Overtime is Cavaliers' Time to Shine
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By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE – At the Carrier Dome on March 2, Michael Kraus passed to Mikey Herring for the winning goal with 1:31 left in overtime as Virginia edged Syracuse 15-14 in men’s lacrosse.
Eight days later, in another dramatic finish, they reversed roles. With about a minute left in OT, Herring fed Kraus for the game-winner in UVA’s 14-13 victory over Brown at Klöckner Stadium.
Kraus, a junior attackman from New Canaan, Conn., scored the 12th-ranked Cavaliers’ final two goals Sunday afternoon and finished with a game-high seven points (five goals, two assists). After suffering a high-ankle sprain in preseason, he looked out of sync at times in Virginia’s first few games. But Kraus, a second-team All-American in 2018, has returned to form and leads the Cavaliers with 27 points (15 goals, 12 assists).
“Credit to him,” offensive coordinator Sean Kirwan said. “He’s just been working his tail off, shaking that rust off. We knew it was coming. He knew it was coming. He just had to put in that little extra to get over that hump. Now that’s two straight games where we’re leaning on him at the end, and he’s delivering and being that leader and that captain that we’re asking him to be.”
Herring, a senior from Dedham, Mass., played on attack his first three seasons at UVA. He’s been used more in the midfield this year. His 2019 statistics – one goal and four assists – are modest, but whatever his position, Herring exudes poise in pressure situations.
He assisted on three of the Wahoos’ final five goals Sunday afternoon.
Mikey Herring
“Mikey brings a certain level of IQ that we love,” Kirwan said. “He’s super smart. He understands the game. I feel like he’s an extension of me on the field, and he’s as cool as it gets. He brings that calming presence. I feel like when he has the ball, only good things are going to happen.”
Herring’s vision on the field is “unparalleled,” Kraus said. “He can find skip lanes that you might never even see. He just sees where guys are going to move and where defensemen are going to move and is able to put it on that spot.”
Since losing 14-13 at home to High Point last month, Virginia has posted three straight victories, none routine. All three went to overtime after UVA erased second-half deficits.
The Cavaliers trailed by two goals in the final minute of the third quarter at Princeton, by four goals with 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter at Syracuse, and by four goals with 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter against Brown.
“Cardiac Cavs, right?” said sophomore attackman Ian Laviano, who scored the game-winner in OT against Princeton, off a pass from Kraus.
Until this year, UVA had played three straight overtime games only twice: in 1980 and 2017. This marks the first time in program history the ‘Hoos have played three overtime games in a row and won all of them.
“It feeds on itself, and the men really start believing it,” head coach Lars Tiffany said. “And it’s not just words. I think a lot of teams say, ‘Hey, we never doubted.’ This team really doesn’t doubt. Now, the key is for us to build a lead here going into a third or fourth quarter — I don’t know if we’ve done that yet — and play better lacrosse early.”
The Cavaliers, who host 10th-ranked Notre Dame at 3 p.m. Saturday, are 4-2 overall. As Tiffany noted, though, they could easily be 1-5 (or 2-4 or 3-3).
“I’m really fortunate to have a group of men that maybe play better down,” Tiffany said. “We’ve got to make sure we play better when we’re up.”
Against Brown (2-2), Virginia took a 6-5 lead on an unassisted goal by Kraus with 10:59 left in the second quarter. The ‘Hoos didn’t score again until the 5:12 mark of the third quarter, when Kraus passed to sophomore attackman Matt Moore for a goal that cut the Bears’ lead to 9-7.
“I think we just got away from our fundamentals,” Kirwan said. “We were just a little sloppy with our stickwork. I’m always telling our guys to let our eyes do the eyes and not pre-determine our looks and our reads, and I think we just got away from that a little bit. Thankfully, we were able to figure it out with enough time to battle back.”
Laviano scored four goals Sunday, and Moore had two goals and three assists. Freshman Petey LaSalla won 14 of 21 faceoffs for the Cavaliers, and sophomore goalkeeper Alex Rode made a career-high 19 saves.
After Kraus made it 13-13 with 3:21 remaining in the fourth quarter, LaSalla won the ensuing draw, but Brown goalkeeper Phil Goss stopped an outside shot by junior middie Dox Aitken. A UVA penalty followed, which gave the Bears an opportunity to win the game in regulation. The Cavaliers’ defense held, forcing a turnover in the final seconds.
“It’s pretty nerve-wracking, but it’s fun, too,” Rode said. “The defense had been playing great all day. We’re all friends, and it’s awesome to be out there together. It’s a cool experience.”
Virginia won the faceoff to start OT but wasn’t able to capitalize on the possession. Turnovers by both teams marked the first two-plus minutes of the extra period, the final one coming when UVA long-stick middie Jared Conners knocked the ball out of a Bear’s stick. The Cavaliers picked up the ground ball and called a timeout with 1:32 left in OT.
Thirty seconds later, after Herring spotted Kraus open on the right side of the cage, No. 2 sent the home fans in the crowd of 1,563 home happy.
“I think it just goes to show our confidence in ourselves and our trust in our teammates,” Kraus said of UVA’s latest comeback. “When we’re down four in the fourth quarter, we don’t flinch. We embrace it.”
Laviano agreed. “We were down four, and everyone was just like, ‘We’re going to win this game.’ We had no doubt, and I think playing with no doubt and that confidence is why we’re prepared for this moment.”
The first meeting between these teams since 2016 had other storylines. Tiffany and his assistants, Kirwan and Kip Turner, came to Virginia from Brown after the 2016 season, so they recruited and/or coached many of the players they faced Sunday. Tiffany, moreover, is a Brown alumnus who played there for Dom Starsia, who later won four NCAA titles as UVA’s head coach.
Tiffany’s successor as the Bears’ head coach, Mike Daly, came to the Ivy League from Tufts, Kirwan’s alma mater. (Turner is a UVA graduate who starred at goalie on the program’s 2006 NCAA championship team.) Kirwan played for and later coached under Daly at Tufts.
To face his mentor at Klöckner Stadium “was a cool experience,” Kirwan said, “one that I’ll definitely look back on. It was definitely weird prepping for it, but [the victory is] something I’ll cherish.”