Payton Cormier, Virginia Cavaliers men's lacrosse — Photo courtesy of Matt Riley/Virginia Athletics Communications

No. 2 Virginia Stunned by Richmond 17-13

The Spiders pulled the top-five upset and beat the Cavaliers for the first time ever

Author:
Matt Newton
Publish date:
Apr 2, 2022 2:56 PM EDT

Through the first seven meetings between the Virginia and Richmond men's lacrosse programs, the Spiders had never beaten the Cavaliers. That changed on Saturday afternoon, as Richmond used a 7-0 run to defeat No. 2 Virginia 17-13 in a stunning upset at Robins Stadium in Richmond.

For as bad of a game this turned out to be for the Cavaliers, UVA had a very strong start. Virginia scored the first two goals and built a lead as large as four in the first quarter. UVA's early advantage was largely thanks to Petey LaSalla, who won nine of his ten faceoff draws before exiting the game with an injury. Matt Moore also suffered an injury in the first half and did not return.

Moore scored his second goal of the game to make it 9-5 in favor of Virginia with 11 minutes remaining in the second quarter. From that point, Richmond scored the next seven goals in a run that lasted well into the third quarter to take a 12-9 lead. Ryan Lanchbury scored two goals in the run and finished with four goals and an assist.

Virginia got back within two goals on three occasions in the second half on a pair of goals from Payton Cormier and one by Xander Dickson, but the Spiders had an answer every time and closed the game on a 3-1 run.

Losing LaSalla and Moore was a critical blow for the Cavaliers, but Virginia still should have won this game comfortably. UVA seemed out of sync on the offensive end, turning the ball over 16 times and settling for bad shots, which were easily saved by Richmond goalie Zach Vigue, who made 16 saves versus 13 goals allowed. Matthew Nunes struggled in cage for UVA, allowing 17 goals and making nine saves for a .346 save percentage.

Gable Braun replaced LaSalla and won 11 of 23 faceoff draws, but Richmond had a convincing advantage in the possession battle after LaSalla's injury. The Virginia defense needed to deliver a solid performance to pick up the slack, but the Cavaliers seemed slow to the ball and lost one-on-one matchups across the field, similar to the loss against Maryland two weeks ago.

Dalton Young had four goals and an assist and Ryan Dunn had three goals and two assists for the Spiders. Payton Cormier had five goals to lead Virginia. Griffin Schutz and Matt Moore scored two goals each and Connor Shellenberger had one goal and three assists, ending his streak of 12-consecutive games with at least five points.

Virginia looked out of sorts as Richmond took advantage of the injuries to LaSalla and Moore and the Cavaliers never quite regained their footing, even as the game remained in reach for most of the second half.

With the loss, Virginia drops to 7-2 overall on the season. The Cavaliers will have to refocus quickly as they host No. 9 North Carolina in the second meeting of the season between these two teams next Saturday at 4pm at Klockner Stadium.

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