Marek Follows Improbable Path to Leading Role at UVA

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

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — It’s not unusual for University of Virginia alumni and other supporters to contact Lars Tiffany to tell him about lacrosse players they believe might be worthy of roster spots in the Cavaliers’ program.

Ninety percent of the time, Tiffany said this week, nothing comes of those recommendations, usually because the players in question aren’t good enough to compete at UVA’s level.

“And then once in a while, you just get handed a gift,” said Tiffany, who’s in his 10^th season as head men’s coach at Virginia.

Say hello to Jake Marek, the starting goalkeeper for No. 16 UVA (6-4 overall, 1-0 ACC), which plays No. 7 Duke (8-1, 0-1) at noon Saturday in Durham, N.C.

Last May, Tiffany received an email from former UVA player Pete Dunne, a 1980 graduate of the McIntire School of Commerce. Dunne is president and founder of the Davie Broncos youth lacrosse program in South Florida, and he helped introduce Marek to the sport.

“Not sure if he reached out yet, but one of my kids is in the Hook for grad nursing,” Dunne wrote Tiffany. “He was the ASUN tournament MVP in goal for Air Force. Great kid and great goalie. Here's his cell if you're interested.”

With his email, Dunne attached a photo of Marek standing outside the Claude Moore Nursing Education Building on Grounds.

“He looks like a nice kid standing in nursing scrubs,” Tiffany recalls thinking, but that didn’t inspire him to follow up. Marek, who’d graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 2025 with a bachelor’s degree in biology, wasn’t in the transfer portal, and “I didn’t need another goalie,” Tiffany said.

In late June, however, Dunne wrote back to let Tiffany know that Marek was entering the portal. That development didn’t floor Tiffany, either.

“I mean, this isn't Connor Shellenberger 2.0,” Tiffany said, but he told Dunne that Marek was welcome to email him.

Eventually, that happened. After moving to Charlottesville and enrolling in a master’s program in nursing late last spring, Marek said, he wasn’t sure at first if he wanted to continue playing lacrosse. But in July he reached out to Tiffany, and they agreed to get together at Bodo’s Bagels.

“And I went into that meeting going, ‘OK, I'm going to meet with him for a half hour, then I'm going to go on my day,’ ” Tiffany said, “not like, ‘This is the guy that's going to be our goalie.’ ”

Marek’s personality impressed him, though, and Tiffany invited him to join the program as a walk-on in the fall. Some seven months later, No. 27 is a key piece of a resurgent Cavalier team that’s coming off an upset of then-No. 1 Notre Dame.

“I never thought I’d be in this position, ever,” said Marek, who’s recorded at least 10 saves in three straight games, all UVA wins.

“Thank goodness for Jake Marek this year,” Tiffany said.

Against Notre Dame, which came to Klöckner Stadium having won four straightover UVA, Marek made 11 saves.

“That was definitely the highlight of my career,” Marek said. “There's nothing that can compare to it.”

That's six saves for Jake Marek in the first quarter‼️#GoHoos🔸⚔️🔹 pic.twitter.com/1WGFHI3KMY

— Virginia Men's Lacrosse (@UVAMensLax) March 23, 2026

Marek, who’s from Plantation, Fla., near Fort Lauderdale, has followed an improbable path to a starting job in one of the nation’s most storied programs. He originally planned to play at Virginia Military Institute, but when the Air Force Academy accepted him at the 11^th hour, he changed course.

“I was like, ‘This is my dream school,’ ” Marek recalled. “So I decommitted from VMI and went to the Air Force Academy, did basic training and all that.”

The lacrosse coaches at Air Force initially weren’t interested in Marek, but they offered him a spot on the team after a goalie recruit decommitted and instead went, coincidentally, to VMI.

In fall of 2021, his freshman year at Air Force, Marek joined the team. But he didn’t play for the Falcons in 2022 or ’23, and midway through his junior season in ’24 he decided it might be time for him to give up lacrosse and focus on his schoolwork. He was third on the depth chart and thought he had no shot to get on the field.

“I’m like, ‘I think it’s time to call it,’ ” Marek recalled.

When the Falcons’ captains learned Marek was thinking of quitting the team, they assured him his time was coming and persuaded him to stick it out. “The following week we played Bellarmine and I got my chance to start and played well,” Marek said, and he didn’t relinquish the job.

