Connor Shellenberger powers Virginia to another lacrosse Final Four

By the time the final horn sounded, Shellenberger had scored or assisted on 10 Virginia goals during a 17-14 win that sent the second-seeded Cavaliers (13-3) to their third Final Four since 2019 and ended seventh-seeded Georgetown’s program record winning streak at 13. In the semifinals, Virginia will face third-seeded Notre Dame or sixth-seeded Johns Hopkins next Saturday at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field.

Shellenberger’s 10 points, which included six goals, matched the program record for an NCAA tournament game and lifted Virginia to its sixth victory in six meetings with Georgetown. His previous six-goal outburst came in May 2021 — also against the Hoyas, also in the NCAA quarterfinals and also in a Cavaliers win.

“I think it helps to get in that zone pretty quickly,” Shellenberger said. “A lot of credit to Petey LaSalla winning those two faceoffs. … I think it kind of just helped us settle into the game a little bit and try to set the tone.”

Voted most outstanding player of the 2021 NCAA tournament when Virginia won a second straight national championship, Shellenberger assisted on Payton Cormier’s goal with 8:54 left in the third quarter Saturday to put the Cavaliers ahead to stay at 12-11.

That began a decisive stretch of four consecutive goals in a game Virginia never trailed. Shellenberger scored or assisted on three of the Cavaliers’ five goals in the third quarter. His goal to open the fourth followed by an assist on Xander Dickson’s tally grew the Cavaliers’ edge to 17-12 with 8:34 to play.

“We just couldn’t stop them,” Georgetown Coach Kevin Warne said. “[Shellenberger] is a great player. He’s fantastic, and at some point he will graduate.”

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Shellenberger turned in a virtuoso performance despite having to contend with close defenseman Will Bowen of Georgetown (13-4). The graduate transfer from North Carolina was recently named Big East defensive player of the year.

Dickson had two goals to add to his record-setting redshirt senior season. He has 60 goals, the most in program history, and leads the Cavaliers with 81 points. He is eight shy of matching Virginia’s single-season record set by Matt Moore on the way to the national title in 2019.

Georgetown got four goals from Brian Minicus, who found consistent success in tight windows during one-on-one situations, beating Cavaliers defensemen Cade Saustad, an all-American, and Cole Kastner, the 2022 ACC defensive player of the year.

“They’re two very good defenders, and we sort of have to play to our strengths to find an advantage,” Minicus said. “I know they don’t really give advantages that easily, so we tried to break them down with the two-man game, and that seemed to have a little bit of success — but not as much success as we wanted.”

Making their fifth consecutive appearance in the NCAA tournament, the Hoyas rallied from a 7-4 deficit at the end of the first quarter to tie it at 10 on Minicus’s final goal. Nicky Solomon’s strike several minutes later forged an 11-11 tie before the Cavaliers pulled away.

Virginia held Hoyas attackman Tucker Dordevic to two goals. The graduate transfer from rival Syracuse set the Georgetown single-season record for goals with 65 and tallied six in last weekend’s 19-17 first-round win over Yale at Cooper Field.

In the second half, Virginia Coach Lars Tiffany had his team pack the interior, which forced Georgetown to take more shots from the perimeter. Goalie Matthew Nunes was up to the challenge with 13 saves, four of which came in the fourth quarter to quell any glimmer of a Georgetown comeback.

“What a formidable opponent,” Tiffany said. “The advantage of that is we really feel like as a team . . . that we earned our way to the Final Four. To overcome a team that has just as much athleticism as we do and more men drafted in the [Premier Lacrosse League] draft, it really is a sense of accomplishment.”