Virginia’s men’s lacrosse team will look to defend its unblemished record when it plays host to the Towson Tigers Saturday at 1 p.m.
The two teams both have endured tough schedules early this season, but have seen divergent levels of success. Virginia (8-0) scheduled a large series of games for the first month of its season, emerging victorious in contests against former No. 1 Syracuse and No. 4Cornell. During that same stretch, the Tigers (1-3) chose to participate in the lower-key Pioneer Face-Off Classic in Denver; they defeated Air Force in the first round before losing to No. 19 Denver in the tournament championship. Towson also dropped two games against in-state foes: No. 14 Loyola in the team’s season opener and No. 7 Maryland in its home opener Saturday.
Despite the disparity in success, Virginia coach Dom Starsia says the Cavaliers are heavily focusing on Saturday’s match.
“They always come in and give us a tough game,” he said. “It’s an experienced team with an experienced coach.”
Since 2000, Townson coach Tony Seaman is the 16th-winningest coach in NCAA history, with a career record of 246-138. He is 82-65 with the Tigers.
Though Seaman has coached the Tigers to some success in the past, Towson will look to break a pair of long-running losing streaks Saturday. Towson has lost its last 15 games against ACC opponents, dating back to a win against Maryland in the 2001 NCAA quarterfinals. The Tigers also are winless in their last eight games against Virginia. The last match Towson won against the Cavaliers was during the 1991 NCAA tournament.
Junior midfielder Brian Carroll, who was recruited by the Cavaliers out of Gilman High School in Towson, Md., said he is looking forward to Saturday’s match as well as upcoming games.
“We are getting into the meat of our schedule,” Carroll said.
The Cavaliers’ remaining schedule features several challenging ranked opponents. After facing Towson Saturday, Virginia’s next unranked opponent is Dartmouth April 18, the last game of the regular season. Between the Towson and Dartmouth matches, the Cavaliers will travel to face No. 6 Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, No. 8 North Carolina in a neutral-site game at the Meadowlands, N.J., and No. 10 Duke in Durham, N.C. They’ll also square off against No. 7 Maryland at home March 28.
Even with all these highly competitive matches slated, Starsia says his team will not look too far ahead and lose sight of the present.
“We’ve just begun to look at Towson,” he said after Tuesday’s win against Vermont. “They are always one of the top teams in Division I — always around the edge of the playoffs.”
The Cavaliers will need a strong showing against Towson to keep up their momentum from the Vermont game.
“It’s the kind of game [in which] we just want to be able to dictate the pace of the game,” Starsia said. “If we are flying around and winning face-offs, we are going to be tough to beat.”
Saturday’s game will be the 16th match between Virginia and Towson. The two teams first faced off in 1972, in a game the Cavaliers won, 15-9. Virginia also won last year’s meeting in Towson, 18-13, pulling away from the Tigers in the second half of a game that was tied 7-7 at halftime.
Read More
Virginia schools can pay players through NIL, but the University should proceed with caution
By Emory Huffman | 9 hours agoGiven the unique academic and athletic opportunities Virginia is able to offer its athletes, it is not shocking that Virginia has been resistant to extravagant, NIL-induced changes.
Record-setting weekend for Virginia track and field at Penn Relays and Virginia High Performance
By Tanmayi Patil | 21 hours agoThe Cavaliers took down records across two events over the weekend.
Virginia softball closes out regular season with series victory over Georgia Tech
By Eleanor Lynch | YesterdayThe team’s overall 65.3 percent win record this year is the highest it’s been since the 2003-04 season, and there is still time for it to continue to rise from there.
