Spring sports recap: Several Virginia teams in postseason play

The school year may be wrapping up at the University of Virginia, but for Cavaliers fans, that only means that spring sports are getting to the best time of the year: the postseason. 

Eleven Virginia teams are in action during the spring season. Men’s lacrosse and tennis are perennially elite – with the former winning national titles in 2019 and 2021 and has been among the best teams in the country ever since; the latter has won five of the last eight contested NCCA tournaments and sic of the last 10. Baseball has been among the most consistently great programs in the nation for well more than a decade with a 2015 title to show for it; meanwhile, UVA softball just clinched its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2010.

Here is a quick look at how each team has fared in recent days, and for those still alive in the postseason, what it will take to secure a fifth consecutive year with at least two national titles across the athletic department.

Men’s lacrosse

Lars Tiffany’s squad went into the NCAA Tournament on a four-game skid, including losing to No.1 Notre Dame in consecutive games. It was the first such losing streak since 2013 for the Cavaliers. 

Still, Virginia’s resume earned the team a No. 6 overall seed and a home matchup with unseeded Saint Joseph’s. The Hawks came into the matchup on a 12-game win streak, the longest in the nation. On Saturday, UVA snapped that win streak and maintained one of their own: a five-tournament stretch with at least one win. The Cavaliers unleashed on the visitors in a 17-11 win that featured a slew of broken records. 

Attackman Payton Cormier scored eight goals on the day, breaking the program record for goals in an NCAA Tournament game, a record he previously co-held with six goals in a game. His eight tallies also tied the program record for goals in a game. He also broke Xander Dickson’s single-season goals record set last year at 61. His eighth goal also broke the NCAA career mark for goals of 221 set by Max O’Keefe in 2021 at Penn State. 

The Cavaliers will face No. 3-seed Johns Hopkins in the quarterfinals, a team they lost to at home on March 2 by two goals, 16-14. The Blue Jays defeated Lehigh by three in their opening-round game. 

Five Cavaliers were named All-Americans by Inside Lacrosse this week. Connor Shellenberger, Cole Kastner, and Chase Yager were selected to the second team. Griffin Schutz was third team and Cormier an honorable mention.