Hoos Head to Postseason With Issues to Address

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The selection show for the NCAA men’s lacrosse tournament airs next Sunday night. The Virginia Cavaliers have an excellent overall record, no bad losses and a strong RPI, and so they’re well-positioned to make the tournament field.

It’s far from certain, though, that UVA will receive a first-round home game as one of the top eight seeds.

“There’s a lot of unknowns out there,” head coach Lars Tiffany said.

Had the sixth-ranked Wahoos prevailed in their regular-season finale Saturday afternoon, they would have, in all likelihood, assured themselves another game at Klöckner Stadium. But top-ranked Notre Dame, the reigning NCAA champion, rallied for an 11-9 win in front of 6,497 spectators, the largest crowd to witness a UVA game at Klöckner since 2013.

“What an amazing day of lacrosse,” Tiffany said. “What a tremendous crowd.”

Alas for the Hoos, their home-field advantage didn’t allow them to avoid a third straight defeat. And so they’ll head to the ACC tournament with work to do. In the first semifinal, No. 4 seed UVA (10-4) meets No. 1 seed Notre Dame (10-1) at 5 p.m. Friday in Charlotte, N.C. No. 2 seed Syracuse takes on No. 3 seed Duke in the second semifinal.

“If we want to play on Klöckner again, we’ve got to come out of like a dangerous wounded animal,” Tiffany said, “because we just don’t have the knowns, and so it’s up to us.”

Since rallying for an overtime victory over Virginia in last year’s NCAA semifinals, Notre Dame has lost only once: to Georgetown on Feb. 25. The Fighting Irish, whose longtime head coach is UVA alumnus Kevin Corrigan, have won eight straight games this year, thanks in large part to the contributions of attackmen Pat and Chris Kavanagh, brothers who have combined for 103 points this season.

Led by the Kavanaghs, Notre Dame came into Klöckner averaging 16.3 goals per game, second-most in Division I, but neither went wild Saturday against UVA.

“I thought we did a really good job,” said Cole Kastner, one of the Cavaliers honored in a Senior Day ceremony before the game. “I never doubted our defense and I’m confident going forward.”

Kastner and fellow close defenseman John Schroter covered Pat and Chris Kavanagh, respectively. In goal, junior Matthew Nunes made 10 saves, eight of them in the first half, and Tiffany also praised the play of UVA’s short-stick defensive midfielders.

In each of its previous two games—road losses to Duke and Syracuse—Virginia had allowed 18 goals. And so “overall I was really happy with the way our individuals played defense [against Notre Dame],” Tiffany said. “And we had to play a lot of defense, considering the number of failed clears and turnovers we had. So it was a big step forward.”

The problems Tiffany cited doomed his team Saturday. The Cavaliers, who entered the game with a clearing percentage of 93.0, had eight failed clears (out of 28) on Saturday, The Irish, by contrast, were 22 of 25 on clears.

The Hoos had 27 turnovers (to 21 for Notre Dame), and 15 of them were unforced. It was unsettling, Tiffany said, to “see us not be able to take care of the ball.”

With so many turnovers, Kastner said, the Cavaliers gave the Irish “more opportunities than we gave our offense. We’re so confident whenever our offense gets the ball that they’re gonna score and put it away. So that’s on us for just not getting them the ball in the places they need to be.”

The Irish ride as well as any team in the country, Tiffany said, “and they don’t let you breathe when the ball goes on the ground.”

Indeed, one statistic was especially troublesome for the Cavaliers. Notre Dame scooped up 50 grounds ball, to only 26 for UVA, a program that prides itself on excelling in that facet of the game. The Hoos came into their regular-season finale leading the nation in ground balls.

“Losing it by 24 has never, ever happened before, I can’t imagine, in Virginia lacrosse history,” Tiffany said. “You’d have to dust off the 1930s record books … The men of this program, of the Virginia lacrosse program, are true warriors. They have the hearts of lions.

“I just gotta give [the Irish] credit. Holy cow. I was shocked when I saw the stats after the game. Their prowess off the ground blows me away.”

The Cavaliers won 13 of 23 faceoffs. In the pivotal fourth quarter, however, the Irish went 5 for 5 on draws, and that fueled their comeback. Virginia went up 9-8 on Ryan Colsey’s low-to-low goal with 12:52 remaining, but Notre Dame dominated the rest of the way.

The Irish pulled even at the 10:40 mark and then took the lead with 9:12 remaining. The coup de grace came with 3:41 to play. With the shot clock about to expire, Max Busenkell fed Devon McLane for a goal that made it 11-9.

Tiffany acknowledged that his team lost its composure in the final period.

“I haven’t seen that from Virginia teams,” Tiffany said. “But when I’m looking at the stats and it’s 16-3 in ground balls, 12-2 shots, 5-0 at the faceoff-X, all in favor of Notre Dame in a fourth quarter, it looks like: Where’s the poise, where’s that confidence? Notre Dame had some, but both teams can have the poise.”

Tiffany’s postgame message to his team?

“I think he just wanted to make sure that there was no doubt or no loss of confidence at all,” Kastner said. “We all saw what happened. [Notre Dame] did a fantastic job, and so did we. And that was very winnable game for our team as well. So that was just the main point there, and I definitely appreciate hearing that, for sure, because I believe it.”

Tiffany said: “I told them, ‘Fellas, I have confidence in you. You should have confidence. We have to have this confidence. Yes, we’ve lost a couple of games, but don’t let that sneak in. Don’t let that steal the belief that we have in each other.’ And unfortunately, something happened there in that fourth quarter where we just gave the ball away. And that’s what’s frustrating.”

Payton Cormier, who’s on the verge of becoming the most prolific goal-scorer in ACC history, scored four goals Saturday, but the Irish held his fellow attackman, Tewaaraton Award candidate Connor Shellenberger, to one goal and two assists.

Shellenberger leads the Hoos with 69 points this season, on 26 goals and 43 assists. With 183 career assists, Shellenberger is tied with former Duke great Matt Danowski’atop the ACC record book. No. 1 can be unselfish to a fault sometimes, said Tiffany, who wants to see Shellenberger assert himself more in the postseason.

“He’s gotta go to the goal harder and go for himself,” Tiffany said. “He’s just gotta be selfish.”

Cormier was the only Cavalier with multiple goals Saturday. On offense, it was not a day to remember for a team came in averaging 15.1 goals per game. “I know,” Tiffany said, “but how often did we have the ball to really set an up offense?”

Not often enough to upend a team as talented and fundamentally sound as Notre Dame. The good news for the Hoos is that they’ll have an opportunity Friday night to reverse the result.

“The confidence is definitely up there,” Kastner said. “I think any time you lose three in a row, it’s not a great feeling. And it puts us in a spot where we’re incredibly hungry and, honestly, dangerous. We really want to keep improving. This season is far from over for us, and I can’t wait to get the next month.”

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