Virginia Cavaliers men's lacrosse

The Virginia Cavaliers men's lacrosse team represents the University of Virginia in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I men's lacrosse. The Cavaliers compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and plays home games at Klöckner Stadium, or occasionally Turf Field or Scott Stadium, in Charlottesville, Virginia. The team is coached by Lars Tiffany, who led the team to back-to-back national titles in the 2019 NCAA Lacrosse Championship and 2021 NCAA Lacrosse Championship (the 2020 tournament being canceled due to COVID-19).

Virginia Cavaliers men's lacrosse
Founded1904; 1925
UniversityUniversity of Virginia
Head coachLars Tiffany (5th season)
StadiumKlöckner Stadium
(capacity: 8,000)
LocationCharlottesville, Virginia
ConferenceAtlantic Coast Conference
NicknameCavaliers
ColorsOrange and blue[1]
   
Pre-NCAA era championships
1952, 1970
NCAA Tournament championships
1972, 1999, 2003, 2006, 2011, 2019, 2021
NCAA Tournament Runner-Up
1980, 1986, 1994, 1996
NCAA Tournament Final Fours
1972, 1973, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2024
NCAA Tournament Quarterfinals
1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1993, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
NCAA Tournament appearances
1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
Conference Tournament championships
1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2010, 2019
Conference regular season championships
1962, 1964, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1975, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2019, 2022

Winning seven NCAA Championships and nine national titles overall, Virginia is one of the all-time great collegiate lacrosse programs. Virginia's 2006 team was one of the greatest in the history of the sport, finishing 17–0 out of a very competitive ACC, and winning 16 of its 17 games by four or more goals.[2] Each former Virginia head coach in the NCAA era of men's lacrosse (Dom Starsia, "Ace" Adams, and Glenn Thiel) is among the top 25 of all-time lacrosse coaching wins. Both Tiffany and Starsia coincidentally moved into the Virginia position after they first achieved success as head coaches at their alma mater Brown University.

Virginia's historic rivalries have extended to the championship matches of six different NCAA Tournaments, with the Cavaliers winning five of those six—defeating Syracuse in 1999, defeating Maryland in 2011 and in 2021, and defeating Johns Hopkins in 1972 and in 2003—while losing just one, in double-overtime, to Hopkins in 1980.

History

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University records show that Virginia fielded lacrosse teams from 1904 to 1907, although no further information from that period is available.[3] After a hiatus, lacrosse returned to Charlottesville in 1925 though the team struggled in the ensuing years. Through 1932, the Cavaliers won only one game, while they lost 30 and tied four. Virginia along with Duke, UNC, and Washington & Lee played in the Dixie Lacrosse League from 1938 to 1942 with the Cavaliers winning the championship in the inaugural season. The team was disbanded after the 1932 season and would play sporadically until lacrosse returned for good in 1947. Two years later, Virginia won more games than it lost for the first time in school history when it posted a 7–4 record. The Cavaliers then posted an 8–3 mark in 1950 and 7–2 in 1951. The following season, they recorded an identical tally and the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) named Virginia the 1952 co-national champions.[3]

 
Virginia takes on rival Johns Hopkins

In 1970, Virginia finished the season with an 8–2 record and the USILA again awarded them as co-champions with Navy and Johns Hopkins.[4] The following season, the NCAA instituted a single-elimination tournament to determine the national championship, and the Cavaliers made an appearance but were eliminated by Navy in the first round. In 1972, Virginia again secured a tournament berth, and beat in succession Army, Cortland State, and Johns Hopkins for their first NCAA national championship. In 1978, former Army coach Jim "Ace" Adams took over as head coach, and from that season onward, Virginia has been a regular participant in the NCAA tournament. Since then, the Cavaliers have never failed to qualify in two consecutive seasons. Virginia advanced to the championship game in 1980, 1986, 1994, and 1996, each time falling to the eventual champion by one goal. In 1993, Dom Starsia became head coach, leading the Cavaliers to national titles in 1999, 2003, 2006, and 2011. Since the establishment of an ACC tournament in 1989, Virginia has won the regular-season championship ten times, more than any of the other three teams in the league.[3]

Virginia's 2006 season was remarkable as the Cavaliers became the first team in NCAA history to finish the season with a 17–0 record en route to the program's third national championship in eight years. The team won its games by an average of more than eight goals per game and drew comparisons to some of the best lacrosse teams of all time.[5] The Virginia offense led the nation in scoring (15.28), while the defense ranked 10th, allowing fewer than eight goals per game. Eight Cavaliers were named All-Americans, the most in program history, and senior attackman Matt Ward received the Tewaaraton Trophy as the best player in the nation.

