Searching for Answers, Virginia Still 'Sharpening This Blade'

BALTIMORE — Lars Tiffany said all the right things Saturday afternoon.

The Virginia coach pointed out the Cavaliers made considerable week-to-week progress. That his team even improved on the fly, injecting some drama into a game that for a few moments looked like it wouldn’t have any late in the fourth quarter.

That the way this spring ends is still a blip on the horizon at best while invoking those most reliable of coaching conjuring words, that his team is a work in progress. (He could have observed spring itself won’t arrive until March 20, but did not).

And most importantly, he acknowledged Virginia’s 13-12 loss to Johns Hopkins before 3,408 at sun-splashed, blustery Homewood Field on Saturday wasn’t good enough.

“There’s a lot of positives to take from this,” Tiffany said. “As you know, I’m not coaching JV lacrosse. I’m at a rich, rich traditional, great program. Our objective is to win, and we didn’t do that today.”

Nor did the Cavaliers win the two Saturdays prior, losing at home to Richmond for the first time on Feb. 15 before getting mauled 14-5 at Ohio State seven days later. They sit 2-3, the latest they’ve been under .500 since going 7-8 in 2016.

Tiffany was hired less than two months after that season concluded. Three years later, he led the Cavaliers to a national title. Then another two years later. Virginia tacked on NCAA semifinal trips in 2023 and 2024 — and after his team lost last spring, Tiffany pointedly said, “We don't measure ourselves by hanging final four banners, we measure ourselves with titles.”

In fairness to these Cavaliers, championship-or-bust did not seem appropriate even in the preseason. Virginia had plenty to replace — the dynamic Connor Shellenberger, for starters, as well as Division I career goals leader Payton Cormier and defensive anchor Cole Kastner. This was not going to look like a title contender right out of the box.

It wasn’t supposed to author the program’s poorest offensive output since the 2016 season opener, either.

That loss to Ohio State hung over Virginia for a week. Not because the Cavaliers fell but how they were defeated, fading quietly. Tiffany was encouraged by the message of accountability his captains delivered every day after practice. And Virginia looked much different against Hopkins (5-1), never trailing in the first half and leading 9-7 early in the third quarter.

“This was a weird one, trying to game plan for what you’re going to see knowing they’re not going to look like what they did last week,” Hopkins coach Peter Milliman said. “They don’t struggle very much. So, if they’re not playing well, you know it’s not going to last forever. They have too many good players and great coaches that they’re going to scheme something up. We knew it was coming. They’re going to have urgency, too.”

But urgency doesn’t erase every issue, and the Cavaliers are still figuring things out on the defensive end, too. And Hopkins is a team that feasts on opponents without an answer to everything.

The Blue Jays’ strength doesn’t lie in having their top offensive player go out and dominate a matchup, though it happens sometimes. They peck and prod and probe with a lineup that usually enjoys marginal advantages in the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-best matchups, an unglamorous approach that often pays off over the course of a full game.

It led to NCAA quarterfinal appearances the last two years. Saturday, it produced a six-goal run that Virginia couldn’t fully rally back against.

“The Hopkins offense moves the ball really well, and they have sophisticated stickwork and really good shooters when they have room and time,” Tiffany said. “That’s where we got caught in the middle of, ‘We weren’t going to slide to everything, but now we feel we have to slide to a lot more.’ It really starts with our on-ball play. That third quarter, they are good shooters. I also want a couple of those shots back.”

Saturday was a fine snapshot of the Cavaliers’ mishmash of traits. It had more than two players score — a welcome upgrade over its Ohio State stumble — and Truitt Sunderland (four goals, two assists) and McCabe Millon (three goals, one assist) had better days. But there was also a scoring drought of 19 minutes in the second half as Hopkins took control.

There were also signs of Tiffany’s inveterate tinkering, with Will Inderlied moving up to the first midfield and scoring less than a minute in. But even Tiffany knows there’s a time and a place for tweaking, and with a spate of midterm exams to deal with in the classroom this week, now isn’t the time for an overhaul.

Virginia isn’t the only team with high expectations trying to find itself in early March. And it’s impossible not to wonder whether the steep decline of fifth-year players now that most of the COVID-era players have finally exhausted their eligibility makes that process feel even more daunting this season.

Tiffany wasn’t interested in dwelling on the thought, noting that this group has been together for five months including the fall. The point: They’re not strangers, and they understand the Cavaliers’ standard. Fair enough.

He was also firm on something else: Progress was welcome in any form this week. Winning is what matters moving forward, starting Saturday when Virginia meets Towson in Houston.

“That’s the message in the locker room — ‘Fellas, see how much progress we’ve made from a week ago,’” Tiffany said. “[Long pole] Ben Wayer is like, ‘Fellas, do not give in now. You see what we’re doing. We’re big-time heading in the right direction.’ It’s painful going through the fire like we are right now. We’re getting rid of some of those impurities, and we’re sharpening this blade.”