Virginia earns at-large bid to 2021 NCAA Tournament

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

The Virginia women’s lacrosse team earned an at-large bid to the 2021 NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Championship, making its 25th consecutive appearance in the postseason.

The Cavaliers (8-8) will travel to Notre Dame, Ind., to play UConn (12-6) on Friday, May 14 at 5 p.m. at Arlotta Stadium.

“It is such an amazingly, crazy year so to be one of the teams picked in the end is obviously a huge relief and a big accomplishment,” head coach Julie Myers said. “I am exciting to prep for a new team and to get a new team first so we can put our time and effort into that. Should we put a plan together and pull it off and win on Friday, it is nice to play a more familiar opponent come Sunday. There is a lot of work to be done, just great appreciation to the school for helping us get here and the NCAA for continuing on with this tournament. We train a lot of months of the year to be able to get to this point of the year, so I am excited to be training and pushing for more games.”

The winner of Virginia/UConn will advance to the NCAA Second Round to face the winner of No. 5 national seed Notre Dame and Robert Morris on Sunday, May 16 at 1 p.m. Virginia has never faced Robert Morris and is 3-6 all-time vs. Notre Dame.

The Cavaliers are coming off a 16-12 loss to Boston College in the ACC Quarterfinals. UVA had four All-ACC selections with junior Annie Dyson (Alexandria, Va.) and graduate student Meredith Chapman (Apex, N.C.) earning second team honors and Mackenzie Hoeg (Mattituck, N.Y.) and Maggie Bostain (Richmond, Va.) were named to the All-Freshman Team.

Virginia and UConn are meeting for the first time in school history. The Huskies advanced to the title game of the BIG EAST Tournament before falling to then-No. 15 Denver. UConn is led by BIG EAST Midfielder of the Year, Sydney Watson. Watson has 53 goals, 12 assists and 133 draw controls.

Virginia has earned an NCAA bid in each of the 25 seasons under Myers the tournament has been played. Last season, the NCAA Tournament was canceled due to COVID-19. UVA made it to the NCAA Quarterfinals in 2019 before falling to North Carolina.

This will be Virginia’s 32nd overall trip to the NCAA Championship, ranking third in the nation with 64 tournament games played. UVA owns a 36-28 record in NCAA tournament games.