Virginia earns NCAA Tournament berth: Travels to Brown Saturday

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Virginia (11-3) will travel to eighth-seeded Brown (10-5) in the First Round of the 2022 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Tournament as was announced during the NCAA Lacrosse Selection Show Sunday night. The two-time reigning national champions and Bears will square off from Stevenson-Pincince Field on Saturday (May 14) at 7:30 p.m. on ESPNU.

The Cavaliers, who are currently ranked No. 3 in the Inside Lacrosse media poll and No. 4 in the USILA coaches poll, will make their fourth consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament under head coach Lars Tiffany with at least 10 wins. This season, Virginia earned a share of the program’s 19th ACC title and will make its 41st NCAA Tournament appearance overall, third nationally behind Johns Hopkins (47) and Maryland (44).

Virginia was the only ACC team to make this year’s NCAA Tournament, which marks the first time since 1975 that only one ACC team qualified for the big dance.

The Bears received an at-large bid after going 10-5 overall, including 4-2 in Ivy League play, before falling 14-9 to Penn, which won this year’s Ivy League Tournament at Stevenson-Pincince Field.

Saturday’s matchup marks the 16th all-time between meeting the two teams as Virginia leads the all-time series, 12-3. The Cavaliers won the lone NCAA Tournament meeting in 1995, 16-13, at Klöckner Stadium. Brown, the alma mater of UVA head coach Lars Tiffany where he also served as head coach from 2007-16, won the most recent contest against the Cavaliers, 14-13, during the abbreviated 2020 season at Stevenson-Pincince Field. In 2019, Virginia was victorious in overtime – also by a final score of 14-13 – at Klöckner Stadium.

The winner of Virginia and Brown will face the winner of top-seeded Maryland and Vermont/Manhattan in the quarterfinals at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio on Sunday, May 22. Opening faceoff is scheduled for either noon or 2:30 p.m. on ESPNU.