Wahoo Wanderings: Men's lacrosse returns to national semifinals

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The setup seemed tough.

The No. 4-seeded Wahoos men's lacrosse team was facing No. 5-seeded Georgetown in the NCAA tournament quarterfinals Saturday in Hempstead, N.Y. The Hoyas were coming off an easy 18-8 victory over Syracuse, which beat the Cavaliers twice this season. Meanwhile, UVa struggled to defeat Bryant 13-11 in its first-round home matchup. I would guess casual and expert lacrosse observers alike were not predicting success for the Cavaliers.

But Virginia used its most dominating performance of 2021 to defeat Georgetown 14-3 and move on to the semifinals for the second straight tourney (2019, when UVa hoisted its sixth national championship trophy).

The 'Hoos tied two records in the process of demolishing the Hoyas (13-3). Connor Shellenberger (in photo) scored six goals, tied for the most in Virginia's NCAA tournament history, and the three goals allowed tied for the fewest UVa has given up in a tournament game.

The Cavaliers and Hoyas were tied 1-1 when the Wahoos went on a nine-goal run to go into halftime up 10-1. Ian Laviano scored two goals for Virginia. Obviously, the Cavaliers' defense was outstanding. Alex Rode made eight saves in goal, and Georgetown's Jake Carraway, who entered with the NCAA's active goal-scoring streak at 44 games, was held scoreless. The performance conjured up an interesting metaphor in Hoyas coach Kevin Warne's mind:

"They are the longest defense we’ve played all year," he said. "I feel like I’m in Jurassic Park with a bunch of velociraptors running around in front of the goal."

Well there you have it. I don't know if any team stands a chance against Virginia if it is gonna be unleashing dinosaurs on the field.
In the semifinals, Virginia (12-4) faces North Carolina (13-2) on Saturday in East Hartford, Conn., at noon. The game will be televised on ESPNU. The second semifinal pits Duke against Maryland.

The Tar Heels advanced after defeating Rutgers in a 12-11 thriller. UNC and UVa split their matchups this season, with the Heels winning 16-13 in Chapel Hill and the 'Hoos winning 18-16 in Charlottesville. It seems as if this matchup is destined to be a barnburner.

Baseball: Virginia came up just shy of a second weekend sweep in a row and sixth consecutive win, taking two of three games from Boston College.

UVa (27-22, 18-18 ACC) defeated the Eagles 7-1 on Thursday and 9-2 on Friday. BC (21-28, 10-23) avoided the sweep by winning 8-6 on Saturday. The Cavaliers have won 10 of their past 14 games and finished the regular season by capturing six of their final seven ACC series.

Virginia ended up with the No. 8 seed at the ACC tournament and is in Pool A. It faces No. 12 Virginia Tech (27-23, 16-20) at 3 p.m. today and No. 1 Notre Dame (29-10, 25-10) at 11 a.m. Friday. The Fighting Irish and Hokies play each other at 3 p.m. Wednesday. The games are available on ACC Network Extra (subject to blackout) and on many regional channels for Bally Sports (formerly Fox Sports Network).

Pool B features No. 2 Georgia Tech, No. 7 Louisville, and No. 11 Clemson. Pool C has No. 3 N.C. State, No. 6 North Carolina, and No. 10 Pittsburgh. Pool D features No. 4 Miami, No. 5 Florida State, and No. 9 Duke. BC and Wake Forest had the worst conference records and did not qualify for the league event. The top team in each pool after round-robin play will advance to the semifinals Saturday, and the championship is scheduled for Sunday.

The Cavaliers got another sterling outing from Andrew Abbott (7-5, 2.87) on the mound in Thursday's win. The senior lefty went 6⅔ innings and gave up no runs on just three hits. He struck out 11 and walked three. He is now No. 2 on UVa's all-time strikeout list with 291, passing Seth Greisinger with 289. Danny Hultzen won't be caught with 395.

Virginia jumped out to a 4-0 lead after the first inning, and I was wondering if this was going to be a repeat of the series openers that UVa won against Virginia Tech (18-1) and Wake Forest (17-0). It didn't get that bad, but the 'Hoos did add three more runs in the fifth. Nic Kent with 3 for 5 with three RBIs, and Kyle Teel and Chris Newell each went 2 for 5 with two RBIs.

Mike Vasil (7-4, 4.28) pitched solidly in Friday's victory. The junior righty threw six innings and gave up two runs on eight hits. He struck out one and walked two.

The game was tied 1-1 after the first inning, but Virginia added two runs in the second, then three runs each in the fourth and sixth. Kent hit a three-run homer in the sixth, his fifth dinger of the season. Max Cotier went 2 for 4 with three RBIs.

In Saturday's finale, UVa again jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first inning, but BC scored three runs in the third, two in the fifth, one in the sixth, and two in the seventh to take control. Virginia scored one run in the fourth and two in the eighth.

Nate Savino (2-3, 4.12) took the loss after throwing 4⅓ innings and giving up five runs on six hits while striking out three and allowing a pair of walks. Kent had another terrific game, going 2 for 5 with three RBIs, and he hit his sixth homer. Cotier went 4 for 5, but not only did he not have an RBI, he also did not score himself, which seems like a statistical oddity.

So now the team can fully turn its attention to the ACC tournament, but most importantly, the NCAA tournament. The general sentiment is that the 'Hoos (RPI of 44) are in the field as of now and may be OK even if they were to go 0-2 in Charlotte. But why not go at least 1-1?

Interestingly, many ACC teams are crowded together in RPI, reflecting how much they have beat up on each other this year during an expanded conference schedule: Georgia Tech (42), North Carolina (45), Florida State (46), Pittsburgh (48), Virginia Tech (58), Clemson (62), and Louisville (67). They aren't all getting into the NCAA tournament, and all could use a good showing in Charlotte, especially the Hokies, Tigers, and Cardinals.

Coach Brian O'Connor must feel good about the Wahoos' NCAA chances, because he has elected not to throw Abbott against the Hokies today. O'Connor is going with 6-foot-6 junior righty Zach Messinger (2-1, 4.53) instead. He pitched 1⅔ innings in Saturday's loss at BC, giving up an earned run and two hits. On the season, Messinger has made three starts and 21 appearances. It stands to reason that if O'Connor felt like the Virginia Tech game was must-win for the team's tourney resume, he'd throw his ace. Instead, he seems to be thinking the 'Hoos are in the dance, and he's also probably hoping the offense remains hot and gets the job done versus Tech in spite of some possibly porous pitching.

If UVa defeats Tech, then Abbott will get a shot against top seed Notre Dame, with a chance of getting to the semifinals on the line.

Men's golf: Virginia finished seventh at the NCAA regional in Kingston Springs, Tenn., last week, failing to finish in the top five and qualify for the NCAA championships.

The Cavaliers finished eight strokes behind Clemson and N.C. State, which tied for fifth. UVa's top player was Pietro Bovari, who finished just one shot behind the last player to qualify as an individual for the NCAA championships, Michigan State's James Piot.

Photo credit: Hofstra Athletics

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