Virginia Lacrosse Set for Rematch With No. 1 Maryland in NCAA Quarterfinals

The Cavaliers and Terrapins will meet for third-consecutive showdown in the NCAA Tournament

Author:
Matt Newton
Publish date:
May 17, 2022 2:10 AM EDT

Virginia Cavaliers men's lacrosse — Virginia defeated Brown 17-10 in the first round of the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship on Saturday night in Providence.
Photo courtesy of Virginia Athletics

This season, the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship will not take place on Memorial Day as it has for decades. Instead, the national champion will be crowned in the quarterfinals. On Sunday afternoon at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, No. 1 and undefeated Maryland, the overwhelming favorite to win the national title, will meet the two-time defending national champs Virginia, widely considered to have the best chance of any NCAA Tournament team of knocking the Terrapins off their path to the title.

While the national championship will not actually be awarded to the winner of the quarterfinal game between Virginia and Maryland, this matchup certainly has the feel of a showdown that should be taking place on lacrosse's biggest stage. When the NCAA selection committee released the bracket for the men's lacrosse tournament on Selection Sunday, they received some justified criticism from the lacrosse community for a series of questionable decisions regarding the field's seeding and matchups, namely the inclusion of six out of a possible seven Ivy League teams in the tournament, including the spurning of Notre Dame in favor of Harvard, as well as the decision to give five of those Ivy League teams a top-eight seed and the chance to host a first round game.

One of the ripple effects of that decision is that Virginia, an 11-3 team that won the ACC Championship and entered the tournament as the two-time defending national champions, was somehow unseeded and given a road game in the first round at No. 8 Brown. Perhaps the most important consequence is that now that the Cavaliers have taken care of business in the first round, as many expected they would, the battle between Virginia and Maryland, which should have taken place no sooner than Championship Weekend (and really should be happening on Memorial Day), is now taking place in the quarterfinals.

The unseeded Cavaliers went up to Providence on Saturday night and, using an 8-0 second half run and fantastic performances from Connor Shellenberger (eight points) and Matthew Nunes (16 saves), routed the Brown Bears 17-10 on their home turf, giving Lars Tiffany a significant win on the road against his alma mater and keeping Virginia's bid for a three-peat alive and well.

UVA has won each of the last two national championships, but for this entire season, it has been Maryland vs. everybody. Many are already considering this Terrapins team to be one of the most dominant lacrosse teams to ever take the field. Still undefeated this season at 15-0, Maryland has won its games by an average margin of 9.3 goals per game. The Terrapins cruised to the Big Ten Championship and have notched convincing wins against Princeton, Notre Dame, Rutgers, Ohio State, and Virginia along the way. In fact, Maryland's only loss in the last two seasons came in the 2021 national title game against Virginia by one goal. If the Terps capture the title and complete the undefeated season, the 2022 Maryland men's lacrosse team will be considered one of the greatest teams in the history of college lacrosse.

Standing in their way are the back-to-back defending champs, but this will not be the first time UVA and UMD have met this season. When the Wahoos and Terps met at Audi Field in Washington D.C. back on March 19th, Maryland executed a brilliant game plan, but also came into the game with a lust for revenge after UVA ended Maryland's perfect season in the national championship in 2021. The Terrapins crushed the Cavaliers 23-12 in what had to be an extremely satisfying victory.

Even despite that lopsided outcome from two months ago, Virginia is considered the one team most capable of spoiling Maryland's glorious season once again. That is even more true after No. 2 seed Georgetown, who entered the tournament 15-1 on the season, was upset in the first round by Delaware on Sunday night.

Maryland will certainly be favored to beat UVA again when the teams meet on Sunday at 2:30pm at Ohio Stadium. However, given Virginia's track record in the month of May in the Lars Tiffany era (nine-consecutive NCAA Tournament wins), it would not be surprising to see the Cavaliers give the Terrapins a much better fight this time around. Be ready for another instant classic between Virginia and Maryland.

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