In 2011, the Cavaliers posted a 9–5 regular-season record before entering the NCAA tournament, where they defeated Bucknell, Cornell, Denver, and finally Maryland 9–7 to win their fifth NCAA championship.[6] During the tournament, head coach Dom Starsia became the all-time wins leader in Division I men's lacrosse history, breaking Jack Emmer's previous mark of 326 wins.[7] Five Cavaliers were named USILA All-Americans.[8] Following the tournament, third-year attackman Steele Stanwick won the Tewaaraton Trophy as the nation's top player.[9] Starsia left the program at the conclusion of the 2016 season after a poor run of four seasons that included two losing records – only the program's third and fourth since the NCAA championship era began in 1971.

Brown head coach Lars Tiffany, who had played for Starsia at the college, was named as his replacement on June 21, 2016.[10] In his third season, Tiffany led the Cavaliers to an 17–3 season record, an ACC championship, and back to the 2019 National Championship Game where they defeated Yale, 13–9, to claim their eighth title. After the 2020 season was cancelled due to COVID-19, Tiffany led the 2021 team to a 14–4 season record and the 2021 National Championship Game where they defeated Maryland, 17–16, to retain their title.

Rivalries

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Virginia–Syracuse has been an extremely evenly matched series between two lacrosse titans. Virginia has gained the upper hand in the Johns Hopkins and Maryland rivalries since the 1980s and 1990s, but trails in those all-time series (especially to Johns Hopkins) as a "late blooming" national power.

Season results

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The following is a list of Virginia's results by season as an NCAA Division I program:

Season Coach Overall Conference Standing Postseason
Glenn Thiel (Atlantic Coast Conference) (1970–1977)
1971 Glenn Thiel 10–2 2–0 1st NCAA Division I Quarterfinals
1972 Glenn Thiel 11–4 2–1 2nd NCAA Division I Champion
1973 Glenn Thiel 10–4 2–1 2nd NCAA Division I Final Four
1974 Glenn Thiel 5–4 2–1 2nd NCAA Division I Quarterfinals
1975 Glenn Thiel 7–4 3–0 1st
1976 Glenn Thiel 5–5 1–2 T–3rd
1977 Glenn Thiel 7–5 1–1 T–2nd
Glenn Thiel: 63–30 (.677) 15–6 (.714)
Jim Adams (Atlantic Coast Conference) (1978–1992)
1978 Jim Adams 6–5 2–2 3rd NCAA Division I Quarterfinals
1979 Jim Adams 9–4 3–1 2nd NCAA Division I Final Four
1980 Jim Adams 12–2 3–1 T–1st NCAA Division I Runner–Up
1981 Jim Adams 9–4 3–1 2nd NCAA Division I Final Four
1982 Jim Adams 10–3 3–1 2nd NCAA Division I Final Four
1983 Jim Adams 10–2 3–0 1st NCAA Division I Quarterfinals
1984 Jim Adams 10–3 3–0 1st NCAA Division I Quarterfinals
1985 Jim Adams 11–3 2–1 T–1st NCAA Division I Final Four
1986 Jim Adams 12–3 3–0 1st NCAA Division I Runner–Up
1987 Jim Adams 6–7 0–3 4th
1988 Jim Adams 9–5 2–1 2nd NCAA Division I Final Four
1989 Jim Adams 7–5 1–2 3rd
1990 Jim Adams 9–5 3–0 1st NCAA Division I First Round
1991 Jim Adams 10–4 2–1 2nd NCAA Division I First Round
1992 Jim Adams 7–5 0–3 4th
Jim Adams: 137–60 (.695) 33–17 (.660)
Dom Starsia (Atlantic Coast Conference) (1993–2016)
1993 Dom Starsia 10–5 3–0 1st NCAA Division I Quarterfinals
1994 Dom Starsia 13–4 2–1 T–1st NCAA Division I Runner–Up
1995 Dom Starsia 12–3 3–0 1st NCAA Division I Final Four
1996 Dom Starsia 12–4 1–2 T–3rd NCAA Division I Runner–Up
1997 Dom Starsia 11–3 3–0 1st NCAA Division I Quarterfinals
1998 Dom Starsia 8–5 2–1 2nd NCAA Division I Quarterfinals
1999 Dom Starsia 13–3 2–1 T–1st NCAA Division I Champion
2000 Dom Starsia 13–2 3–0 1st NCAA Division I Final Four
2001 Dom Starsia 7–7 1–2 T–3rd NCAA Division I First Round
2002 Dom Starsia 11–4 3–0 1st NCAA Division I Final Four
2003 Dom Starsia 15–2 2–1 T–1st NCAA Division I Champion
2004 Dom Starsia 5–8 1–2 3rd
2005 Dom Starsia 11–4 2–1 2nd NCAA Division I Final Four
2006 Dom Starsia 17–0 2–0 1st NCAA Division I Champion
2007 Dom Starsia 12–4 2–1 2nd NCAA Division I First Round
2008 Dom Starsia 14–4 1–2 3rd NCAA Division I Final Four
2009 Dom Starsia 15–3 2–1 T–1st NCAA Division I Final Four
2010 Dom Starsia 16–2 2–1 T–1st NCAA Division I Final Four
2011 Dom Starsia 13–5 1–2 T–2nd NCAA Division I Champion
2012 Dom Starsia 12–4 2–1 T–1st NCAA Division I Quarterfinals
2013 Dom Starsia 7–8 0–3 4th
2014 Dom Starsia 10–6 1–4 6th NCAA Division I First Round
2015 Dom Starsia 10–5 0–4 5th NCAA Division I First Round
2016 Dom Starsia 7–8 0–4 5th
Dom Starsia: 274–103 (.727) 41–34 (.547)
Lars Tiffany (Atlantic Coast Conference) (2017–Present)
2017 Lars Tiffany 8–7 0–4 5th
2018 Lars Tiffany 12–6 1–3 T–4th NCAA Division I First Round
2019 Lars Tiffany 17–3 3–1 1st NCAA Division I Champion
2020 Lars Tiffany 4–2 0–0
2021 Lars Tiffany 14–4 2–4 T–4th NCAA Division I Champion
2022 Lars Tiffany 12–4 5–1 1st NCAA Division I Quarterfinals
2023 Lars Tiffany 13–4 4–2 T–2nd NCAA Division I Final Four
2024 Lars Tiffany 12–6 1–3 T–3rd NCAA Division I Final Four
Lars Tiffany: 92–36 (.719) 16–18 (.471)
Total: 712–390–6 (.645)

