No. 2 Virginia Opens ACC Play, Hosts North Carolina Saturday

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 2 Virginia (9-1) and North Carolina (6-4) embark on the ACC’s 70th all-time men’s lacrosse regular season on Saturday (April 6), when UVA hosts the Tar Heels for the 91st all-time meeting between the two rival schools.

Opening faceoff from Klöckner Stadium is set for noon on ESPNU as Anish Shroff (play-by-play) and Paul Carcaterra (analyst) will have the call.

PARKING INFORMATION

• Free parking is available in the JPJ South and West lots, and the JPJ Garage.
• Parking is first come, first served.
• Overflow parking is available free of charge in the Emmet/Ivy Garage. UVA will provide a complimentary shuttle for fans who opt to park in the Emmet/Ivy Garage.

INFLATABLE VILLAGE AT LANNIGAN FIELD

• UVA Athletics has partnered with the Office of the President to host an inflatable village at Lannigan Field from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.
• Activities include interactive inflatables for kids, free popcorn and snow cones, music, and tailgate games.
• Purchase of a game ticket is not required to attend this event. Patrons should simply enter the outdoor track facility adjacent to the Klöckner Stadium box office.

NUMBERS TO KNOW

1 – Payton Cormier (199 goals) needs just one goal to move into sole possession of No. 7 on the NCAA Division I career goals list and eclipse the 200-goal milestone.

5 – Virginia has won the last five meetings of the series against the Tar Heels dating back to 2021.

867 – Jack Boyden (334), Connor Shellenberger (287) and Payton Cormier (246) combine for 867 career points. No other team in the nation has three active players on its roster who combine for that amount.

HOOS WELCOME BACK 1999 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM

• On Saturday, Virginia welcomes back members of its 1999 national championship team to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the program’s second NCAA title and fourth national championship overall.
• The 1999 title also marked the first of four (’99, ’03, ’06, ’11) under former head coach Dom Starsia.
• In the regular season, the Cavaliers suffered losses on the road to Syracuse, Johns Hopkins and Duke in overtime.
• However, UVA avenged all three losses in the postseason, edging Duke by one goal in the ACC Tournament championship game, and Hopkins and Syracuse in the NCAA semifinals and finals, respectively.
• The 12-10 victory over eighth-seeded Syracuse in College Park, Md., ended Virginia’s 27-year drought without a national title as it won its first in 1972.
• After the 1972 championship run, the Hoos reached the NCAA title game four times (1980, 1986, 1994, 1996), but lost in overtime each time.
• Cuse nearly sent the game into overtime as the Orange scored five consecutive goals in the fourth quarter to close to within one [10-9] with 3:36 remaining. UVA then received goals from freshman attackman Conor Gill, who was also named the tournament’s most outstanding player, and senior midfielder Henry Oakey (Charlottesville, Va.), who was assisted by gill, in a 21-second span.
• In addition to Gill, Ryan Curtis, Derek Kenney, Jay Jalbert, Tucker Radebaugh and Court Weisleder were named all-tournament team selections.
• Earlier this week on Twitter, Starsia said, “That ’99 team was the hardest working group I have ever worked with. We needed to establish that mentality and they were up to the task.”
• The Cavaliers will don special throwback uniforms to pay homage to the 1999 squad, which will be recognized at halftime.

SERIES HISTORY

• Saturday’s game marks the 91st all-time meeting between the Cavaliers and North Carolina, a series UVA owns a 58-32 advantage in since 1938.
• The Cavaliers’ 58 wins places the Tar Heels on UVA’s list of most beaten opponents (UVA has defeated Duke 50 times).
• After dropping seven of its previous eight contests to UNC from 2012-17, the Cavaliers have won eight of the series’ previous nine games, including the last five.
• The Hoos’ most recent loss to UNC was at Klöckner Stadium during the 2021 regular season, when the Tar Heels won 16-13. Later that year, UVA claimed back-to-back meetings against the Heels, including in the NCAA semifinals on the way to capturing 2021 national title over Maryland.
• The last time the Cavaliers and UNC squared off at Klöckner Stadium was on April 9, 2022, when UVA held the Tar Heels to just four goals [11-4], the fewest goals scored by UNC in a single game since Joe Breschi was named the program’s head coach in 2006.
• UVA faced the Tar Heels every year from 1964-2019 until the pandemic shutdown the 2020 season.
• Virginia and North Carolina are charter members of the ACC, which held its inaugural regular season in 1954. Duke and Maryland, which left the ACC for the Big Ten following the 2014 season, are the only other two original members.

LAST TIME OUT

• Virginia trailed by as many as five goals in the third quarter and four in the fourth, but claimed the final seven scores to seal a 13-10 comeback victory over No. 16 Harvard last Saturday (March 30) at Jordan Field.
• Goalie Matthew Nunes (9-1) finished with a game-high 16 saves, including eight in the third period, and scored the game-winning goal after going end-to-end and burying his first career score with less than five minutes to play.
• After a sluggish start at the faceoff X, the Cavaliers dominated the faceoff game in the fourth, winning eight of the quarter’s nine total draws.
• Offensively, Virginia was led by Payton Cormier, who recorded a game-high four goals and dished out one assist, and Griffin Schutz (2g, 2a).
• On the defensive end, Cole Kastner led the way with four caused turnovers, and Ben Wayer (1g) and Noah Chizmar tallied five ground balls each.

THE HOOS AT KLÖCKNER STADIUM

• Virginia owns a 178-46 (.795) all-time record at Klöckner Stadium, including a 5-1 record in 2024, and has won 21 of its last 25 games played at the historic edifice.
• The Cavaliers’ average margin of victory in their last 25 games at Klöckner Stadium is 6.0 goals.
• Virginia is 52-14 (.788) all-time at Klöckner Stadium under head coach Lars Tiffany.
• UVA is also 14-3 all-time at Klöckner Stadium in NCAA Tournament contests.
• Lacrosse debuted in Klöckner Stadium in 1993.

CAVALIERS AMONG THE NATION’S STATISTICAL LEADERS

• For games played through March 31, Virginia leads the nation in assists (10.40), caused turnovers (11.50) and winning percentage (.900). The Cavaliers are second in the nation in clearing (.934), ground balls (39.70) and points (25.70), fourth in man-up offense (.524), and fifth in scoring margin (5.20) and scoring offense (15.30).
• Among all Division I players this season, Payton Cormier is currently No. 1 in goals (4.00) and seventh in points (5.00). Connor Shellenberger is sixth in assists (3.00) and 11th in points (4.80). Matthew Nunes is eighth in save percentage (.575), 18th in goals-against (9.97) and 22nd in saves (11.90).

VIRGINIA IN THE POLLS

• 2 Virginia has been ranked in the top 5 of the USILA Coaches poll in 335 weeks all-time including in the most recent edition of the poll.
• Virginia has been ranked No. 1 in the nation in 70 all-time polls.
• UVA has been ranked in 527 out of 548 (.962) total USILA polls all-time.
• The USILA Poll began in 1973.

ON THE HORIZON

• The Cavaliers travel to Duke (10-2), which is ranked No. 3 in this week’s USILA coaches poll, on Sunday (April 14) for a possible top-3 showdown.
• Opening faceoff from Koskinen Stadium is set for 2 p.m. on ACC Network.