No. 13 UVA Faces Cornell Saturday in Pacific Coast Shootout

March 9, 2017

CHARLOTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia men’s lacrosse team returns to action on Saturday as the Cavaliers (4-2) face the Cornell Big Red (0-3) in the Pacific Coast Shootout, a neutral site contest in Costa Mesa, Calif. Faceoff is set for 9 p.m. ET at LeBard Stadium, which is located on the campus of Orange Coast College. UVA is ranked No. 13 in this week’s USILA coaches poll and No. 11 in the Inside Lacrosse/Maverick media poll.

Live stats will be available at VirginiaSports.com. At this time, there is no live video stream.

Virginia is playing in the state of California for the first time in program history. UVA’s previous most west journey was to Colorado. UVA played at Air Force and Denver in 2004. UVA returned to Colorado in 2012 when they faced Penn in the Mile High Classic at Denver’s Sports Authority Field.

The 2017 season marks the ninth-straight season the Cavaliers and Big Red have faced each other in a series where UVA holds a 10-6 all-time advantage. The series began during the regular season in 1971, a game contested in Charlottesville. The next five meetings took place in the NCAA Tournament, including UVA’s first trip to Ithaca in 1974. The series returned to regular-season meetings in 2009 when Cornell came to KlÃÆ’¶ckner Stadium. Saturday is the third time UVA and Cornell have met at a neutral site during the regular season. In 2011 and 2012 UVA and Cornell met at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium in the Face-Off Classic, both UVA wins.

Zed Williams leads UVA with 16 assists and 28 points. Dox Aitken has a team lead with 19 points, while Michael Kraus has 13 goals and 13 assists for 26 points. Mike D’Amario rounds out the top goal scorers with 15 tallies and 19 points. Goalie Will Railey is saving 46 percent of shots he is seeing between the pipes, while posting a 12.39 goals against average.

Matt Kerwick is in his fourth season as the Big Red’s head coach. Kerwick welcomes back 23 letterwinners and seven starters off Cornell’s 6-7 squad from 2016. Connor Fletcher leads Cornell with six goals and seven points. Andrew Keith has four goals and one assist, while Clarke Petterson and Jeff Teat round out the top goal scorers with three goals each. Christian Knight is saving 40.2 percent of shots against him in the cage, while posting an 18.06 goals against average.

Virginia is back in action again on Saturday, March 18 when the Cavaliers return to ACC play and host No. 1 Notre Dame. Faceoff is set for 6 p.m. and the game will be televised live on ESPNU.