Sophomore defenseman Tommy Snyder can rest.
He’s been getting ribbed on for weeks by graduate goalie Jake Marek. The thing is, every time the sophomore defenseman scores, Virginia loses. The inverse relationship has only happened twice this season — against Johns Hopkins and North Carolina — but that was plenty to launch some “fun banter.”
With three minutes left and a three-goal Virginia lead Friday, Snyder got the ball. Notre Dame was riding hard, and Snyder spied an open goal, 70 yards away.
He hurled a shot. It skipped in. The Cavaliers mobbed Snyder. Then the tangle of bodies cleared, and Marek glanced at Snyder.
“Me and him looked at each other like, ‘Oh, no,’” Marek said. “But luckily, there wasn’t that much time left and we had total control over the game.”
Snyder’s streak snapped — he can go back to celebrating his rare pole goals untroubled by worries of fate — and No. 4 seed Virginia won 15-10 against No. 1 seed Notre Dame at American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte. The win sent the Cavaliers to the ACC Tournament final, Sunday at noon against No. 2 seed North Carolina, which defeated No. 3 seed Syracuse, 12-10.
Marek will keep icing his legs. Just like he iced Notre Dame. He emerged from the locker room postgame with one bag of ice strapped to his right shin, the victim of a play early in the game that numbed his leg and sent him briefly to the sideline, and one on his left quad, that one precautionary.
He made 12 saves, including a handful right on the doorstep — one, two, three, four. His play, and Virginia’s fiery shooting, tipped the scales.
“They put the ball in the goal,” Notre Dame Coach Kevin Corrigan said. “We didn’t have a great day goaltending. Their guy did have a very good day goaltending. If you look at the stats, that pretty much is the difference in the game.”
Marek was not the only one nursing a knock. Senior attackman Ryan Colsey played, a week after missing Virginia’s game against Drexel. Asked how much he practiced this week, he demurred.
“I tried to do what I could,” Colsey said.
Did he have to force his way onto the field Friday?
“A little bit.”
Colsey scored two goals and had two assists, two weeks after scoring three goals against North Carolina — in a game that, because of his injury, he said he wasn’t supposed to play in that much. Freshman long-stick midfielder Robby Hopper and sophomore defenseman Michael Meredith also returned Friday after missing the Drexel game.
“Those guys are the warriors who stepped on the field despite not being 100 percent and gave us everything they could,” Coach Lars Tiffany said. “It’s a huge effort by our team and just the definition of believing and knowing we have a mission.”
That mission was, in part, to lock up status for the NCAA Tournament. Virginia will now almost certainly host a first-round game, crucial in its chances of reaching Championship Weekend at Scott Stadium.
But first, the Cavaliers want to win an ACC Tournament. Friday’s win was their first in the tournament since 2019, and they have not won the whole thing since the same year.
“You kind of take it for granted, at least my first two years, just always being in the ACC Tournament, always being in the NCAA Tournament,” Colsey said. “It’s a huge honor and a huge opportunity to have a chance to win this championship. So I think guys are really, really excited about this game.”
Virginia knocked off a team Friday that, against all opponents not named Virginia, is undefeated. Notre Dame’s goal differential against the rest of its schedule is +55. Against Virginia? -7.
Virginia led at halftime, 9-5. From there, Notre Dame never got closer than three goals.
“It started at the offensive end, usually with a mistake at the offensive end that turned in the transition that cost us at the other end,” Corrigan said. “And those are the things you can't do against them.”
But even in settled offense, Notre Dame struggled to slow down Virginia. The Cavaliers ripped 32 shots and scored 15. The crowning moment came when freshman attackman Brendan Millon, the ACC Freshman of the Year, shuffled a step past senior defenseman Shawn Lyght, the Co-Defensive Player of the Year, and scored in confounding fashion.
“He's so deceptive,” Marek said. “Half the time he scores, I'm just like — I look at the defense like, how did he just do that? We're like, we have no idea. So it's so fun watching him play and him playing with his brother. They're so good.”
Virginia will need to play just as well against North Carolina, who beat the Cavaliers two weeks ago in overtime in Charlottesville. Most importantly, Virginia will need great faceoff play to combat the country’s leading specialist, junior Brady Wambach, and for that it will lean on freshman faceoff man Griff Meyer.
Meyer took just one faceoff in Virginia’s first matchup against Notre Dame. But he went 9-17 at the dot Friday, by far Virginia’s leading option.
Part of that was matchup-based. Virginia had to contend with freshman faceoff man Aidan Diaz-Matos, who missed the teams’ first matchup with injury. But Meyer has been gaining playing time since he went 6-14 against North Carolina and Wambach.
“Griff Meyer got a couple big wins at the end there, and then he played well against Drexel,” Tiffany said. “So we see him peaking. A first-year, peaking here, at the end of the year. Which is what you'd hope, right?”
It’s what the whole team hopes.
Marek and Colsey, speaking postgame, did not yet know their opponent in the final. Neither had a preference, they said — they had lost to both teams in the regular season. Revenge is revenge.
“Whoever we play, we’re going to be ready for,” Marek said. “Our defense has gotten better every single game, and our offense is so deadly right now that I don’t think any team can stop them.”
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