Virginia maintained its hot offense from its 11-goal second half against Utah two days prior, securing a dominant 18-7 win over Dartmouth. The team continued its rebound after some tough early losses, displaying explosive offense and an improved defensive effort.
The Cavaliers (5-4, 0-0 ACC) held a commanding 4-1 lead over Dartmouth with a minute to play in the first quarter. After a mishandled pass by junior attackman McCabe Millon, Virginia would have been content going into the break with the three-goal advantage — Millon had other plans, though.
Millon hustled back to the other side of the field to apply pressure on senior defenseman Thomas Goguen, forcing up a pass to no man’s land in front of the goal that hung in the air for a second too long. Freshman attackman Brendan Millon found himself in the right place at the right time, as he was able to pluck the ball out of the air and lay it into the empty net to push the lead to four goals with 51 seconds to play.
After junior faceoff specialist Andrew Greenspan won the ensuing faceoff on a violation from the Mean Green (4-4, 0-1 Ivy League), freshman midfielder Owen Crann called his own number by picking up the dead ball and running it all the way down to the Dartmouth net, scoring his first career goal.
Moments later, Greenspan won another faceoff and picked up the groundball before tossing it to McCabe, who immediately found freshman defenseman Robby Hopper streaking down the offensive zone. Hopper wound up and whipped a fastball into the back of the net to cap off a 3-0 run in the span of 22 seconds. Virginia’s lead reached seven goals entering the second quarter, extinguishing the Big Green spirit and leading to a dominant 18-7 victory for the Cavaliers.
While Brendan’s goal at the end of the first quarter came from a mix of his brother’s aggressive ride and a fortuitous errant pass, the rest of his game came as a result far from luck. Brendan put up a monstrous 10-point performance, besting the Virginia season best of nine achieved by McCabe, and becoming the first Cavalier to hit double digits in a game since Connor Shellenberger did so in 2024.
Brendan’s six assist performance Monday was a career high that displayed his versatility — the assists were distributed between five teammates. With his performance, he now moves into the nation’s top 10 in points per game at 4.89, joining McCabe, who sits in second at 5.56 points per contest.
“I love seeing how well our offense moved the ball against Utah, and again tonight — unselfishness is contagious,” Coach Lars Tiffany said. “What a performance by Brendan Millon. And John Schroter, stepping up again and neutralizing another elite attackman — our captain is leading the way on the defensive end.”
The blazing hot offense was complemented by lockdown defense, headed by senior defenseman John Schroter, who led the way with three forced turnovers, including a huge hit to the chest of freshman midfielder Gordie Leary. The hit jarred the ball free to Virginia for its first goal of the game.
Schroter continues to be the anchor of the defense and a brick wall in one-on-one matchups, which will be pivotal as the Cavaliers face off against the elite attackmen of the ACC. Paired with the length and speed of Hopper to run the field in transition, Virginia’s defense is coming into strong form midseason.
Graduate goalie Jake Marek also impressed in the cage, posting a season-best save rate at 68 percent. The start gives Marek his fifth start in a row, hopefully providing Coach Tiffany with stability at the position heading into conference play after experimenting with senior goalie Kyle Morris throughout the first half of the season.
The match brought the return of Dartmouth head coach Sean Kirwan, who spent seven seasons in Charlottesville as Virginia’s offensive coordinator, helping the Cavaliers to national titles in 2019 and 2021.
“We know how strong a team [like] Dartmouth is with the talent that they have accrued and coaching expertise of Sean Kirwan and his staff,” Coach Tiffany said. “We are really encouraged with how well we did against an opponent that we truly respect.”
Coach Kirwan certainly has built a solid program, coming off an impressive performance against No. 4 Harvard, where they lost 17-14 in a nailbiter.
To say Virginia needed to build momentum heading into ACC play would be an understatement, and it got the job done with consecutive wins, playing the complementary lacrosse that Coach Tiffany has challenged his team to play.
“Our coaching staff is thrilled with the energy, effort, and performance of our men tonight,” Coach Tiffany said. “We love challenges, and certainly playing two games in three days presents such a challenge.”
The Cavaliers cap off their homestand with their ACC opener against No. 1 Notre Dame on Saturday. While definitely its toughest matchup of the season, Virginia is playing its best lacrosse, and while a 5-4 record may not pop on paper, the Cavaliers are quietly two goals away from being 7-2 with two ranked wins over No. 11 Johns Hopkins and No. 12 Maryland. Virginia will be an underdog, but it has the tools to compete and the confidence that it can.
The match with the Fighting Irish (6-0, 0-0 ACC) is set to start at noon and will be broadcast on ESPNU.
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