Resurgence Has Hoos in Favorable Position

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

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — His positivity in the aftermath of a gut-wrenching defeat might have struck some as unwarranted. Virginia’s record, after all, had just dropped to 3-4, and still to come were games against ACC rivals Notre Dame, Duke, Syracuse and North Carolina, powerful programs that each have won multiple NCAA titles in men’s lacrosse.

Even so, head coach Lars Tiffany was adamant after UVA’s triple-overtime loss to Maryland on March 14. The Cavaliers, Tiffany said, had salvaged their season with their performance that day.

“I told the team, ‘Fellas, it’s so much easier to point towards a win [as the moment] when we turn the season around, but we’re going to remember this through the pain and hurt of this losing locker room right now. This is when we turned the season around. We took a huge step today.’ ”

Time has proven Tiffany correct. After losing in College Park, Md., the Wahoos ran off four straight victories. One of them came against then-No. 1 Notre Dame, and another against then-No. 7 Duke, which UVA hadn’t defeated in the regular season since 2004.

“We always knew that we have what it takes,” senior attackman Truitt Sunderland said. “I think it was just a matter of putting it together.”

The Hoos dropped their games against Syracuse and UNC, losing 14-9 and 16-15 in overtime, respectively, but they rebounded Friday to close the regular season with a 17-6 rout of Drexel at Klöckner Stadium. And now they’ll head to this weekend’s ACC tournament as a team that’s very much in contention for a spot in the NCAA field.

“It’s a special group,” senior midfielder Joey Terenzi said, “and I’m proud of this group and what we’ve accomplished.”

The Cavaliers went into the Drexel game knowing “it's do-or-die lacrosse at this time of year,” Sunderland said. “So we knew we had to win, and not only did we want to win, we wanted to dominate [the Dragons] and kind of send a message to the rest of the country that we're still here.”

The rest of the country has taken note. The Cavaliers are ranked No. 8 in the latest United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll, and they’re No. 9 in the RPI.

“These guys understand the legacy and tradition and history of Virginia lacrosse,” Tiffany said, “and they knew they had to get to a different level, and we're realizing it. And so it's really, really rewarding to see.”

Now comes the four-team ACC tournament at American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. In the first semifinal Friday, No. 4 seed UVA (8-6) meets No. 1 seed Notre Dame (10-1) at 5 p.m. No. 2 seed North Carolina (11-3) and No. 3 seed Syracuse (11-4) will follow at 8 p.m. The championship game is Sunday at noon.

If some outside the program gave up on them early in the season, the Cavaliers never stopped believing in themselves.

“We're not going to beat around the bush,” Terenzi said. “We didn't have a good start to the season, and it's unacceptable. That’s not the UVA standard. But at the same time, we knew that we had a whole laundry list of things that we could accomplish going into ACC play. And we kind of put our head down and just said, ‘Let’s just continue to work and live with the results. At some point, we're going to win a game, and then that belief is going to trickle down, and we're really going to start piling these wins on one another.’ ”

Postseason mode activated 🕹️ pic.twitter.com/YECBh1Dsl4

— Virginia Men's Lacrosse (@UVAMensLax) April 25, 2026

Terenzi is one of the Cavaliers’ captains, along with Sunderland and defenseman John Schroter.

“From the outside eye, I'd say it looks like it's been harder than it really has been,” Sunderland said. “This team has so much fight, and everyone believes every single day we're going to win. It's really, really special to be a part of it.”

Like his head coach, Terenzi wasn’t despondent after the Maryland game.

“In the moment you feel like, ‘Damn, we just let that one get away,’ ” Terenzi said. “But one thing that I always say to our team is: Can we be obsessed with the process without being attached to the outcome? And the outcome was that we lost, but the process was that we did our job and we did it right. It just unfortunately fell short.

“It’s hard when you lose in triple overtime. It's one goal. Ryan Colsey hit a post, and if that shot went three inches to the right, we win the game. It's so tough in that scenario, and you re-think everything you do, but at that point in the season, we knew we’d just played an alpha-male type of team. If we could stay with them, we could stay with anyone in the country, and it kind of made us believe that we could do it.”