After starting seven games in 2024, he started all 17 last season and helped Air Force win the ASUN title and advance to the NCAA tournament. Then he moved to Charlottesville to start a two-year master’s program at UVA.

Marek chose Virginia over his other options for graduate nursing school: Johns Hopkins, Maryland, Columbia and Rush University in Chicago. He didn’t want to live in a big city, and the more he learned about UVA and Charlottesville, the more he found appealing.

He’s planning to become a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) who serves on special operations surgical teams (SOST).

“I’ve always loved science and helping people, so I was looking at different job opportunities,” Marek said. “I was like, ‘OK, this is super cool.’ ”  

The Air Force is paying for his education at UVA. Once he earns his master’s next spring, Marek will serve for eight years in active duty and then three years in the reserves.

He’s enjoyed balancing lacrosse and graduate school, though his first days in Tiffany’s program were eye-opening to him.

“I didn’t play lacrosse for like three months [last summer], and now I'm walking on to one of the best teams,” Marek said. “And let me tell you, it was a rude awakening the first couple weeks of practice. It's a whole different level.”

Tiffany’s assistants include Shellenberger, a Cavalier legend who now stars in the Premier Lacrosse League.

Marek works out regularly with Shellenberger, which can be a humbling experience for a goalkeeper. “It’s amazing, though,” Marek said. “He definitely gets me so much better. I normally go out with him on Tuesdays just to see shots that I may see in whatever game we're playing on Saturday, and just having him shoot like that, I think, has really helped my game.”

Coming out of the fall, Marek earned the starting job. Like rest of the UVA defense, however, he struggled early this season.

“His worst two days as a Virginia Cavalier were our first two games,” Tiffany said.

UVA won its opener, defeating Colgate 19-14, but then lost 18-12 at Richmond, which is now ranked No. 1 nationally. After the UR loss, Tiffany turned to Kyle Morris, who started in goal for the next two games: a 19-7 win at Stony Brook and a 14-13 loss to Johns Hopkins at Klöckner Stadium.

Hopkins scored 11 second-half goals in its comeback win, and Tiffany came away convinced that Marek was UVA’s best option in the cage.

“After that I was like, ‘This is our goalie,’ ” Tiffany said. “I’ve literally told him, ‘Look, you're the goalie. We pulled you once. We're not pulling you again.’ So there's some confidence that comes from that, and the power of positive psychology has been exponential with this team.”

Since falling at Maryland in a triple-overtime game on March 14, UVA has defeated Utah (16-11), Dartmouth (18-7) and Notre Dame (11-9). Marek has sparkled in goal, and the Hoos also have received strong play from such players as close defensemen John Schroter and Michael Meredith, short-stick defensive midfielder Hudson Hausmann and long-stick midfielder Robby Hopper.

An injury slowed Schroter early in the season. Back at full strength, he’s been a force.

“Obviously, I'm making more saves now, which definitely helps a lot,” Marek said, “but having John Schroter back, consistently playing the whole game, really just helps the entire defense with communication, teamwork, and just having that extra juice. And our defensive middies have been playing well all year, but now they're just really on a whole other level ...  I think we're just really locking in as a unit now, and we're understanding each other's strengths.”

First ACC road test on deck ⏳ pic.twitter.com/T75vdEavOL

— Virginia Men's Lacrosse (@UVAMensLax) April 2, 2026

Now comes a meeting with the Hoos’ nemesis. Virginia has dropped 20 straight regular-season games to Duke, but that streak doesn’t mean much to Marek.

“This is a totally different team,” he said.

Marek noted that many of the players who’ll take the field for Virginia on Saturday—among them Hopper, Meredith, Brendan Millon and Ryan Duenkel—have never faced the Blue Devils.

Recent history might favor Duke, but “I really don't think it matters at all,” Marek said. “We know how deadly and disciplined our team is now, so we know what we're capable of and we're just bringing that into every week now.”

When last season ended, Tiffany never imagined his starting goalie in 2026 would be a young man he’d never met or recruited. If he wasn’t living it, Tiffany might not believe it.

“Jake Marek, sent from above, the Air Force,” Tiffany said, shaking his head. “Sent from the skies. Sent from Pete Dunne.”

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