Virginia sinks in 13-9 loss at home against Towson

It began so calmly.

The opening minutes of Virginia’s matchup with Towson were quiet ones, punctuated with only the occasional missed shot for both teams and the noise of feet on metal bleachers at Klöckner Stadium. Although the Cavaliers (3-3, 0-0 ACC) did not score a goal until the opening quarter was nearly half over, they prevented the Tigers (3-3, 0-0 CAA) from doing so too.

The first portion of the game was one where Virginia fans hoped for their team to add another victory to the win column. The Cavaliers would indeed add fuel to the hopeful fire, with a man-up goal to open the scoring from freshman attacker Brendan Million. The ninety seconds that Virginia would hold this 1-0 lead would prove to be some of the few moments of hope for the team, as the Tigers would quickly take control of the game and collect a 13-9 victory.

What began with a man-up goal for each team in the opening minutes of the game began to spiral out of control as the first quarter dragged on. Virginia scored a goal in a 45-second possession midway through the quarter, but Towson answered even more quickly, and it took the Tigers all of nine seconds to tie the game at 2-2 with a goal of their own. Senior attackman Alex Roussel scored that goal for Towson, and added on two more in the next minutes to net an early hat trick. The quarter would end with a 4-2 Tiger advantage, the first time the Cavaliers found themselves down at the conclusion of the first quarter this season.

As the sun set, it seemed Virginia’s chance of victory did too. Towson’s momentum seemed unbroken by the break in between quarters, as they scored the opening three goals of the quarter in as many minutes. Roussel took a break from scoring himself to assist on two of the shots, one of which came off of a deeply errant pass from graduate goalkeeper Jake Marek that landed in the stick of a Towson player on the doorstep of the goal line.

The rest of the quarter seemed to show spurts of momentum for both teams. Two goals from Virginia, perhaps spurred on by a crowd yell of “Let’s play Hoos lacrosse,” were followed by two Tiger goals, before the half concluded with a successful shot from sophomore attacker Ryan Duenkel in the waning minutes of the half.

“[I] give Towson credit for stealing the energy in that first half,” Coach Lars Tiffany said. “They owned the energy in that first half … that was really frustrating that they dominated the juice in that first half. We certainly got to play winning lacrosse in the first half.”

Towson opened the third quarter with a quick goal, but two Cavalier shots, one attempted and one assisted by junior attacker McCabe Millon, led the crowd to believe that sufficient halftime adjustments were made. Although Virginia was down 10-7, some may have believed that a comeback not unlike the one Johns Hopkins made against the Cavaliers less than a week ago was in the cards.

The Virginia momentum shift proved to be only temporary, though, as two penalties on freshman defender Robby Hopper stifled any push the Cavaliers tried to put together at that time.

“The man-downs really steal your opportunities to score goals,” Tiffany said. “You lose some momentum sometimes, but you still want to be a physical team … We tell our guys we’re okay with a couple of penalties a game. If you’re not getting penalties, then you’re not pushing the edge of the envelope.”

The Tigers scored a goal to make it 11-7 with six minutes to go in the third. Just as all the lights seemed to be going out, though, senior attacker Truitt Sunderland provided a pair of goals to keep the team going and narrow the margin to two.

Despite the vain attempt, though, the Cavaliers failed to get any shots through in the final 16 minutes of gameplay, and Towson tacked on two of their own to ice the game. Although Virginia still attempted to create scores and force turnovers in what Tiffany called the “double down defense,” a Towson timeout with 3:45 left in the game left no doubt as to who would win, as the team entered their huddle with celebratory gallops and whoops.

“It’s always hard to say, did we not shoot well, or did the goalie have a great day?” Tiffany said. “Probably both — it’s the easy, cop-out answer, but it's probably the truth.”

With the loss, Towson broke the Cavaliers’ 15-game consecutive win streak over them. Virginia still holds the record for most consecutive wins against a Division I opponent, with the team sharing in that dubious title being VMI. The loss is also the first time that the Tigers have beat the Cavaliers at Klöckner Stadium. With the next game at Klöckner not until late March, Virginia will have gone 11 months at home without a win.

Virginia will look to rebound their season on Saturday, when they face Maryland. The rivalry matchup between the Cavaliers and the Terrapins (2-3, 0-0 Big Ten) will have significant consequences for both teams. Despite Maryland’s losing record on the season, the team is not one to underestimate, and the matchup in College Park is certainly a must-win for a Virginia squad looking to salvage a season teetering on the edge of being lost. The opening faceoff will occur at 1 p.m. on the Big Ten Network.

Virginia sinks in 13-9 loss at home against Towson

The Cavaliers fell behind early and were unable to keep up with the Tigers’ momentum

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