Too many of Virginia lacrosse’s 2019 games followed the same script; go behind by four or five goals, and use a late surge to erase the deficit and win the game. They turned that script on its head Saturday at Klockner Stadium, playing #14 Loyola (Md.) in the season opener.
The second-ranked Hoos opened the game on a 4-1 run, and led 9-3 at halftime. Loyola never went away, outscoring the Hoos by three in the second half, somethings Lars Tiffany took note of.
“We came out with really good energy,” Virginia’s head coach said, but went on to say that “I don’t know if we passed that test [being ahead] with flying colors. I’d probably give us a C.”
Not a very optimistic view from Lars, but then it’s often said that coaches are their teams’ biggest critics anyway. Could Virginia have done better with the lead that they worked to gain over the first half? Absolutely. Loyola is certainly not the best team that’ll be standing opposite Virginia this season, and other teams could well have made it a lot more stressful.
Regardless, it was a solid win to start off the season for Virginia. And it came on the backs of three-goal outings from Matt Moore and Payton Cormier.
Matt Moore did Matt Moore things, adding two assists to those three goals for five points. The Junior attacker has been a constant in Virginia’s offense since he arrived on campus. Last year, he recorded 89 points, breaking a program record. As such, his performance certainly was not unexpected.
Not very many people can claim to have expected Payton Cormiers’ three goal outing, though. The redshirt freshman came out of nowhere to score his first college lacrosse goal seven minutes in. His second came nine seconds later, and he completed his hat-trick in the third quarter. It was a beauty as well, earning the tenth spot on SC Top10.
Cormier wasn’t talked about as one of the top players on this Virginia team coming in. Maybe that’s just because there are too many others that are so good. But he could be a great addition for UVA up top, even if he doesn’t continue the scoring prowess he showed in his collegiate debut.
But then again, this team may not even need to score that much to win games. Many questioned the defense coming in, with a couple of new faces anchoring the back line. That wasn’t a problem, as they played better than anybody could have hoped for.
And when Loyola did manage to break through, Alex Rode was there to meet them. The junior, who earned Championship Weekend most outstanding player honors last year, played great. He saved 19 out of 28 shots for a 68% save percentage. Lars Tiffany had something to say on his goalkeeper’s performance.
“Boy, the guy behind us [Alex Rode] is who bailed us out and allowed us to breathe a little better with Alex Rode being such a wall in the cage. Seeing an extension of what he did last May, and we’ve seen that in practice and throughout the scrimmages, and it was really wonderful to see that come to fruition in the first game of 2020.”
Save for the second half letdown, it was an all around performance for the Hoos in their season opener. The crazy thing is that it could have been even better.
Michael Kraus didn’t score in six tries (although he did have two assists), and Dox Aitken had a goal and an assist. Once those two get firing, it’s watch out, opposing teams.
Kraus has shown his scoring ability time and time again for Virginia, scoring 39 times in 2019 even whilst missing three games. Maybe he had a bit of an off day in the first game of the season. The scoring will come.
Meanwhile, Dox, who earned just about every honor there was to get a season ago, did score. His two points weren’t bad, but like Kraus, he’s capable of so much more. There’s no doubt he’ll be terrorizing opponents soon as well.
One person who did live up to past performances was Ian Laviano. He has two goals and an assist as he continued his play from last year. A year ago, he scored a series of clutch late goals. He didn’t have to do that today, but played well to help the Hoos on the path to the victory.
In the end, there were things to be improved upon—the second half letdown chief among them—but it was a good win nonetheless. Virginia takes on #19 Lehigh at Klockner Saturday at 1 on ACCNX.