      National champion         Postseason invitational champion  
      Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion
      Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion
      Conference tournament champion

†NCAA canceled spring 2020 collegiate sports due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Year Drafted Name Position Height Weight Drafted By Draft Pick Current Team All Star Accolades
2011 Adam Ghitelman Goalie 5'9 180 Denver Outlaws (MLL) 8th round (45th overall) Archers LC None None
2011 Thomas Kelly Faceoff 6'0 215 Undrafted Undrafted Chaos LC None None
2017 Zed Williams Attack 6'2 230 Georgia Storm (NLL) 1st round (4th overall) Whipsnakes LC 2x All Star ('20,'21) 1x MVP ('20), 1x McEneaney ('20)
2018 Scott Hooper Defense 6'1 180 Charlotte Hounds (MLL) 4th round (28th overall) Cannons LC None None
2019 Ryan Conrad Midfield 6'0 190 Atlas LC 1st round (2nd overall) Waterdogs LC None None
2021 Jared Conners LSM 6'5 215 Archers LC 1st round (5th overall) Archers LC None None
2021 Dox Aitken Midfield 6'2 210 Atlas LC 1st round (8th overall) Atlas LC None None
2021 Charlie Bertrand Midfield 6'3 220 Redwoods LC 3rd round (24th overall) Redwoods LC None None
2022 Matt Moore Attack 6'2 195 Archers LC 1st round (4th overall) Archers LC None None
2022 Chris Merle D Midfield 6'1 200 Undrafted Undrafted Archers LC None None

References

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  1. ^ "Athletics Color Palette". University of Virginia Consumer Product Brand Standards (PDF). Retrieved January 16, 2023.
  2. ^ Virginia 2005-06 Men's Lacrosse Team Statistics, accessed June 15, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c Virginia Men's Lacrosse Media Guide Archived 2012-02-27 at the Wayback Machine, University of Virginia.
  4. ^ Since 1971, the annual NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship tournament has determined the national champion in lacrosse. Prior to that, from 1934 through 1970 (the pre-NCAA era), the national champion was determined by the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA), who would award the Wingate Memorial Trophy to the top team, based on regular-season records. The Wingate Memorial Trophy was presented to the first two NCAA champions (1971 and 1972) and was then retired. See also: NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship (1971– ) and Wingate Memorial Trophy (1934–1970).
  5. ^ In Final, Virginia Lacrosse Team Has Eye on Victory and Legacy Archived 2017-07-01 at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, May 29, 2006.
  6. ^ While Virginia Celebrates Another Title, Relief Combines With Elation Archived 2012-08-31 at the Wayback Machine, New York Times, May 30, 2011.
  7. ^ Starsia Breaks Wins Record as Virginia is Baltimore Bound, VirginiaSports.com, May 21, 2011.
  8. ^ Stanwick Headlines UVa's Five USILA All-American Selections, VirginiaSports.com, May 26, 2011.
  9. ^ Stanwick Takes Home College Lacrosse's Top Honor – The Tewaaraton Trophy Archived 2011-12-11 at the Wayback Machine, VirginiaSports.com, June 2, 2011.
  10. ^ Reid, Whitelaw (21 June 2016). "Virginia hires Brown's Lars Tiffany to lead men's lacrosse program". The Daily Progress.
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