Sixth-Seeded Cavaliers Ready for Championship Weekend Matchup with No. 7 Seed Maryland

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – No. 6 seed Virginia (12-5) and seventh-seeded Maryland (10-5) meet in the NCAA Tournament for the 10th time on Saturday (May 25) in the semifinals at Lincoln Financial Field (Philadelphia, Pa). Opening faceoff is set for 2:30 p.m. as Anish Shroff (play-by-play), Quint Kessenich (analyst) and Paul Carcaterra (analyst) will have the call on ESPN2.

Saturday’s contest marks the fourth postseason meeting between the two teams in the previous five NCAA Tournaments, including the 2021 championship game when UVA edged the Terrapins, 17-16.

NUMBERS TO KNOW

8 – Virginia is seeking the program’s eighth NCAA championship, including third in the previous five tournaments. A win on Memorial Day would also tally the program’s 10th national championship overall (won 1952 & 1970 championships in pre-NCAA Tournament era).

26 – UVA is making its 26th all-time appearance in the NCAA semifinals and fourth in the previous five NCAA Tournaments dating back to 2019.

148 – The Cavaliers’ current roster has combined for 148 NCAA Tournament career games. Connor Shellenberger, Payton Cormier and Cole Kastner have all appeared in 11 career NCAA Tournament contests each dating back to 2021.

VIRGINIA IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT

• This year, the Cavaliers earned the program’s 43rd all-time berth in the NCAA Tournament, including 26th at Championship Weekend.
• Saturday’s matchup against the Terrapins marks UVA’s 97th all-time NCAA Tournament game as the Hoos boast a 61-35 (.635) postseason record, including 13-2 since 2019.
• Only Johns Hopkins (73), Maryland (72) and Syracuse (66) have more NCAA Tournament wins all-time than Virginia.
• Seven of the Cavaliers’ nine national championships have come in the NCAA Tournament (’72, ’99, ’03, ’06, ’11, ’19, ’21), which debuted in 1971.
• Since Lars Tiffany was hired as UVA head coach in 2017, the Hoos have qualified for six out of seven possible NCAA Tournaments. Under Tiffany, Virginia is 13-3 in the tournament.
• The Cavaliers are the nation’s only program to advance to four (2019, 2021, 2023, 2024) of the last five Championship Weekends.
• Last year, Virginia lost 13-12 in overtime to eventual-national champion Notre Dame in the NCAA semifinals at Lincoln Financial Field (Philadelphia, Pa.).

A WIN FOR THE CAVALIERS WOULD…

• Send the Hoos to the NCAA championship game for the 12th time in school history, including third under head coach Lars Tiffany.
• Improve Virginia’s record to 14-2 in its last 16 tournament contests since 2019.
• Be UVA’s second win over Maryland at Championship Weekend in the last four NCAA Tournaments (since 2021).
• Mark Connor Shellenberger, Payton Cormier, Cole Kastner, and Ben Wayer’s second career NCAA championship game having also competed in the 2021 title game.

SERIES HISTORY

• Maryland leads the all-time series, which began in 1926, 50-47, but Virginia snapped the Terrapins’ three-game win streak in the series with its 14-10 win at SECU Stadium on March 16 in the regular season.
• On Saturday, Virginia will face Maryland for the 98th all-time meeting, which will tie with Johns Hopkins (98) for the most head-to-head matchups in UVA history.
• In last year’s meeting at Klöckner Stadium, Maryland goalkeeper Brian Ruppel made three saves in overtime before Daniel Kelly found the back of the net at the midway through the sudden death period. The Terrapins won, 14-13.

VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT

• Virginia and the Terrapins have met nine times in the NCAA Tournament, including in three consecutive years from 2019-22.
• UVA is 5-4 all-time against Maryland in the NCAA Tournament.
• Among those nine NCAA Tournament contests, two of them were title games, 2011 and 2021 … The Cavaliers won both matchups 9-7 and 17-16, respectively.
• The most recent NCAA Tournament matchup was in the 2022 quarterfinals in Columbus, Ohio, when the Terrapins downed Virginia, 18-9, before going on to capture their program’s fourth NCAA title.

LAST TIME AGAINST THE TERRAPINS

• In the regular-season meeting in College Park Md., Griffin Schutz (4g, 2a) tied his career high of six points to lead Virginia in a 14-10 victory over Maryland (March 16) at SECU Stadium.
• The Cavaliers (8 turnovers) played a much cleaner game than UMD (16 turnovers) and buried both of their man-up chances.
• The Terps held the edge at the faceoff X, 16-12, but were outmaneuvered by UVA on the ground, 29-22.
• In addition to Schutz, McCabe Millon (3g) also stood out offensively for the Hoos after recording his fifth hat trick in just his seventh collegiate game.

LAST TIME OUT

• Connor Shellenberger (3g, 1a) scored the game-winning goal in double overtime to seal an 11-10 win over No. 3 seed Johns Hopkins in the NCAA Quarterfinals last Sunday (May 19) at Towson’s Johnny Unitas Stadium.
• The Cavaliers, who let up the first four goals and trailed 10-7 in the fourth quarter, held JHU scoreless for nearly the final 23 minutes of game time.
• The win marked UVA’s first in overtime first since defeating Duke in double overtime in the 2019 NCAA semifinals.
• Attackman McCabe Millon (3g, 3a) led the Hoos with six points.
• Defensively, the Cavaliers were led by LSM Ben Wayer, who collected a career-high 10 ground balls and had one assist and two caused turnovers.
• SSDM Chase Yager (3gb, 3ct) recorded one caused turnover in each overtime period, the second of which ultimately led to Shellenberger’s game-winning goal on the other end of the field.
• Between the fourth quarter and both overtimes, Hopkins committed nine turnovers, including three failed clears in the fourth.
• Johns Hopkins’ goalie Chayse Ierlan tallied 15 saves and Jacob Angeles (1g, 5a) stood out offensively for the Blue Jays.

CAVALIERS AMONG THE NATION’S STATISTICAL LEADERS

• For games played through May 19, the Cavaliers lead the nation in caused turnovers (11.71) and ground balls (38.29).
• Virginia is second in man-up offense (.594), sixth in assists (8.94), eighth in clearing (.895) and points (23.18), ninth in scoring offense (14.24), 10th in opponent clear percentage (.816), 11th in shot percentage (.321) and 15th in scoring margin (2.88) and shot percentage (.315).
• Payton Cormier leads all Division I players in goals (3.76) and is 17th in points (4.47) and sixth in man-up goals (6). Connor Shellenberger is third in assists (3.00) and seventh in points (4.72), and Cole Kastner is 20th in caused turnovers (1.76).

ON THE HORIZON

• The winner of Virginia-Maryland advances to the NCAA championship game and faces the winner of No. 1 seed Notre Dame (14-1) and No. 5 seed Denver (13-3).
• The championship game will commence from Lincoln Financial Field at 1 p.m. on Memorial Day (May 27) on ESPN.