Hoos set to face No. 8 Brown in NCAA First Round

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Posted on Saturday, May. 14, 2022, 6:00 am

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Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Virginia travels to eighth-seeded Brown tonight in the First Round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament. Opening faceoff from Stevenson-Pincince Field is set for 7:30 p.m., as Drew Carter (play-by-play) and Matt Ward (analyst) will have the call on ESPNU.

The Cavaliers (11-3) are ranked No. 4 in the USILA coaches poll and No. 3 in the Inside Lacrosse media poll, while Brown (10-5) is seventh in the coaches poll and fifth in the media poll.

NUMBERS TO KNOW 

3 — Virginia is seeking to become just the third NCAA men’s lacrosse program to win three consecutive national titles in 2022, which would put itself in a category with Princeton (1996-98) and Johns Hopkins (1978-80).

8 — Having claimed national championships in consecutive opportunities (2019 & ’21), Virginia has won its last eight NCAA Tournament contests and have out-scored its opponents 114-84, a 3.75 average margin of victory.

15 — With its most recent game against Lafayette on April 28, the Cavaliers will look to take advantage 15 consecutive days off until its First Round matchup at Brown.

THE SERIES VS. BROWN 

  • Virginia leads the all-time series against the Bears, 12-3.
  • The two teams met in 2019 (at UVA) and 2020 (at Brown) with both teams winning at home, 14-13.
  • The Cavaliers and Brown met once before in the NCAA Tournament in the 1995 quarterfinals in Charlottesville as UVA knocked off the then-seventh seeded Bears, 16-13. Doug Knight became the first UVA player to score a program-record six goals in a single NCAA Tournament game.

VIRGINIA IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT 

  • Saturday’s game marks Virginia’s 41st all-time appearance in the NCAA Tournament and 90th NCAA Tournament game.
  • Only Johns Hopkins (47) and Maryland (44) have been to the tournament more times than UVA.
  • The Cavaliers are 56-33 (.629) all-time in NCAA Tournament games and have won their last eight, dating back to 2019.
  • Only Johns Hopkins (71), Maryland (66) and Syracuse (65) have more NCAA Tournament wins than Virginia.

LAST TIME OUT 

  • Virginia will look to take advantage of 15 days off since it last played.
  • The Cavaliers defeated Lafayette (April 28), 20-10, at Klöckner Stadium on Senior Night.
  • Against the Leopards, Matt Moore posted a season-high eight points (2g, 6a) to pass Steele Stanwick on Virginia’s all-time points list.
  • Goalie Miles Thompson, who got the nod as starting netminder, earned his first career win after totaling 13 saves in 52:48 of action.

THE NIGHTTIME IS THE RIGHT TIME 

  • With Saturday’s 7:30 p.m. start time from Stevenson-Pincince Field, Virginia will look to improve to 4-0 this season in night contests.
  • The Cavaliers won at North Carolina and at home against Quinnipiac and Lafayette in night contests.
  • Virginia was originally scheduled to play at 8 p.m. at Duke, but the game was moved to 1 p.m. due to threatening storms in the Durham area.

THIRD TIME UNSEEDED 

  • For just the third time out of Virginia’s 41 NCAA Tournament appearances, Virginia is unseeded in this year’s NCAA Tournament.
  • The Cavaliers were unseeded in 1988 and ultimately fell in the semifinals to Cornell in Syracuse, N.Y.
  • The last time Virginia was unseeded was in 2018 when it fell 14-12 to Loyola (Md.) in Baltimore, Md.

LARS TIFFANY AT STEVENSON-PINCINCE FIELD 

  • Virginia head coach Lars Tiffany, who was head coach at Brown from 2007-16, has an all-time record of 43-23 (.652) at Stevenson-Pincince Field.
  • He is 0-1 as UVA head coach at Stevenson-Pincince Field after the Cavaliers fell 14-13 in what ended up being the 2020 finale due to the onset of COVID-19.

