Champs again: Men's lacrosse captures second consecutive NCAA championship

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Virginia's ex-ACC rival Maryland was undefeated, 15-0, heading into the NCAA men's lacrosse championship Monday in East Hartford, Conn., which pitted the defending champion Wahoos against the Terrapins, winners of three titles, the most recent coming in 2017.

In a match for the ages, UVa made sure that Maryland left Rentschler Field with its first and only loss of the season as the Cavaliers topped the Terps in heart-fluttering fashion, 17-16, to earn their second straight NCAA championship and seventh in program history.


Freshman Connor Shellenberger, who was a breakout star for UVa (14-4) this season, was named tournament MVP and recorded four goals and two assists in the victory. In four NCAA tournament games, he racked up 14 goals and 10 assists. Matt Moore also had four goals and two assists. Jeff Conner notched three goals, and Payton Cormier tallied two.

Logan Wisnauskas had five goals for Maryland, but Virginia held Tewaarton Trophy (given to nation's best player) favorite Jared Bernhardt to two goals and three assists.

UVa goalie Alex Rode, the 2019 tournament MVP when Virginia beat Yale, made 12 saves, including the biggest of his career with just 6 seconds remaining.

After Maryland drew to within one goal with 10.8 seconds left, the Terps' Luke Wierman won the face-off easily against Virginia's Petey LaSalla and came streaking down the field. He unleashed a furious shot at Rode, who went low to knock away the ball. In the ensuing chaos with just a couple of seconds left, Virginia gathered the rebound and claimed the crown.

Despite the championship-saving stop, Rode said he had a rough day and owed his team that stop.

But Shellenberger had a different take:

“Alex Rode is about as clutch a lacrosse player as it gets. He’s a winner.”

“Connor is one of the best players I’ve ever seen,” Rode said, “and he’s also an amazing kid, which makes it even better. I’m so happy for him, and I can’t wait to see what he does next as the face of this program coming up.”

The teams played to a 4-4 tie after the first quarter. UVa led 9-7 at the half. Maryland knotted the score at 11-11 in the third quarter before the 'Hoos ripped off five straight goals to make it 16-11 with 11 minutes left in the match. The Terps battled back but fell just short of the tying goal. Moore scored what ended up being the game-clinching goal with 3:35 on the clock. 
Besides this year and 2019, Virginia's other men's lacrosse titles came in 1972, '99, '03, '06, and '11. In 2011, UVa also beat Maryland in the final. UVa broke a tie with Princeton for No. 3 in all-time men's lacrosse titles. Only Syracuse (10) and Johns Hopkins (nine) can lay claim to more than the Cavaliers’ seven. Virginia lost in four championship appearances in a row (1980, '86, '94, and '96), but the Cavaliers have now won in six straight finals appearances, the only program to do that in NCAA history.

In 2016, UVa went 7-8 in its final season under legendary coach Dom Starsia. Fourth-year coach Lars Tiffany and the Cavaliers went 8-7 in his inaugural 2017 campaign, 12-6 with a first-round NCAA tourney loss in 2018, and now have won two straight titles. Tiffany, who looks up to Starsia for giving him a chance to play collegiate lacrosse, could be on his way to becoming a Virginia legend as well.

"First of all, I want to thank Dom Starsia," Tiffany said after the game. "Dom Starsia gave me a chance as a high school recruit to attend a Division I university and play lacrosse at Brown, and I've been following Dom ever since."

“What an incredible experience to be a part of such an exciting game,” he said.

On Shellenberger, Tiffany said, “He’s emerged. He was a really good player down in Charlottesville, Virginia, and now the rest of the world is being able to see, here in the month of May, he’s one of the best in the game, period.”

Tiffany also called Moore's effort "heroic." Moore hurt his shoulder in Virginia's equally tight 12-11 semifinal win over North Carolina on Saturday. In that matchup, he did play in the second half but did not record a goal or an assist after the break.

Like the victory over Maryland, UVa had to hold on versus UNC after building a 12-8 lead going into the fourth quarter. The Tar Heels and Wahoos met three times this season, with the Heels winning the first game and UVa taking the final two. Cormier had three goals, and Shellenberger tallied two goals and four assists.

For those counting, the University of Virginia has now won 29 NCAA team titles (tied for No. 20 in the nation with Yale), with men's lacrosse following on the heels of women's swimming in March. Pretty incredibly, 17 of those championships have come this century.

There have been five academic years in which UVa has won at least two titles: 2020-21 (women's swimming, men's lacrosse), 2018-19 (men's basketball, men's lacrosse), 2014-15 (men's soccer, men's tennis, baseball), 2009-10 (men's soccer, rowing), and 1992-93 (men's soccer, women's lacrosse).

Photo credits: Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics

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