Notre Dame keeps the crown.
The top-ranked and defending national champion Fighting Irish came into Charlottesville on Saturday afternoon to wrap up the regular season and handed the Cavaliers a third-consecutive loss for the first time in a decade.
No. 1 Notre Dame (10-1, 4-0 ACC) completed its undefeated 4-0 run through the ACC with an 11-9 victory over No. 6 Virginia (10-4, 1-3 ACC) on Saturday afternoon at Klockner Stadium.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair, with neither team leading by more than a goal until Virginia got goals from Jack Boyden and Payton Cormier to take a 6-4 lead into the halftime break. Cormier then scored again to start the third quarter to give UVA a 7-4 lead, but the Cavaliers would score only two more goals for the rest of the game in what was ultimately their quietest offensive performance of the season.
Notre Dame scored the next four goals, with each coming from a different goal scorer, to take an 8-7 lead. McCabe Millon found Cormier on a man-up opportunity to tie things up heading into the fourth quarter. After Shellenberger assisted on a Ryan Colsey goal to give UVA a 9-8 lead, the Cavaliers proceeded to go scoreless for the final 12 minutes and 52 seconds of game time. Notre Dame scored the final three goals of the game, including two from Devon McLane, and went on to win 11-9.
The story of the game comes down to sloppiness and mistakes, as the Cavaliers won the faceoff battle 13-10, but were still outshot by Notre Dame 42-30. The explanation for that statistical anomaly is that the Fighting Irish dominated the groundball battle 50-26 and had six fewer turnovers than Virginia, who had 27 turnovers and eight failed clears.
That sloppy play and inability to win the 50-50 balls gave Notre Dame a possession edge that was too much for the Cavaliers to overcome, as they suffered their third-consecutive loss for the first time since the 2014 season.
Payton Cormier had four goals on 10 shots and was the only Cavalier to score multiple goals in the game. Connor Shellenberger had one goal and two assists, but also turned the ball over six times.
Matthew Nunes made 10 saves and allowed 11 goals for a .476 save percentage.
Virginia concludes the regular season 10-4 overall and 1-3 in ACC play.
Up next is the ACC Tournament, which will be played next weekend for the first time since the 2019 season. UVA is the No. 4 seed in the tournament and will have a very quick rematch with No. 1 Notre Dame next Friday (time TBD) at American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina. The other semifinal will be No. 2 Syracuse and No. 3 Duke. The winners of the two semifinals will play for the 2024 ACC Men’s Lacrosse Championship on Sunday in Charlotte.
