It started off innocently enough. Sixty-one degrees and sunny under a pure blue sky, as the Virginia men’s lacrosse team whooped their way through warmups at American Legion Memorial Stadium.
It looked like any other game, and early in the second quarter it looked like one specific game. Virginia and North Carolina’s regular-season matchup, two weeks ago in Charlottesville, opened with three goals for Virginia and then seven for North Carolina. Sunday’s rematch opened with two for North Carolina and then seven for Virginia. Call it a mirror image.
The mirror ended up being one of those funhouse mirrors. The ones that distort things to wild proportions, turning a human being into an alien — or stretching a scoring run to 11 goals. By halftime, Virginia had scored 11 in a row, and graduate goalie Jake Marek had made 10 straight saves. No. 4 seed Virginia led No. 2 seed North Carolina 11-2, and the ACC Tournament final was over.
The Cavaliers won 16-6, taking home their first ACC Tournament title since 2019. They had never won at American Legion Memorial Stadium before Friday, and they were 0-4 against North Carolina in ACC Tournament title games. The celebrations were pure.
“So much joy,” senior defenseman John Schroter said. “This team has gone through so much adversity.”
Virginia has come a long way. Two months ago, it was coming off losses to Towson and Maryland, struggling to gel a talented roster, staring at the specter of a second straight missed postseason.
“We're 3-4, after a Saturday game, going back for a Monday lift,” Schroter said. “Guys are definitely bummed. Guys are definitely down hard. But stick with our process, week by week, game by game.”
Tuesday, the team’s equipment manager brought their new NCAA Tournament helmets to the team's lift. He wanted to show off the new lids.
The reception? Not what he expected. The players wanted nothing to do with the helmets, Tiffany said.
“Just the worst joke ever,” Coach Lars Tiffany said. “Because our guys are so focused on, ‘Hey, the next game is the ACC Tournament, not the NCAA Tournament.’”
Would Virginia even be here without Marek? The tournament MVP made 16 saves Sunday and 12 on Friday. He was not on the roster at the beginning of the summer.
The story has been told. An alumnus, Pete Dunne, emails Tiffany with a picture of Marek, the 2025 ASUN Tournament MVP at Air Force, on Grounds wearing nursing scrubs for his graduate program. The meeting two months later at Bodo’s. The question — Coach, will you give me a chance to start?
“I thought I met an incredible young person, a guy who had been a leader of 100 cadets as a Squadron Commander out in Colorado Springs,” Tiffany said. “I didn’t think that he could be [playing at] this level.”
Marek’s leadership has been instrumental for the team. He runs the ride and is a steadying presence. He got the starting nod in the first place because of that composure. But since then he has been making saves by the dozen.
In the second half, he made one on a broken play. He was already on the ground, rolling backward onto his back, and he reached straight up with his stick to snare the ball. He was shocked he had the wrist strength to reach up like that, and he did it with his backup stick, a stiff “tennis racket” because he had not broken it in.
He called it his “top save” ever, “for sure.” Schroter was jumping up behind him on the play, a leg flailing in the air. Like a soccer defender trying to clear a ball off the line. It never got to him — most shots never reached the net.
“Jake’s the best f—ing goalie in the country,” Schroter said.
Marek has done it this season without a true goalie coach. Tiffany is the appointed goalie coach, but he is more of a puppet. Marek has four other goalies around him, a self-functioning unit that watches their own film and contains some of the team’s biggest personalities.
He also has assistant coach Connor Shellenberger throwing shots at him every day in practice. That helps.
“I have the PLL MVP, four-time first-team All-American, shooting on me, and I’m saving the shots,” Marek said. “It just built my confidence that I can save any shot that’s given to me.”
Virginia dominated Sunday in more than just the goalie battle. It had 41 ground balls to North Carolina’s 24. It had 18 saves to 10, prompting a goalie change by the Tar Heels. Junior attackman McCabe Millon had four goals and two assists, and senior attackman Truitt Sunderland had four and one. Virginia even became the second team this season to win the faceoff battle against North Carolina and its Tewaaraton nominee, junior Brady Wambach, 13-12, although Wambach’s backup finished the game 1-4.
But those are all footnotes in this team’s turnaround. Virginia slammed Notre Dame on Friday, 15-10, for the second time, and is the only team this season to beat the Fighting Irish. It turned around and crushed North Carolina, too. Did the ball bounce the right way a handful of times, on ground balls, on long passes? Maybe. Does it matter?
“We killed both the teams,” Marek said. “We're just playing some really consistent lacrosse right now.”
Virginia has bigger things ahead — a chance to play in a home Championship Weekend at Scott Stadium. But it is taking things, as it has all season, one at a time.
“The destination is Memorial Day Weekend, and it happens to be in Charlottesville,” Tiffany said. “But let's enjoy every day. Let's enjoy the journey. And so right now we get to enjoy having been here in Charlotte and winning an ACC Tournament.”
Greg Klimas, the equipment manager, can retrieve the new helmets. He probably stashed them away in a dark corner after the initial reveal. Maybe they will get a better reaction this time, now that there’s a trophy next to them.
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