Virginia men’s lacrosse blows the doors off Syracuse and clinches ACC Title

In a packed day of action for UVA sports, the Virginia Cavaliers’ men’s lacrosse team took a resounding victory over the Syracuse Orange, 21-15.

Matt Moore and Jeff Conner led the way for Virginia offensively as Conner scored four goals and dished out three assists while Moore tallied three scores and had four helpers. Meanwhile, the Virginia defense forced eleven turnovers and Petey LaSalla won 19 of 36 face-offs. LaSalla even added two goals and an assist of his own.

Seeing Moore and LaSalla have big games is significant for UVA since both have been dealing with injuries over the last month plus and have been limited as a result. Additionally, Conner’s career best game is a positive sign as the ‘Hoos look for more offensive contributions from the midfield.

Each of the first three quarters played out in similar fashion, at least in regards to the scoring as UVA continued to jut be that much better than the Orange. Specifically, UVA won those periods 6-3, 6-4, and 6-3 to be up by eight goals by the time the fourth stanza came around.

That lead was established early with five different Cavaliers finding the back of the net in the first seven minutes of play to go up 5-1. That trend continued throughout the contest with ten different Virginia players scoring and three notching hat-tricks.

Syracuse’s offensive talent did show out and didn’t make life easy for the UVA defense. The Orange’s attackmen combined for 10 goals with five coming from first time starter Jackson Birtwistle. Nevertheless, that wasn’t enough to contain the Virginia offense that has now put up 41 total goals on the Orange in two games this season.

With the win, UVA won the ACC Title as the tournament format has been abandoned in favor of crowning the champion off of regular season play with two additional conference contests. With an ACC record of 5-1 on the season, the ‘Hoos clinched the program’s second championship under Lars Tiffany — and 19th overall — since Notre Dame is the only other one loss team in the conference yet UVA has the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Irish.

Next up, the sixth ranked Wahoos face off against Lafayette this Thursday for Senior Night and the last regular season contest before more than a two week break leading into the NCAA Tournament.