The Cavalier Daily
Serving the University Community Since 1890

​Men’s lacrosse falls to North Carolina in ACC Showdown

Virginia falls to 0-3 in ACC play

<p>Freshman attackman Michael Kraus had two&nbsp;goals in Virginia's 15-12 loss to North Carolina.&nbsp;</p>

Freshman attackman Michael Kraus had two goals in Virginia's 15-12 loss to North Carolina. 

The quest for an ACC win will have to wait one more week for No. 14 Virginia. After dismantling Cleveland State last Tuesday and riding a two-game winning streak, the Cavaliers (7-5, 0-3 ACC) headed into Sunday night’s top-25 showdown with No. 20 North Carolina looking to use some newfound momentum as a spark to propel the team to their first ACC win of the season.

Virginia fell short of beating the Tar Heels (6-4, 1-1 ACC), losing, 15-12, in a match that seemed as if Virginia was continuously trying to catch North Carolina on the scoreboard.

Senior defender Tanner Scales talked about how Virginia’s inability to win 50-50 plays played a role in Sunday night’s loss. He also added that the team made too many small mistakes that ended up hurting the team on the field.

“Tonight we were not getting a lot of the 50-50 balls, the little mistakes in the middle of the field that — I certainly made some, a lot of guys made some — those are magnified, and they were tonight, and that ends up being the difference in a game like that,” Scales said.

The Cavaliers got things started in the first quarter, with senior attackman Joe French scoring a goal to put the Cavaliers on the board with a 1-0 lead. However, the Tar Heels responded with three straight goals to take a two-goal lead. Virginia would score again with just under a minute left in the first quarter to make it a one-goal game heading into the second quarter.

The second quarter was all North Carolina, as they dominated offensively and defensively. North Carolina rattled off six consecutive goals and allowed none, putting them at a comfortable 9-2 lead heading into halftime. Virginia struggled offensively, missing all 11 shots they took. It didn’t help that two penalties forced them to play two men down for 10 seconds, which resulted in a quick North Carolina goal.

Sophomore midfielder Ryan Conrad talked about how Virginia got out-hustled in the first half, leading to their seven-goal deficit. The Cavaliers were unable to raise their level of play as high as they needed to in the second half to pull out the win.

“We’re normally very good on the ground … We win pretty much every ground ball game, but it just came down to them out-hustling us in the first half, and I think that carried over a little bit more in the second half,” Conrad said. “We got better in the second half, but not as good as we should have been.”

Scales added that Virginia’s defense struggled with communication in the first half, resulting in nine North Carolina goals.

“Defensively in the first half we probably didn’t communicate as well as we should have,” Scales said.

With Virginia facing a seven-goal deficit out of halftime, the team knew they needed to be more aggressive and score against the North Carolina defense. Both teams would start off the second half with two goals apiece to bring the score to 11-4 with just over nine minutes to go in the third quarter. Then Virginia’s offense and defense seemed to both click, with Virginia playing lights out lacrosse on both sides of the field the rest of the quarter. A 4-0 run resulted in Virginia trimming North Carolina’s lead to put the score at 11-8 heading into the final frame.

Scales talked about the team’s mindset heading into the second half, and how Virginia was determined to make a strong push toward getting back into the match.

“We just were like, ‘you know, alright it’s time to see what we’re made of’ at halftime,” Scales said. “We all just kind of said we’re [going to] go out and play as hard as we can.”

With the fourth quarter underway, Virginia looked to use momentum to continue scoring and shutdown North Carolina at the same time. However, they were unable to put together another big run to pull out a win.

Coach Lars Tiffany gave credit to North Carolina, including senior midfielder Stephen Kelly and goalkeeper Brian Balkam.

“We just ran into a very hot faceoff man, obviously, Kelly … Winning all but one faceoff in the first half,” Tiffany said. “You know, they just maintained possession. And then give Balkam a ton of credit in the goal [for] the number of saves he made in that first half. They were really good in those two specialty areas.”

Virginia will have a quick turnaround, as they get set to face Robert Morris Tuesday night before heading to Durham, N.C. for their regular season finale against Duke Saturday afternoon. The match against Robert Morris will be Virginia’s home finale and is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. at Klöckner Stadium.

Comments

Latest Podcast

The University’s Associate Vice Provost for Enrollment and Undergraduate Admission, Greg Roberts, provides listeners with an insight into how the University conducts admissions and the legal subtleties regarding the possible end to the consideration of legacy status.



https://open.spotify.com/episode/02ZWcF1RlqBj7CXLfA49xt