short-stick D-middies have played so well and surprised me so much that I forget like, oh yeah, most of them didn't play last year or they were at a different program last year. And the close defense, we've been rotating new guys in," Tiffany said this week. "So yes, Sunday we met and said alright, if I say we're going to be brilliant at the basics... what are the basics of the UVA defense? We're gonna get back to being a little simpler and that's my fault for tinkering too much."

Virginia wants to return to its principles of aggressive, physical defense, but perhaps more importantly, get back to dominating ground balls. Virginia remains the nation's leader in ground balls as a team, but in UVA's 11-9 loss to Notre Dame in the regular season finale, the Cavaliers were destroyed by the Irish 51-26 in ground balls. A week later, Notre Dame won the ground ball battle again, 30-25. Virginia knows that must change if this losing streak is going to end.

"Being in my fourth year here, we've never lost ground balls like that," Prestipino said. "So that's something that we take really personally. And it was shocking to see that result. But yeah, we're doing everything we can to get that better and improve it."

A run to Championship Weekend is still very much in play for the Cavaliers, if they can recapture their level of play from their 10-1 start to the season. The first test will come this weekend, as Virginia (10-5) hosts Saint Joseph's (12-3) in the first round on Saturday at 12pm at Klockner Stadium. The Cavaliers see this game as a chance to put their losing streak behind them and start fresh with the most meaningful lacrosse games still ahead of them.

"Just being able to hit that reset button and then just make a big run and it starts with Saint Joe's and that's what we're all focused on right now," said Prestipino. "And I know some of us have been looking at the 2011 team. They lost a couple games, they lost four to round out that season and they ended up doing pretty well in the tournament."

That 2011 Virginia team, led by Tewaaraton Award winner Steele Stanwick, went through a stretch of losing four out of five games shortly before the NCAA Tournament began. The Cavaliers regained their stride and wound up winning the national championship as the No. 7 seed in the tournament, so it makes a lot of sense why Prestipino and the Hoos are drawing inspiration from that particular team.

Between Virginia's track record of playing great lacrosse in the NCAA Tournament under Lars Tiffany - two national titles and three Final Fours in the previous four seasons - and the evidence from earlier this season that this particular team is capable of competing at a high level, the Cavaliers still have a lot of belief that they can turn things around.

"We're pumping that, maybe more so than normal because of the losing streak," Tiffany said. "Whether we've won our last 12 games in a row like our opponent has or we haven't, it's NCAA Tournament time. We've got familiarity here. We're on our home field. Just bring back what we had... that ferocity on the ground balls, our decision-making. But it's confidence, right? It's a confidence game. We're going to be mentally sharp and physically loose, that's our goal."

Tiffany's mentality has certainly taken root in the players as they try to turn the page from the bitter losing streak. Despite dropping four games in a row to some of the best teams in the country, the Cavaliers still feel that they belong in that elite group of the best of the best and just need to prove it on the field in the NCAA Tournament.

"We definitely have a lot of confidence. And that's something that Coach Tiffany has been - one of his main messages to us is just that he believes in us, the coaching staff believes in us," Prestipino said. "And he needs to make sure that we believe in ourselves and I know that we do and we just have to show that we do in these next couple of games."

From Tiffany's perspective, all it will take for his team to find its groove again is one good game, and that's the ultimate goal for this Saturday's game against Saint Joseph's.

"If we can just put together one good game, I do, I really like this team," Tiffany said.

Virginia will take on Saint Joseph's on Saturday at 12pm on ESPNU, with the winner advancing to take on the winner of No. 3 Johns Hopkins (10-4) and Lehigh (9-6) in the quarterfinals on Sunday, May 19th in Towson.