The Virginia Cavaliers men's lacrosse team participated in the USA Lacrosse Fall Classic this weekend. The team played two matches on Saturday against Team Canada and Team USA.
The first game, pitting one of the most talented lacrosse players in the world against a college team, went as expected: On Saturday, the Canadian team defeated Virginia, 18-7.
Essentially, that's how it's supposed to play out in these games: The national lacrosse teams representing Canada and the United States get a chance to play in a real match, not just among themselves, and easily beat their college opponents by big margins, like the Canadian team did against Virginia.
The American team did not have the same experience.
After falling behind 5-0 in the first quarter, Virginia outscored Team USA over the remainder of the game and nearly pulled off a comeback, but fell just short as Team USA won 8-7.
The Cavaliers' defense was perhaps the most impressive part of the University of Virginia's performance, as the Hoos held Team USA, a talented lacrosse superteam, to just eight goals. The defending national champions also held Team USA scoreless in the second and fourth quarters, making this a highly impressive feat.
Virginia's goaltenders made eight total saves. Freshman Matthew Nunez started and made four saves while allowing five runs in the first half. Sophomore Bobby Gavin entered the third quarter and made two saves while allowing three runs, and junior David Rozelle entered the fourth quarter and made two saves while not allowing a run.
Virginia outscored America in each of the second, third and fourth quarters, including a staggering 12-1 lead in the second quarter.
Freshman Griffin Schultz opened the scoring for Virginia in the second quarter. Schultz received a pass from Peter Garno on the doorstep, jumped into the air and faked twice to get an angle and score Virginia's first points of the game.
Zander Dixon then assisted on Peyton Cormier's goal and Virginia outscored American University 2-0 in the second quarter to take a 5-2 lead by halftime.
UVA struggled on faceoffs — Team USA has three of the best faceoff specialists in the sport — and won 14 of 18 faceoffs, but Virginia fought back by forcing 17 turnovers.
The U.S. put itself back up by five in the third quarter on goals from Grant Ament and Joe Nardella, but two goals from Xander Dixon put it within three. For the first goal, Dixon sliced through the middle of the defense, took a pass from Thomas Menke and smashed it into the net.
A little over two minutes later, Dixon scored again to make the score 7-4.
Sergio Perkovic scored on a blistering long-range shot that would have surely been a two in the PLL, but Virginia struck back again with a goal from junior Will Cawley. Thomas Menke found Cawley on a cut, who caught the ball high and finished low with his backhand to make the score 8-5 going into the fourth quarter.
Less than two minutes into the fourth quarter, Cawley scored yet another impressive backhand goal to put the Hoos within two points.
Virginia scored three straight goals, including an unassisted goal by senior midfielder Jack Simmons, to pull within one point, 8-7, with more than 10 minutes left in the game.
Unfortunately, with both teams' defenses tightening and UVA's impressive comeback attempt falling just short, neither team was able to score for the remainder of the game.
But there was no shortage of positives from a game that Virginia didn't think it had a chance to win. Virginia's defense held off a very talented Team USA for 75% of the game, several newcomers made key plays, and Virginia didn't succumb to adversity after falling behind 5-0 early in the game. Even more impressive is that the Cavaliers performed so well in their second game of the day against Team USA.
The Hoos' potential was also apparent in an 18-7 loss to Canada earlier in the day. Zander Dixon, who scored two goals against Canada and gave Virginia four on Saturday, scored perhaps the most spectacular goal scored at the USA Lacrosse Fall Classic this weekend. Dixon dove behind the cage, did a swim move and finished with a backhand shot at a very sharp angle.
Dixon also scored on this low-to-high missile.
Matt Moore, entering his fifth season at the University of Virginia this spring, used this slick move to score against Canada.
Regan Quinn, another graduate student, scored a rocket-like goal to give Virginia a point against Canada.
Finally, Bobby Gavin and Matthew Nunez, who replaced two-time national champion Alex Lord, made some great saves to keep Canada out of the goal on Saturday.
While Virginia wasn't able to pull off the upsets against the Canadian or U.S. teams, it certainly showed it has the makings to be a team capable of winning three straight championships when the college lacrosse season resumes in February.
Read more at Cavaliers Now
As smooth as rain: Virginia smashes Duke 48-0
Top 5 plays from Virginia's win over Duke
University of Virginia in the NBA: Previewing Brooklyn Nets' Joe Harris' NBA season
ACC Tip-Off: Tony Bennett's Best Soundbites
