Virginia’s eight-game winning streak is the longest in the nation. It will be the No. 1 seed in the ACC tournament for the first time since 2010. It is 3-0 in league play for the first time since 2002.
It’s certainly something for the Cavaliers (9-2) to celebrate after claiming just two regular season conference victories over the previous six seasons. At the same time, Virginia isn’t about to proclaim it’s back just yet.
“We’re 3-0 in the league by a total complete aggregate goal differential of four goals, so it’s pure sarcasm to say we’re completely dominating and we’ve really resurrected the program,” coach Lars Tiffany said. “We’re nowhere near the heyday of Virginia lacrosse in the past. You think about the ’06 team that Dom [Starsia] had that was steamrolling people. For so many years, that was what Virginia was doing. We’re not there by any means, but certainly fortunate and excited with the level we’re competing at.”
Perhaps the trait Tiffany most likes in his third Cavalier team is its unwillingness to get down on itself. That’s manifested itself with one of the season’s quirkier details: Virginia has erased a second-half deficit in seven of its victories, and come back to win after trailing in the fourth quarter in five games as it heads into Saturday’s visit to Duke (9-3, 1-2).
“It’s hard to become overconfident when the reality is we’ve been losing in just about every game we’ve played in the second half, except for that weekend when we had Richmond [and] Utah,” Tiffany said. “Even against North Carolina, we were down two in the second half. It’s hard to become overconfident-slash-cocky when you’re on a winning streak when you realize seemingly every one of those games could have gone the other way.”
Hounds hope to get home
Loyola upended Georgetown 16-14 on Tuesday in its final scheduled game at Ridley Athletic Complex this season. But the Greyhounds can still get up to three more games on their own field: As many as two in the Patriot League tournament, and another in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Strictly from an offensive efficiency perspective, they wouldn’t mind securing a three-game homestand in May.
Loyola (9-2, 5-0 Patriot), which visits Boston University on Saturday, is 6-0 at home and has averaged 17.7 goals at Ridley while allowing 9.8 per game. In five road games — and, granted, two were at Duke and Towson — Loyola is 3-2 while averaging 12 goals while giving up 10 an outing.
“Loyola does it right,” coach Charley Toomey said. “It’s a professional environment, and sometimes that’s a real challenge because you can go on the road and it’s not the environment they’re not used to playing in at home. Our guys know. They come out of that locker room excited to play in front of their fans and excited to play for Baltimore. That’s what we have to challenge ourselves with, going on the road and coming out with that same energy.”
Hoyas seek turnaround on D
Georgetown coach Kevin Warne got some laughs Tuesday night when he compared Loyola attackman Pat Spencer to Bo Jackson’s unstoppable avatar in the old Nintendo game “Tecmo Super Bowl.” But Spencer’s brilliance aside, the Hoyas’ defense is driving Warne to a degree of agitation with three games left in the regular season.
“Oh, if we’re driving, we’re on the Indy track here,” Warne said. “It’s going 100 miles an hour. We have to fix some things defensively.”
Georgetown (8-4) has yielded 15.7 goals per game over its last three outings, and will need to make progress at that end of the field if it is to successfully defend its Big East title. Already, the path to an at-large NCAA tournament berth is effectively gone.
For Warne, that means examining whether the Hoyas are using the right personnel and taking the correct approach. He took Tuesday’s second half, when Loyola managed five goals after scoring 11 before the break, as a good sign.
“In the second half, I think we really kept it simple and the old acronym, KISS — keep it simple, stupid — that would be something that would be really, really beneficial for us moving forward,” said Warne, whose team plays host to Villanova on Sunday. “We played a little bit faster, and when you play faster, teams tend to rush shots.”
NUMBERS OF NOTE
2
Two Division I programs set season victories records last week. Cleveland State (6-6) surpassed its previous high for wins with an 18-5 rout of St. Bonaventure, while NJIT (2-10) locked up its first multi-win season with a 26-9 pummeling of Hampton.
3
Only three players for Maryland have recorded hat tricks in five consecutive games since 2000: Buggs Combs (2001), Joe Walters (2004) and now Jared Bernhardt (2019). In the Terrapins’ 16-12 defeat of Michigan on Saturday, Bernhardt had five goals and three assists to secure his fifth consecutive hat trick.
35
Penn is 4-0 in the Ivy League for the first time in 35 years after shredding Brown 16-9. The Quakers (6-3) have opened play in the Ancient Eight with four consecutive victories just six times — 1973, 1974, 1975, 1977, 1984 and 2019.
300
Notre Dame coach Kevin Corrigan earned the 300th victory of his tenure in South Bend with Wednesday’s 13-6 drubbing of Marquette. Corrigan joins Bob Shillinglaw (Delaware) and Dick Garber (UMass) as the only Division I men's lacrosse coaches to win 300 games at one school.