“[Next season] we can be more surgical in our approach to really filling needs around the good young players that are here and the good young players that are coming in,” Pollard said. “[We can] really be in a position when we hit the ground running in the fall, to have so much more continuity in terms of player development.”
The press conference capped a wild nine-day saga. Virginia announced May 18 that Lars Tiffany, its 10-year head coach and two-time national champion, “will not return.”
“Our guys came out and really answered the bell,” Coach Chris Pollard said postgame.
Having miserably failed their first trial of the tournament, the Cavaliers now turn their attention to Southern Miss, the No. 9 seed nationally, who just lost in a shocking upset to Little Rock. If they lose this next game, Virginia’s time in the NCAA Tournament will come to an end much earlier than predicted.
Cassese’s hire follows a May 18 announcement from Virginia Athletics that stated the program would begin a nationwide search for a new leader.
“We’ve got our hands full, it’s a tough regional,” Pollard said. “We are thrilled to still be playing … this group has shown a lot of resilience to stay in the fight.”
In the third round of stroke play, the Cavaliers finally lost their footing. They fell short of the fourth and final round of stroke play, missing match play and one final stretch of a season they fought relentlessly to extend.
Lost doubles points and slow starts in singles forced the Cavaliers to play from behind in several duals, and in every case they managed to keep their title hopes alive.
This year the event is in Charlottesville, its first time at a campus site since 2002, at Rutgers.
In curtly dismissing Tiffany, Virginia Athletics has opened a Pandora’s Box of allegations over culture issues and criticisms of players and off-field behavior, which, whether they are sound or not, will continue to abound and are destructive to what Tiffany built over the last decade.
Virginia’s dominant regional performance dictates a team ready for any moment thrown at them. Having captured five of their spring tournaments, this Cavalier team possesses the rare combination of experience, talent and momentum required to peak at exactly the right time.
The Cavaliers now return home for a break. The next step is the NCAA Tournament Selection Show, during which Virginia will learn of its regional assignment Sunday. Before then, though, Pollard’s bunch must shake off a heartbreaker from Charlotte.
"I thought our team overcame some mistakes today. We didn’t play a perfect or clean game by any stretch, but we were tough enough to stay in the fight, and we were able to scratch across some runs there in the sixth and then [Weatherspoon] had a big swing. That was the difference.”
Virginia is a lock for an at-large bid when the NCAA Selections announcement airs on Tuesday, May 20 at 5 p.m.
The meet was a strong showing for the Virginia men, proving a consistent ability to place high against the ACC’s best. The victory for the men would not have been possible without top marks from runners and throwers like Wachtel, Gardener and Nubbe combined with frequent top-five finishes from the rest of the team.
“We're not gonna approach the games any differently,” Gracia said May 12. “I mean, we try and approach the game the same every single day. There [are] no big games. No games are less important than others. We're just going to continue to work on what we do.”
Looking ahead, there are plenty of questions to be had about where Virginia should go from here and what decisions need to be made.
The release noted that a national search for a new men’s lacrosse head coach will begin immediately.
Senior Day, for the most part, still carries a heavy impact in non-revenue sports like men’s lacrosse. But it is no longer such an emotional night for all basketball and football players honored.
Dylan Dietrich's third-set victory clinched the title for the Cavaliers.
