2024 NCAA Lacrosse Preview: No. 3 Virginia (Men)

The 2024 Division I men's college lacrosse starts Feb. 2. We’re featuring every team ranked in the USA Lacrosse Preseason Top 20 leading up to opening night.

NO. 3 VIRGINIA

2023 Record: 13-4 (4-2, ACC)
Final Ranking (2023): No. 3
Head Coach: Lars Tiffany
Assistants: Kevin Cassese (offensive coordinator), Logan Greco, Kip Turner (defensive coordinator)

For the first time in a while, there’s a change in the core of Lars Tiffany’s coaching staff. Sean Kirwan and Kip Turner coached alongside Tiffany as a unit since 2015, first helping Brown reach the national semifinals and then helping Virginia win a pair of national championships.

Turner remains — the 2024 season will be his 13th coaching with Tiffany — but Kirwan took the head coaching job at Dartmouth. Tiffany turned to a familiar face as a replacement — Kevin Cassese. The longtime successful Lehigh head coach previously coached with Tiffany at Stony Brook.

“He has leadership exposure at every level — world games, MLL, player, head coach, and he’s really enjoying being a coordinator,” Tiffany said. “The individual player development, scouring film — he’s loving it, and damn, he’s good at it. The players are embracing Kevin’s tutelage. Having to defend the offense in the fall, I don’t think we’ve skipped a beat.”

Kirwan isn’t the only departure. Leading goal scorer Xander Dickson (61 goals) and Thomas McConvey (52 points) have moved on to pro lacrosse. There is full cupboard of talent remaining in Charlottesville, but the biggest challenge for the Virginia offense will be trying to figure out where the pieces fit.

TOP RETURNERS

Payton Cormier, A (52G, 12A)
Cole Kastner, D (40 GB, 21 CTO)
Connor Shellenberger, A (30G, 54A)

Virginia led the country in scoring (17.2 goals per game) last year. Roughly half of those goals are no longer on the roster, but with a 1-2 punch of Cormier and Shellenberger leading the way, Virginia’s attack remains stacked. Cormier has put up three straight 50-plus-point seasons, increasing his output each year, and shot 48 percent last year.

Shellenberger is simply one of the best in the sport. A three-time first-team All-American, he will almost assuredly break Matt Moore’s school record of 277 points, and he’ll do it with no added time from an extra COVID year. Shellenberger, who led the country in assists last year, enters the year with 239 career points.

KEY ADDITIONS

Jack Boyden, A/M, Gr. (69G, 88A at Tufts)
Anthony Ghobriel, FO, Jr. (60.5% at Navy)
McCabe Millon, A, Fr.

A lot of Virginia’s “rebuilding” will come in the form of players on last year’s roster moving into bigger roles, but this trio of newcomers provides an interesting mix.

Boyden’s numbers at Tufts were eye-popping — 290 points in the last two years — and he’s even better in person than Tiffany expected. Virginia has fared well in recent years with transfers moving up to the bright lights, as witnessed by Charlie Bertrand from Merrimack and Thomas McConvey from Vermont.

“Maybe not every great player was incredible at 16 years old and went to an ACC or Ivy school,” Tiffany said.

Ghobriel won a Navy-record 191 draws last year, and Tiffany describes him as scrappy, even at a position known for scrappiness. He comes into a position of need with the departure of Petey LaSalla, who took 1,781 faceoffs in his five seasons.

Millon, the son of two Hall of Fame players, has long lived up to the pedigree. He led McDonogh (Md.) to back-to-back championships in one of the nation’s best high school leagues and will bring tremendous creativity and drive to the offense.

NOTABLE DEPARTURES

Graduations: Jeff Conner, M; Xander Dickson, A; Petey LaSalla, FO; Quentin Matsui, D; Thomas McConvey, M; Cade Saustad, D; Grayson Sallade, SSDM; Evan Zinn, SSDM.
Transfers: Danny Parker, SSDM (Notre Dame)

X-FACTOR

Griffin Schutz, M, Jr. (24G, 16A)

Schutz came in as a highly decorated recruit and has scored 47 goals in his first two seasons. With the offensive departures, Virginia will need someone to pick up the load. Don’t be surprised if it’s the 6-foot-3, 220-pound midfielder.

“Griffin Schutz is absolutely prepared and poised to be one of the best midfielders in the country,” Tiffany said. “His entry into his third season is everything I would want as a head coach — the intensity of his training is different. He’s no longer content being a weapon, he wants to be THE weapon.”

THE NARRATIVE

For most of last year, there was a clear top three that rotated from week to week between Duke, Notre Dame and Virginia. Duke and Notre Dame return the bulk of their rosters, but Virginia has more holes to fill than its ACC rivals.

Can Virginia remain among the elite programs in 2024?

One way they can do so is with the continued development of third-year starting goalie Matt Nunes, someone Tiffany thinks is underrated on the national scale. Nunes set a Virginia single-season saves record with 213 last year and had a 52.9 save percentage.

“Our strength of schedule was No. 1 or 2,” Tiffany said. “We played Duke and Notre Dame five times, and he still had those numbers. He’s a hell of a goalie.”

With a less experienced defense in front of him, Nunes will need to step into a bigger role this year. He’s well suited for it.

“He’s 21 going on 41; he’s so mature,” Tiffany said. “He wants to be a coach when he graduates, and he’s going to hold guys to his standard. He always has guys shooting on him. He’s thinking about schemes, culture — he’s already another coach on the field.”

Cole Kastner is the only returning full-time long pole starter for the Cavaliers, but the 6-foot-7 athlete is a great building block in front of Nunes. Short-stick d-middies Noah Chizmar and Chase Yager (Harvard transfer) will be key, but Tiffany admits it will be a bit of trial by fire to figure out roles for the rest of the defense. He’s big on LSM Ben Wayer, who sat out last season, to be an impact performer.

ENEMY LINES

“I think Virginia is a team you look at and you say, ‘Oh man, thank God Petey LaSalla graduated, thank God Sean Kirwan is not there anymore, and you start to get excited and you look at their roster and you’re like, ‘Oh, Jesus.’ Not only did they bring in a guy like Jack Boyden, but they brought in a coach like Kevin Cassese. You forget really quickly about what they lost and you start to say, ‘Aw, shucks’ about what they did to replace those guys. They lose Petey LaSalla, but they bring in three transfer faceoff guys. It’s like, ‘C’mon.’”

BEYOND THE BASICS
POWERED BY LACROSSE REFERENCE

Connor Shellenberger’s standout performance in 2023, marked by a 90th-percentile individual player efficiency and a 98th-percentile assist rate, underscore his critical role in initiating the offense for the Cavaliers. Even during his worst four-game stretch efficiency-wise, his ability to generate assists remained exceptionally high, finishing in the 96th percentile. If you are a defense, you know he’s going to create offense for others, so it’s just a question of whether you are able to prevent him from scoring himself when those passing lanes aren’t there.

Lacrosse Reference Glossary