Virginia Lacrosse: Men’s and women’s squads get bids to the NCAA tournament

Both the Virginia men’s and women’s lacrosse teams are heading to the postseason. The men’s squad are the No. 4 overall seed, while the ladies are unseeded. In the men’s tournament, the Hoos will face the Bryant Bulldogs (9-3). The women will play UConn in the first round in South Bend, Indiana.

Charlottesville will play host to two first round games in the men’s tournament — including Virginia’s matchup with Bryant — in a slight change to the postseason process as the ramifications of the pandemic continue affect sports. The other game played at Klöckner will be a matchup between Rutgers and Lehigh.

The Cavaliers are still the reigning National Champions after winning the title in 2019 before the 2020 season was canceled last spring. This season, Virginia is 10-4 with wins over tournament teams Notre Dame, North Carolina, Loyola, and High Point.

UNC drew the No. 1 overall seed for the men, with No. 5 Georgetown and No. 8 Lehigh joining as the other seeded teams on Virginia’s side of the bracket.

The first round of the tournament starts May 13-15, meaning the Cavaliers will have had a gap of three weeks between their final game of the regular season and the first game of the postseason. Head coach Lars Tiffany reached out to Bronco Mendenhall to get the football coach’s perspective on how to handle the long layoff, leading to some changes to Tiffany’s training schedule.

If Virginia moves to the second round, they’ll face the winner of Georgetown and Syracuse. The Orange have had the Hoos’ number this season, beating them twice already (including to close the regular season).

Here is the full bracket:

On the women’s side, North Carolina also drew the No. 1 overall seed, with No. 2 Northwestern and No. 3 Syracuse also getting first-round byes. Virginia will play the winner of Notre Dame and Robert Morris if they can get past the Huskies, but could potentially face the Irish on their home field.

The Cavaliers enter the tournament on a six-game losing streak, but faced Notre Dame, Syracuse, and North Carolina — all of which are national seeds — in four of those.

The women’s tournament gets underway on May 14.

Here is the full bracket:

Stay tuned for updates on time and channel as they become available.