Sunderland believes UVA’s turnaround began before the Maryland game. A week earlier, at Klöckner Stadium, Towson had defeated UVA 13-9.

“We were upset about it for a couple hours, and then it immediately turned to: How can we fix this? How can we make this better?” Sunderland said. “I think the beautiful thing about playing at UVA is, in the ACC you play four of the best teams in the country year in and year out. If you win a couple of those, you're right back in it. So we knew that. And we had to take our wounds and learn from it and get better.”

Led by Sunderland, Ryan Colsey, Ryan Duenkel and the Millon brothers, McCabe and Brendan, UVA is averaging 14.1 goals per game.

Sunderland, a senior, leads the team with 41 goals. Brendan Millon, a freshman, leads the Cavaliers with 67 points, and McCabe, a junior, has 64. Colsey, a redshirt junior, has totaled 38 points, and Duenkel, a redshirt freshman, has contributed 23 points.

Against Drexel, Sunderland finished with a career-best 10 points, on four goals and six assists. Duenkel and Terenzi scored three goals each, and Brendan Millon finished with two goals and three assists.

The hat trick was the first of his UVA career for Duenkel, who sat out the 2025 season with an injury.

“The emergence of Ryan Dunkel really, really boosts us,” Tiffany said, “because now other teams are saying, ‘We've got to put a really good defender on him,’ and then Colsey will get a short stick. Which means Joey Terenzi, who's now healthy, gets a short stick.”

Duenkel is “a legitimate threat now,” Tiffany said, “and it's going to make opposing defensive coordinators really account for him, which could liberate others.”

Brendan Millon is considered the favorite to be named ACC Freshman of the Year. He and his brother grew up in the Baltimore area immersed in lacrosse. Their father, Mark, is a legend in the sport, and his sons have already made names for themselves in the college game.

McCabe Millon leads the ACC in assists per game (2.9).  Brendan Millon leads the league in points per game (4.8).

The younger Millon’s “lacrosse IQ is exceptional, especially for someone who's just in his first year of college lacrosse, who didn't redshirt,” Tiffany said. “If there's someone open on the field, it seems like he's going to find them every time. And if you don't slide and there is nobody open, then he can use his moves and get the shot himself. It's incredible intelligence and savviness that he has, understanding what's the defense giving you and what are they trying to take away ... His poise and composure, it's not unprecedented, because Virginia lacrosse has had some incredible attackmen who've come in and done things really, really well as a first-year. He's the next in line to be in that elite class.”

Three of the @theACC's top-5 point leaders reside in Charlottesville 😤 pic.twitter.com/JC8IimxMHx

— Virginia Men's Lacrosse (@UVAMensLax) April 26, 2026

UVA’s offense has produced at a high level for most of the season. The Cavaliers’ defense, however, gave up at least 12 goals in three of the team’s four games in February. But since goalkeeper Jake Marek regained his starting job in early March, UVA’s defense has been much harder for opposing offenses to break down.

A graduate transfer from Air Force, Marek made 11 saves in Virginia’s 11-9 win over Notre Dame on March 28 at Klöckner Stadium. The Cavaliers held the Fighting Irish scoreless for the final 19:34 of that game.

Against Drexel, Marek played only about two-and-a-half quarters but still made 12 saves. The Hoos are likely to need another big game from No. 27 if they hope to record a second straight win over the Irish, who are again ranked No. 1 nationally.

A win over Notre Dame on Friday night would lock up an NCAA invitation for Virginia. Even with a loss, the Cavaliers might well advance to the NCAAs, but Tiffany said he's paid little mind to bracketology.

“We’re just trying to play our best lacrosse ... As we go down to Charlotte, first and foremost, I want to win an ACC tournament,” Tiffany said. “We make a big deal out of that. Our locker room doesn't show ACC regular-season titles, but it shows ACC conference tournament championships. That's what we're striving for right now.”

UVA went into the Drexel game without two key starters—Colsey and long-stick midfielder Robby Hopper—and then lost defenseman Michael Meredith to an injury early in the second quarter. Tiffany said after the game that he hopes they’ll all be available against Notre Dame.

“Those are three really important players,” he said.

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