Five takeaways from Virginia lacrosse’s 12-10 loss to No. 8 Syracuse

The Virginia Cavaliers’ three turnovers during the last 4:26 against the No. 8 Syracuse Orange crushed the Wahoos’ chances of finishing an otherwise encouraging performance in their ACC opener on Saturday. The storied rivalry was littered with quick ball movement and stellar goalie play as Virginia and Syracuse combined for nearly 100 shots and 33 saves.

Virginia sophomore attackman McCabe Millon led the game with six points, off three goals and three assists, while senior attackmen Owen Hiltz led Syracuse with three goals and an assist.

Here are five takeaways from Virginia’s 12-10 loss:

UVA’s fast start breeds life

After freshman defender Luke Hublitz forced a turnover on Syracuse’s first possession, the ‘Hoos rattled off five shots before midfielder Johnny Hackett buried the sixth. Virginia continued to pester goalie Jimmy McCool throughout the entire first quarter, finishing it with 19 shots, 10 of which were on cage. Syracuse had just nine shots in the first quarter as the Orange fell behind 5-1.

Sophomore attackman Truitt Sunderland found twine twice, with his second goal being assisted by junior midfielder Charles Balsamo for just his third point of the season. Despite not finishing the game with an assist, Hackett was able to consistently get his hands free against short stick matchups and finished with two goals.

“I actually turned to [offensive coordinator] Kevin [Cassese] and at one point I thought we were going to try to possess a little bit more and not take shots every 12 seconds, but these are good shots,” head coach Lars Tiffany said. “So we were just more aggressive, and we were in attack mode, and Kevin was able to manipulate their slide schemes a little bit and got us in some openings.”

Virginia held its own at the faceoff stripe

Despite Syracuse’s sophomore FOGO John Mullen ranking first in the country in faceoff percentage among FOGO’s with at least 200 faceoffs taken, the ‘Hoos held their own against him on Saturday. Virginia finished the game with a 16-9 advantage.

“He has really fast hands,” Andrew Greenspan said of Mullen. “He likes to get it in and out really fast. He does it at a really high level. So we tried to muck it up in that sense as much as we can. But he’s a great faceoff guy.”

The ‘Hoos had a considerable amount of help from the officials on the X as Syracuse was called for five violations, while Virginia stayed clean at the X. The ‘Hoos beat Syracuse 6-5 at the X in the first half before dominating in the second, winning nine of the second half’s first 11 faceoffs.

Senior FOGO Anthony Ghobriel, who’s missed Virginia’s previous two games due to an injury, suited up for Saturday’s game before being limited after taking a hit in the first quarter. Sophomore Andrew Greenspan took a season-high 18 faceoffs and won 12 of them, including during a crucial moment with 2:10 remaining in regulation.

Syracuse’s second half start plagued the ‘Hoos

Syracuse started the second half almost identically to Virginia’s first half, scoring four consecutive goals within the first seven minutes. Junior midfielder Michael Leo scored three of Syracuse’s first four goals of the half.

“He was able to finish off what other guys were starting,” Tiffany said of Leo. “[Sam] English is such a handful, the fastest guy on the field — you don’t have six poles so you’re trying to figure out who you’re going to short. Leo even against a pole … was just blowing by us a couple times.”

Tiffany added that Syracuse forced Virginia’s defense to slide more than he wanted during the Orange’s four goal run, which led to Leo’s step down looks.

“Big difference when you give a division 1 shooter like him the ball hands free, time and room at 10 yards, versus on the run, sweeping,” Tiffany said. “So, they got us rotating there and on the other end… just give them credit [when] they fell into a zone.”

Millon stopped the Orange’s run during the middle of the game with consecutive goals, but that lopsided portion of the matchup hindered the ‘Hoos down the stretch. Sophomore attackman Payton Anderson started his first game of the season on Saturday in relief of Trey Deere, who had scored a combined eight goals in his last two games.

The 6-foot-3, 220-pound Anderson proved to be a tough matchup for the ‘Hoos and finished the game with two goals.

John Schroter dominated Joey Spallina

While he didn’t finish with a caused turnover or ground ball, junior defender John Schroter continued to show his prowess as one of the most elite defenders in the country on Saturday.

For the second year in a row, John Schroter shut down former No. 1 overall recruit Joey Spallina — as he finished with just one assist and zero goals. Spallina entered Saturday’s game second in assists in the country.

“That’s King Kong, Godzilla contact in the corner right there at the GLE,” Tiffany said. “Talk about two big guys initiating contact and when Spallina did get free, Matt Nunes was able to bail John Schroter out. But it’s a great matchup between those two. They battled in high school and in club games, and now we’re seeing that battle again.”

Tiffany added that he wanted all of the Cavaliers’ adjacent defenders to shut off their matchups while Schroter was engaged with Spallina, suggesting Spallina’s ability to pass but also Schroter’s coverage capability.

Schroter will likely have his hands full with another elite matchup next week against sophomore attackman Owen Duffy — the reigning ACC Freshman of the Year.

Virginia’s turnovers came at the wrong time

In a matchup that had no shortage of advanced stick work and complicated offensive and defensive strategy, the simple things plagued Virginia. The ‘Hoos turned the ball over four times during the fourth quarter compared to Syracuse’s zero. Syracuse finished the game with an 8-13 edge in the turnover battle, while Virginia caused just five turnovers to the Orange’s 10.

After Syracuse tied the game at 10 with 7:15 left, senior Virginia goalie Matthew Nunes stopped three shots during an over five minute scoring drought for both sides. However, the ‘Hoos had two costly turnovers within two minutes of each other, which led to Hiltz’ go-ahead goal with 2:10 remaining.

Virginia had an opportunity to tie the game after a faceoff win by Greenspan, but Syracuse’s zone defense stifled the ‘Hoos and Millon turned the ball over with 1:09 remaining. Syracuse outshot Virginia 17-5 in the fourth quarter with nine of the Orange’s shots being on cage.

“Give them credit,” Tiffany said, “we swung the ball to the left side, got it over to the right side, and, ‘Oh, he’s covered, how’d they do that.’ They rotated really well in our last minute [six versus six] possession.”