No. 5 UVA Hosts Towson on Saturday to Open 92nd Lacrosse Season
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia Cavaliers (0-0) open the 2021 season on Saturday, hosting the Towson Tigers (0-0) at Klöckner Stadium. Faceoff is set for 4 p.m. UVA is ranked No. 5 in this week’s USILA coaches poll and No. 6 in the Inside Lacrosse media poll.
HOW TO FOLLOW
Live stats will be available at VirginiaSports.com. The game will be televised live on ACC Network. Anish Shroff will call the play-by-play, while Quint Kessenich will provide analysis. ACC Network will also simulcast the broadcast on the WatchESPN app, or by logging onto ESPN.com/watch.
CAVALIER TIDBITS
• UVA is 52-34-1 (.603) all-time in season openers.
• When the season opener is at home, the Cavaliers have compiled a 30-17-1 (.635) record throughout the years.
• This is the 14th time in the last 22 seasons the Cavaliers have opened the season at home.
• UVA has won 11 of its last 13 season openers.
• Virginia owns a 151-40 (.7906) all-time record at Klöckner Stadium, including a 4-1 mark in 2020 and are winners of 13 of last 15 played in the historic edifice. UVA also is 12-3 all-time at Klöckner Stadium in the NCAA Tournament.
• UVA is 24-8 all-time at Klöckner Stadium under head coach Lars Tiffany.
• Ian Laviano needs one goal to become the 18th Cavalier all-time to reach 100 career goals.
SERIES INFO
• Virginia leads the all-time series by an 13-3 margin.
• The Cavaliers have won the last 10 match-ups, their third-longest active winning streak against a Division I opponent (VMI 25, Drexel 11, UMass 8). A win on Saturday will put UVA’s active win streak over Towson into a tie for second with Drexel (11).
• The schools met on an annual basis from 1972-77, but did not meet again until the 1991 NCAA Tournament, a game Towson won 14-13 in Charlottesville.
• Ten years passed before the annual series resumed in 2001 with a 12-8 Cavalier victory in what proved to be the biggest defeat the Tigers suffered in a season when they advanced to Championship Weekend.
• UVA played every year from 2001-10 before the series went on hiatus following UVA’s 15-9 win at Towson in 2010.
• Two of Towson’s three victories have been by one-goal (1977, ‘91). The Tigers’ three wins have been by an average of 2.0 goals.
TOWSON
• Towson head coach Shawn Nadelen is in his 10th season at the helm of the Tigers.
• The Tigers went 0-6 in the shortened 2020 season. The Tigers return leading scorer from 2020, Brody McLean, who notched nine goals and three assists.
ATTENDANCE GUIDELINES
The current guidelines for sports venues provided by the Commonwealth of Virginia under the “Forward Virginia” plan (updated Nov. 13, 2020), allow for the lesser of 30 percent occupancy of the facility or 250 patrons.
Due to health and safety considerations, in addition to the current guidelines for sports venues set by the Commonwealth of Virginia, attendance for UVA home lacrosse competitions will be limited to the family of student-athletes and coaching staff until further notice.
Should the Commonwealth of Virginia adjust the protocols for spectator attendance, the UVA athletics department will announce new capacity guidelines and other protocols to attend events.
UP NEXT
UVA has a week off before heading to “Charm City” to face the Loyola Greyhounds on February 20. Face-off is set for 5 p.m.