Virginia men’s lacrosse steamrolled by #1 Maryland in NCAA Quarterfinals

In a rematch of last season’s NCAA Championship game, the Virginia Cavaliers faced off against the #1 Maryland Terrapins in the NCAA quarterfinals today in what many were calling this year’s de facto National Championship. While the 2021 matchup was a one goal affair won by the Wahoos, the undefeated Maryland squad flipped the script, winning 18-9.

Virginia appeared to be in the game early as Griffin Schutz put the ‘Hoos up 1-0 at the 11:12 mark in the first. But, Maryland closed the first period off with a four goal run as the Terps capitalized off of a number of UVA mistakes in the subbing game while the Virginia offense struggled to win one-on-one matchups on the other side of the field.

While Jeff Conner found the back of the net twice in the second quarter for UVA, Maryland tacked on five goals in that period and stamping its authority on the game. Matt Moore fed Payton Cormier on the crease with 1:33 left in the half to pull Virginia back within five goals before the halftime buzzer sounded.

That score would be rendered pointless, though. The Terps opened the second half with four more goals before UVA ended the drought as Matt Moore scored off a Conner assist to make the score 13-5.

Maryland responded with another pair of goals to go up by ten before Conner notched his hat-trick with 2:47 remaining in the third quarter. Schutz scored his second of the day just over two minutes later and the two teams entered the final 15 minutes of play with the Terps up eight.

The fourth quarter was a slower affair than the first three. Maryland’s Keegan Khan scored 6:36 into the period to extend the Terps’ lead to nine followed by a man-up Cormier goal that brought the deficit back to eight goals.

Unfortunately, no last ditch run ever materialized for the Wahoos. Maryland tacked on a man-up goal and then an empty netter when UVA was in its ten men ride to truly put the game out of reach. Virginia senior Evan Zinn kept the game from being a double digit loss, but UVA’s dreams of a three-peat finally came to a close as Maryland took the 18-9 victory.