CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — So much of the Virginia lacrosse program’s identity — past and present — is rooted in offensive brilliance.

For a good chunk of this decade, the Cavaliers most certainly have not been known for stingy defense.

It made Saturday’s ACC championship game a stirring change of pace. Anchored by exceptional play and aided by an exceptionally sloppy showing from third-seeded Notre Dame, top-seeded Virginia earned its first ACC tournament title since 2010 with a 10-4 drubbing of the Fighting Irish before 4,489 at Klockner Stadium.

“We’ve been preaching it all year: Play our defense. Play hard. Play our schemes. Play to the game plan,” senior defenseman Logan Greco said. “I think this is one of the games where you can see if we do play to the game plan and we do play to the best of our ability, offenses are going to have a hard time against us.”

It was the fewest goals the Cavaliers (13-3) allowed to an ACC opponent since a 10-2 rout of Maryland in 2005, and Notre Dame (8-6) endured a scoreless drought of 42 minutes, 12 seconds that began in the first quarter and ended with 6:59 to play.

Most importantly, it was the latest step in Virginia’s turnaround under third-year coach Lars Tiffany, whose team was done in by a wobbly defense in 2017 but showed enough improvement at both ends of the field to return to the NCAA tournament after a two-year hiatus last season.

This spring brought even more progress: An outright ACC regular season title, an ACC tournament trophy and what should be a top-four seed when the NCAA tournament field is unveiled Sunday night.

“We’ve come a long way,” Tiffany said. “I give credit to this group of men for still believing in me after that first year. It culminated today with our decision-making of when to slide to the man being dodged and when not to, because we don’t just slide to everything. That decision-making has taken years to hone. The culmination of it was what we were able to do today against a talented offensive team.”

While the Cavaliers’ defense was sharp, Notre Dame’s offense didn’t make Virginia’s life as challenging as it could have. The Irish committed 23 turnovers and were just 15 of 22 on clears, an unusually erratic performance coach Kevin Corrigan insisted he wouldn’t read deeply into but nonetheless left him displeased.

“We just didn’t beat anybody,” Corrigan said. “When we did, we handled the ball horribly. If you can’t put the ball on the next guy’s ear, it’s hard for him to make a play. We didn’t get any good dodges out of ball movement because we didn’t have any ball movement. It was an all-around terrible performance by us offensively.”

Here’s the thing, though: It wasn’t long ago an elite team could have an abysmally sloppy game against Virginia and threaten to score a dozen goals. It was quickly apparent Notre Dame would struggle to get traction much of the day against a defensive group that has kept five of its last eight opponents to single-digit scoring days.

The Irish’s starting attack shot a combined 1-for-8, with freshman Cade Saustad holding Notre Dame’s Brendan Gleason without a point. Long pole Jared Conners spent much of the afternoon marking midfielder Bryan Costabile, who entered with a team-high 36 goals and scored just once (on extra man) over seven shots.

Goalie Alex Rode stopped 11 shots, as Virginia claimed a rematch of last year’s ACC title game, which the Irish won 17-7.

“Alex Rode had an amazing game,” said Virginia midfielder Ryan Conrad, the tournament MVP. “Obviously, Jared Conners getting an all-tournament team, he played outstanding. Top to bottom, our defense stood on their heads. We would not have won that game if they didn’t do what they did.”

Indeed, the Cavaliers’ defense very much upstaged an offense that never got fully on track until the second half. Virginia maintained a 5-2 edge at the break and managed only a man-up goal in the first nine minutes of the second half before Conrad deposited a smooth Mikey Herring skip pass.

Virginia won the following faceoff and milked much of the shot clock knowing there was a delayed penalty. Xander Dickson scored on the ensuing extra-man, and Conners delivered a pole goal eight seconds later to make it 9-2 and effectively finish it off.

It would be another 12 minutes before the Irish finally ended their drought, a byproduct of their own inefficiency and a stellar showing from Virginia’s unheralded defense.

“We’re some of the hardest-working guys on the field, and we don’t always get the credit because we have such a high-powered offense,” Conners said. “This was a big statement game for us and we talked about all week how Notre Dame has the defense that everyone talks about. We want a little bit of credit here. Give us a little bit of credit.”

Duly noted. Virginia will head into the NCAA tournament having won 12 of its last 13 and, perhaps of greater significance to a long-proud program, back in the habit of collecting championships.

It had been nine years since the Cavaliers claimed an ACC tournament —  so long ago, they did so in College Park, Md. — and that drought was nearly as long as the time since Virginia last reached Memorial Day weekend in 2011.

With a couple more performances like Saturday’s, and Tiffany’s team can end that lengthy wait as well.

“It’s great to win an ACC championship,” Greco said. “We don’t think we’re done yet. We want to keep winning. But to get to this point, it’s a special moment considering that when I got here, we were at the bottom of the ACC. Being a fifth-year and being with this group of guys and getting to the top is incredible.”