The team has been here before.
Ahead of a match against Maryland — Virginia’s second-most-played opponent of all time — the Cavaliers secured wins against High Point and Colgate, dropped matches against ranked Richmond and Johns Hopkins and were coming off of a game against Towson. Virginia entered the rivalry game 3-3, looking to breathe life into a season that had not yet gone completely off the rails.
That season was not the current one, but instead the 2025 campaign. No. 1 Maryland came into Charlottesville and soundly defeated the No. 18 Cavaliers 12-6. The loss seemed to stall any hopes Virginia might have had for the postseason, as the Cavaliers squeaked out wins over low-level teams and lost every ACC match.
In order to avoid a season similar to last year’s 6-8 final record — the first losing season of Lars Tiffany’s 10-year tenure at Virginia — the Cavaliers must find a way to win this afternoon in College Park, Md.
The No. 10 Terrapins are not the seemingly unbeatable, 6-0 team that walked into Charlottesville looking to extend their winning streak in 2025 — this year, Maryland enters the matchup just 2-3.
The record alone does not tell the whole story, though. The Terrapins have already faced three ranked opponents, and every single remaining match, save an away game against Michigan, is against a team that is ranked or receiving votes as of the March 9 USILA poll. Their three losses have been by a combined six points, and the Terrapins have outscored and attempted more shots than their opponents on the season despite the overall losing record.
Though Maryland may appear stronger than their record may seem, a loss showcases some form of weakness — and weakness can be exploited. Maryland has lost to every ranked team that they have played, including No. 1 Notre Dame and then-No. 2 Syracuse. Virginia, though, enters the match unranked. Despite that status, the underdog Cavaliers might be able to look to the playbook of other teams to create success.
Although the Terrapins led early in their game against the Orange, Syracuse was able to seize the lead with five goals in a little bit over a 12-minute stretch straddling the first and second quarters, showcasing weakness in halting a continuous offensive output. The Orange never looked back in an 11-9 win. For Virginia to pull off the upset, they must create opportunities for momentum early, perhaps recreating a version of their 7-0 run to open the game against Stony Brook.
“Towson stole the energy in the first half,” Tiffany said after the Cavaliers’ most recent loss to Towson.
Now, Virginia needs to take a page out of Towson’s book and snatch the energy away from Maryland early on in order to take the win.
In the Terrapins’ nail-biter Feb. 21 13-12 loss against then-No. 12 Princeton, one facet that did Maryland in was losing the turnover battle. Virginia must control the ball and take opportunities to knock it from a Terrapin possession.
The Cavaliers have played confrontational defense before, though. In the final minutes of the loss against Towson, Tiffany noted that the Cavaliers played a more aggressive defense, dubbed the “double down defense.” This forceful style prevented the Tigers from notching a goal over the final 12 minutes of play. In the tough battle against Maryland, the Cavaliers may consider playing this same aggressive style of defense — at least in the most recent game, it has been successful.
If the defense fails, the one remaining person left to prevent an opposing score is the goalkeeper. One of Virginia’s struggles throughout the season is that the Cavaliers have used three different goalies, with no clear No. 1 option at the position.
Graduate goalie Jake Marek has tallied the most minutes for Virginia. However, he has only been in that position for approximately 60 percent of the total minutes this season. He splits reps mostly with senior Kyle Morris, as well as junior Colin Hook in scant mop-up duty. No Cavalier goalie has played in every game this season.
Marek, the only goalie to have played two complete games, averages about 12 goals against per game. That tally puts him in the bottom half of goalies in that statistic. Looking ahead to the remainder of Virginia’s schedule, every remaining primary goalie that the Cavaliers will face has allowed fewer goals, on average, than Marek.
Meanwhile, Maryland has used two goalies this season. The Terrapins have no concern about their top goalkeeper, though, as senior Brian Ruppel has held the position down for over 99 percent of Maryland’s match minutes this season. He averages under 10 and a half goals allowed per match, at least a point and a half fewer than either Marek or Morris.
Virginia faces an uphill battle, as it enters the game unranked. The Cavaliers will be forced to play tough lacrosse early and pressure Maryland throughout. The margin for error against the Terrapins is slim, but not impossible. The high-octane offense of junior McCabe Millon and his brother, freshman Brendan Millon, has the ability to rejuvenate an offense when it is seemingly stuck in neutral.
For Virginia, the game may just rejuvenate the season as well.
Faceoff against Maryland is set for 1 p.m. today from SECU Stadium in College Park, Md. The game will be streamed on the Big Ten Network.
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