Virginia Men’s Lacrosse 2025 Regular Season Schedule Breakdown

There are 107 days between Virginia's first game of the season and their planned appearance on Memorial Day, playing for a national championship at Gillette Stadium. UVA plays four ACC games and has a grueling non-conference schedule before playing in the ACC tournament, which begins on May 2nd.

Last season, Virginia fell to Maryland in a gut-wrenching 12-6 loss, as the Hoos have lost in the semifinals the last two years. A third trip in a row to Championship Weekend would be an outstanding accomplishment for Lars Tiffany and his staff, which would be Virginia's fifth appearance in six years to the Final Four. Despite the achievement of making it to Memorial Day weekend, in Charlottesville, the standard remains hoisting the national championship trophy on Memorial Day.

Here is a full game-by-game preview of the 2025 Virginia Men's Lacrosse Schedule, with each opponent rated on a scale of 1-5 based on difficulty. (Note: rankings are based on the USA Lacrosse Preseason Rankings, which were released last week.)

February 8th | Season Opener against Colgate (Difficulty 2.5)

Colgate started 2024 with a massive upset victory over Penn State before falling back to earth and finishing with an 8-7 record. This team returns their top three-point scorers with Rory Connor leading the charge, but with home-field advantage, the Cavaliers should take care of business and start the season with a win for the sixth year in a row.

February 15th | Home against Richmond (Difficulty 2.5)

It's a new era of Richmond lacrosse with the departures of Dalton Young, Lance Madonna, and Andrew Grayum, who were three of the Spiders' top four scorers in 2024. This team is young, but should gain experience quickly as Richmond opens up its season for the second year in a row against Maryland two weeks before traveling to Virginia.

February 18th | Home against High Point (Difficulty 2)

High Point graduated its entire attack line, including Brayden Mayea, Jack VanOverbeke, and Jack Sawyer, with the three accounting for 162 points in 2024. Like Richmond, this team will be younger offensively and should struggle against a top team such as Virginia in the early weeks of the season.

February 22nd | At Ohio State (Difficulty 3.5)

The Buckeyes will be a team to monitor in 2025. Ohio State will return eight of its top ten scorers, all three of its close defenders led by Bobby Van Buren, starting goalie Caleb Fyock, and starting faceoff specialist Jack Oldman. Ohio State also adds a few transfers, including Quinnipiac midfielder Ryan Donnery, which makes the Buckeyes a tough opponent for the Hoos' first road matchup of the season.

March 1st | At No. 9 Johns Hopkins for the Doyle Smith Cup (Difficulty 4.5)

The Cavaliers ended the Blue Jays' season in 2024 with a Connor Shellenberger overtime winner, ending the careers of Jacob Angelus, Garrett Degnon, Jonathan Pesko, Brendan Grimes, and goalie Chayse Ierlan. A team that had the goal of reaching Championship Weekend for the first time since 2015 fell short and is rebuilding in 2025. The team will be weighing on players such as Matt Collison, Russell Melendez, and Hunter Chauvette to try to claim the Doyle Smith Cup for the second year in a row. Playing Hopkins on the road at Homewood Field makes this game even more challenging.

March 8th | Against No. 11 Towson In Houston (Difficulty 4)

Before diving into the matchup, it should be noted that it was just announced that this game will be played in Houston at the Kinkaid School as part of the Corrigan Sports Enterprises College Lacrosse Live Series. It's cool to see Lars Tiffany and the staff taking the initiative to dedicate a game this season to growing the sport of lacrosse.

Moving to the opponent, Towson had a massive year in 2024, winning the CAA conference championship before falling to Syracuse in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The Tigers nearly defeated Virginia on a rainy day in Maryland last season, but the Hoos prevailed 19-15. Towson returns a ton of talent and one of the best midfielders in the country in Mikey Weisshaar, who led the Tigers with 42 goals in 2024.

March 15th | Home Against No. 6 Maryland (Difficulty 5)

Maryland ended Virginia's season last year with the Terrapins crushing the Hoos 12-6 in the semifinals of the NCAA tournament. John Tillman returns talent such as Brayden Erksa, Daniel Kelly, Eric Spanos, and goalie Logan McNaney but also added top transfer portal targets such as Bryce Ford (Fairfield), Noah Armitage (Stony Brook), Jack Dowd (Salisbury), Matt Keegan (Binghamton) and defender AJ Hernandez (Navy). With Tillman's coaching, this team is always a contender for the National Championship.

March 18th | Home Against Albany (Difficulty 2.5)

Albany returns most of its offensive talent from 2024 but loses its star in LSM Jake Piseno. The Great Danes still have lots of work to do if they want to be the team they were ten years ago.

March 22nd | Home Against Utah (Difficulty 2)

Utah loses five of its six top point scorers from 2024 and only adds one transfer in Jonas Hunter from Vermont. This Utah team is much weaker this year compared to last.

March 29th | Home Against No. 2 Syracuse (Difficulty 5)

This Syracuse team is ready to make its championship run in 2025 with a loaded roster headlined by Joey Spallina, Owen Hiltz, Sam English, Michael Leo, Finn Thompson, and Billy Dwan. The Orange suffered minimal losses and will be gunning for their first national championship since 2009. This team defeated the Hoos in a shootout 18-17 last season at the Dome, and defeating Syracuse will be an even greater test for the Cavaliers now that their lead firepower from that game has graduated.

April 5th | At No. 17 North Carolina (Difficulty 4)

The Tar Heels have served as the bottom of the ACC the last few years but are looking to climb back up. Unfortunately for UNC fans, North Carolina is still a year or two from making an actual push. The Tar Heels 2025 core consists of Owen Duffy, Dominic Pietramala, Ryan Levy, James Matan, and transfers Spencer Wirtheim (Cornell) and goalie Michael Gianforcaro (Princeton). The losses of Logan McGovern and Lance Tillman deal massive blows to a team that now consists mainly of young talent.

April 12th | At No. 1 Notre Dame (Difficulty 5)

Playing the two-time national champions on the road will be Virginia's most challenging game of the regular season. With a returning core comprising of Chris Kavanagh, Jordan Faison, Devon McLane, Jake Taylor, Will Lynch, Ben Ramsey, and perhaps the best defenseman in the country in Shawn Lyght, this team has everything and more to stand atop the top of the mountain for a third year in a row. The best way the Cavaliers can turn the tide on a team like the Fighting Irish is by having outstanding goalie play and being more physical than them by dominating the ground ball battle.

April 19th | Home against Lafayette (Difficulty 1)

Not much needs to be said about Lafayette, who finished 2024 with a 6-7 record and does not have much going for them in Easton, Pennsylvania.

April 26th | Home against No. 7 Duke (Difficulty 5)

The Cavaliers have not defeated Duke in the regular season since 2004. For whatever reason, the Blue Devils have always found a way to win, even when Virginia had the better team that year. Virginia has the slight edge in talent this year and has home-field advantage, but you never know against Duke. The Blue Devils lose a ton of talent in their entire attack line of Brennan O'Neil, Josh Zawada, and Dyson Williams, in addition to lockdown defender Kenny Brower. Andrew McAdorey leads this squad in 2025, which is comprised of a few transfers and some young up-and-coming talent.

Virginia starts its season against Colgate at Klöckner Stadium on February 8th at noon.