Griffin Kology, Richmond Spiders men's lacrosse — Photo courtesy of Greg Carroccio/Sideline Photos

Griffin Kology Finds New Home With UVA Lacrosse

The Richmond transfer looks to follow in his older brother's footsteps and win a national championship at Virginia

Author:
Matt Newton
Publish date:
Jun 12, 2022 8:34 PM EDT

The Cavaliers lost only four of their 16 games in what was another successful season for the Virginia men's lacrosse program. UVA captured its 19th ACC title and reached the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament.

Of those four losses, two of them came against the unstoppable and eventual national champion Maryland Terrapins and one was against the Duke Blue Devils, who defeated Virginia for the 15th-consecutive time in the regular season.

None of those three losses were particularly shocking. The fourth certainly was.

On April 2nd, the Cavaliers traveled to Richmond to take on a Spiders team that had never beaten UVA in the seven times the teams had met since the inception of Richmond's lacrosse program in 2014. Richmond used a 7-0 run that spanned the second and third quarters to stun Virginia 17-13. It was only the second time that UVA had ever lost to an opponent from the Commonwealth of Virginia in 136 total games.

One of the key factors in the outcome of the game was the performance of Richmond freshman defender Griffin Kology, who was given the tough assignment of guarding Connor Shellenberger, Virginia's best player and one of the top attackmen in all of college lacrosse. Shellenberger recorded three assists, but Kology largely won the matchup, holding Shellenberger to just one goal on ten shots. Kology caused a turnover and collected a career-high six ground balls as part of a smothering effort from the Richmond defense, who held Virginia to just four goals in the entire second half.

Two months later, Griffin Kology is now a Cavalier.

Shortly after the conclusion of Richmond's season, which ended with a heartbreaking overtime loss at No. 3 Penn in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Kology entered the transfer portal. That decision had less to do with lacrosse and more to do with his student experience at Richmond and its campus.

"Obviously it was a really successful season in Richmond along with the team. The lacrosse was great, that was my favorite part," Kology said in an interview last week. "But the campus was not what I thought it was. When I first came there, it was smaller than I thought so I just wanted something bigger and that's what kind of drove me to put myself in the transfer portal."

Kology made the tough decision to enter his name in the portal with no guarantee that any program would offer him a scholarship. After a stellar freshman season at Richmond that saw him earn Second-Team All-Southern Conference honors, Kology was confident that there would be some interest.

"Yeah I was kind of just banking on myself," said Kology. "I mean I knew there'd be some interest just because I thought I played really well this season, but no I had no idea that any schools were going to talk to me. So it was definitely nerve wracking - putting myself in. But once I saw all the people reaching out, I was like 'okay, I'm good. I feel good."

In addition to Lars Tiffany and the Cavaliers, Kology heard from several big-time lacrosse programs, including North Carolina, Cornell, and Brown. Clearly, there was some high demand for the defensive services of Kology, who ranked No. 44 in all of college lacrosse with 1.31 caused turnovers per game last season. The 6'2, 189-pound defenseman appeared in all 16 of Richmond's games as a true freshman, starting in 15 of those contests.

With a bidding war breaking out for Griffin Kology, Virginia had a man on the inside who certainly gave the Cavaliers a leg up in the recruiting battle. Kyle Kology, Griffin's older brother, played on the UVA men's lacrosse team for four seasons, appearing in 62 games, including 59 starts. Often called the "Dean of the Defense" by Lars Tiffany, Kyle Kology was named a Third-Team All-American in his senior season in 2021 as he helped lead the Cavaliers to their second-consecutive national championship.

Being a two-time national champion and a proud alum of the University of Virginia, it would have been easy for Kyle Kology to push his younger brother to choose UVA. However, Griffin says his older brother was a helpful resource for answering questions about the school and the lacrosse program, but did not pressure him to commit to Virginia.

"I asked him more about personal questions when I was looking [at Virginia] through my transfer process like - what's the business school like? What are the practices like at Virginia? Just simple questions, not just about lacrosse but just about living and where I can get food on campus, just stuff like that," said Griffin Kology.

"Once I committed he [Kyle] was like, "Man I wanted you to go there so bad, but I also wanted to keep kind of a neutral stance on it because I didn't want myself to hinder your decision so I tried to keep everything open and not sway you one way or the other."

His older brother's input was useful, but Griffin was really sold on UVA when he took a visit to Grounds the day after Memorial Day.

"Coach Tiffany and coach [Sean] Kirwan took me around on a visit and it felt great when I was there," said Kology, who also took a visit to Brown after Virginia. "I did some thinking looking back on all the schools that I visited and trying to figure out what best suited me, not just lacrosse-wise, but also living-wise, academically... and yeah, I chose Virginia."

Kology joins a Virginia defensive unit that is set to return all of its starters next spring, including All-Americans Cole Kastner and Cade Saustad, as well as several key role players. Kology recognizes the work he will have to do in order to earn playing time on the UVA defense and he is ready to embrace that challenge.

"Knowing all the returners are coming back - it's definitely made me stay longer at the gym, stay longer at the field when I'm training there," Kology said. "I just know what I'm about - an extremely hard worker. I've been doing it since eighth grade, so I know what I can do.... It's not really nerves. It's just more ready to prove myself to everyone."

The UVA coaching staff knows firsthand what Griffin is capable of after seeing him guard Connor Shellenberger in Richmond's upset win over Virginia back in April.

"They mostly mentioned how I guarded Connor Shellenberger and they said I did a pretty okay job," Kology said. "So yeah that took me back a little bit because he's such a good player."

Kology will have to get used to guarding Shellenberger and the UVA attack every day in practice, but he is thrilled to be joining a program that has been the class of college lacrosse, both recently and historically, winning its sixth and seventh NCAA national championships in 2019 and 2021.

"I'm super excited to go to a place where if you don't make it to championship weekend... it's like you didn't reach your goal," said Kology. "And I just can't wait to be playing way into the playoffs and potentially to the championship."

As for any trash talk Kology might bestow upon his new teammates for beating them during the 2022 season, he says he likely won't be rubbing that victory in anytime soon.

"Maybe once I build the relationships, maybe down the road."

In the meantime, Griffin Kology will look forward to helping the Cavaliers make a run at yet another national championship next spring.

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