2022 ACC CHAMPIONS 

  • With its win at Syracuse (April 23), Virginia now has 19 ACC championships, including two (2019 & 2022) under Lars Tiffany.
  • The Cavaliers won 11 titles (1962, 1964, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1975, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1986) prior the ACC establishing a tournament from 1989-2019 to determine the champion.
  • Virginia has won seven ACC Tournament championships: 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2010 and 2019.
  • In the last ACC Tournament, which was held in 2019, UVA defeated Notre Dame 10-4 in the finals at Klöckner Stadium.
  • From 1989-2019, Virginia won 14 regular-season titles (1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2019), more than any other ACC School.

VIRGINIA IS UNDEFEATED WHEN… 

  • The Cavaliers are 11-0 when leading after three quarters. UVA has combined to out-score its opponents 183-114 in the first three periods this season, which is an average lead of 4.9 goals entering the fourth period.
  • The Cavaliers are 10-0 this season when leading at halftime.
  • Virginia is 11-0 when dishing out more assists than its opponent. In the Cavaliers’ 11 wins this season, UVA has 108 assists compared to its opponents’ 49.

20-20-20 

  • For the first time since 1982, Virginia has posted at least 20 goals in three consecutive games.
  • In their last three games, the Cavaliers won 21-9 vs. Quinnipiac (April 16), 21-15 at Syracuse (April 23) and 20-10 vs. Lafayette (April 28).
  • In 1982, UVA defeated Washington & Lee 22-8 (April 18), Navy 26-15 (April 24) and Virginia Tech 27-1 (April 27).

SHELLENBERGER NAMED TEWAARATON AWARD FINALIST 

  • On May 12, Connor Shellenberger was named one of five Tewaaraton Award finalists.
  • Shellenberger’s recognition as a finalist marks the 11th instance in program history.
  • Other UVA finalists include: Steele Stanwick (2011-12), Ken Clausen (2010), Danny Glading (2009), Ben Rubeor (2007-08), Kyle Dixon (2006), Matt Ward (2006), Chris Rotelli (2003) and Conor Gill (2002).
  • Stanwick (2011), Ward (2006) and Rotelli (2003) were recipients of the award.
  • Virginia and Syracuse are the only schools in the nation to have three recipients of the award. Only Duke (13) and Syracuse (12) have had more finalists than UVA (11).

CAVALIERS DOMINATED ACC AWARDS; FIVE EARN ALL-ACC HONORS  

  • Cole Kastner (Defensive Player of the Year), Matthew Nunes (Freshman of the Year) and Lars Tiffany (Coach of the Year) claimed three of the four possible ACC postseason awards, the league office announced Thursday.
  • In addition to Kastner, Connor Shellenberger, Matt Moore, Jeff Conner and Petey LaSalla earned All-ACC honors.
  • UVA’s five All-ACC selections tied for a league best with Duke.
  • The award was Tiffany’s second of his career, having also won it in 2019.
  • Kastner is the first UVA defensive player to garner player-of-the-year honors since Mark Koontz did so in 2002.
  • Nunes is just the second goalie in UVA history earned ACC freshman-of-the-year honors, which Tillman Johnson achieved in 2001.

VIRGINIA IS A GROUND BALL MACHINE 

  • The Cavaliers are currently first in the nation in ground balls (38.14 per game).
  • In 2021, Virginia led the nation with 41.94 ground balls per game.
  • Entering 2022, UVA has led the nation in ground balls eight of the last 13 years, including the last five seasons under Lars Tiffany.
  • UVA is the only school in the nation to finish in the top-5 nationally in ground balls per game 12 times over the last 13 seasons.
  • The only school in 2016 to finish with more ground balls per game was UVA head coach Lars Tiffany’s 2016 Brown team.
  • Lars-Tiffany-coached teams have led the nation in ground balls in seven straight seasons, including the 2015 and 2016 seasons at Brown.

ON THE HORIZON 

  • The winner of Virginia-Brown will face the winner top-seeded Maryland and Vermont (which square off in College Park on Sunday) at noon in the quarterfinals.
  • The quarterfinals matchup between the aforementioned teams will be held at Ohio Stadium next Sunday at either noon or 2:30 p.m. on ESPNU.