By Scott Ratcliffe
Defense ruled the day for the Virginia men’s lacrosse team, as the Cavaliers claimed the ACC Championship with a convincing 10-4 win over Notre Dame Saturday at Klöckner Stadium. UVA captured its 18th overall ACC title and seventh conference-tournament trophy, the program’s first since 2010.
The top-seeded Wahoos (13-3) got a hat trick from Dox Aitken and used a dominant defensive effort, holding the third-seeded Fighting Irish (8-6) scoreless for two full quarters, and an overall stretch of over 42 minutes, the longest for Notre Dame this season.
UVA second-year goalkeeper Alex Rode came up with 11 big saves, and the Virginia defense helped limit the Irish to 13-percent shooting on the day. Notre Dame’s four goals marked a season-low scoring output.
Prior to this year’s regular-season meeting between the schools, the Irish had the Cavaliers’ number. Virginia held on for a 13-11 win at Klöckner last month, however, snapping a 7-game win streak by Notre Dame in the series dating back to the 2012 season.
UVA rallied from a 5-goal deficit in the second half of that mid-March matchup, part of an 8-game win streak that helped define the Wahoos’ season after starting off with a record of 1-2.
Coach Lars Tiffany’s team has been referred to as the “Cardiac Cavs” several times this season, racking up multiple second-half rallies in 2019. No comeback was necessary Saturday.
“It’s a major statement for our team defense,” Tiffany said after the win. “If you saw us two years ago with my first season here as a head coach — also as a defensive coordinator, I like to wear both hats — we’ve come a long way. I give credit to these group of men for continuing to believe in me after that first year.
”That all really culminated today with our decision making, when to slide to the man being dodged, and when not to. Because we don’t slide to everything, that decision making has taken years to hone. The culmination of it was what we did today against a really tough offensive team. Of course Alex Rode, who every week is in a competition for his starting spot, I give him a lot of credit. He stepped up and shut the door for a couple quarters, huge effort from Alex.”
It was a rematch of last year’s conference title game, which was dominated by the Irish, 17-7, after they jumped out to an early lead and remained in control.
This time around, Virginia never trailed. Sophomore attacker Matt Moore and Aitken scored the game’s first two goals before the Irish evened it up with 4:11 left in the first quarter on a putback goal by Nick Stinn.
The visitors would not find the back of the net again until the 6:59 mark of the fourth quarter, misfiring on 20 straight shots in between thanks to smothering defense by the Wahoos.
UVA scored eight unanswered and never looked back, and will now get ready for a run in the Big Dance.
Following a Rode save on the other end, Ian Laviano scored his team-leading 42nd goal of the season in transition off of a nice feed from Michael Kraus to put the Cavaliers ahead to stay, 3-2, just 45 seconds into the second quarter.
Ryan Conrad put one home a few minutes later, and then set up the final score of the half soon thereafter. Conrad forced an Irish midfielder out of bounds to give the ‘Hoos possession, leading to Aitken’s second tally of the day with 4:18 on the clock, and Virginia went into halftime with a 5-2 lead. Notre Dame missed 15 first-half shots and turned the ball over 11 times.
The third quarter belonged to UVA. Aitken scored again on an extra-man opportunity off of a Moore assist to extend the lead to four. Rode made an excellent point-blank stop against Notre Dame’s Bryan Costabile (last year’s ACC Championship MVP) minutes later, and then Mikey Herring found Conrad on the doorstep for a quick-stick — which was sparked by a ground-ball pickup from Jared Conners moments earlier — to make it 7-2 with 5:54 left in the period.
Freshman Xander Dickson fired one past Irish keeper Matt Schmidt on another extra-man score, and then Conners scooped up the ensuing faceoff and scorched the nylon eight seconds later, and the Klöckner crowd could start to taste victory with a 9-2 Wahoo advantage with 4:12 left in the third.
Redshirt senior Cory Harris capped the scoring with his first career goal with 9:12 remaining, as he took advantage of Notre Dame’s defensive miscommunication, saw an open net and stuck it on the run.
The Irish finally ended the drought with late goals by Connor Morin and Griffin Westlin, but it was a classic case of too little, too late for Notre Dame.
Virginia outshot the Irish, 35-32, and claimed the ground-ball battle, 35-28. The ‘Hoos forced 16 of Notre Dame’s 23 turnovers, and held the Irish to a clearing percentage of .682 (15 for 22). Each team won nine faceoffs.
Moore, who led the team with nine shots, limped off the field early in the fourth quarter and did not return, but the ‘Hoos hope to have him back for the NCAA Tournament, which begins in a week.
Each school will hear its name called during Sunday night’s NCAA Division I Selection Show (9 p.m. ET on ESPNU), when the complete tournament field —along with sites and game times — will be revealed. The ‘Hoos are expected to receive one of the top seeds and will host a first-round matchup next weekend.
