The law of averages finally caught up with Massachusetts.
The Minutemen reached Monday?s NCAA men?s lacrosse national championship against Virginia by defeating three of the tournament?s top six seeds. That accomplishment didn?t faze the Cavaliers, who scored 10 second-half goals en route to a 15-7 win at Lincoln Financial Field.
Matt Ward and Matt Poskay scored five goals each as Virginia won its sixth national championship. Danny Glading added a goal and three assists while Kyle Dixon (Spalding) finished with a goal and two assists for the Cavaliers (17-0), who set an NCAA record for wins in an undefeated season.
“This is a very special moment for our program,” Virginia coach Dom Starsia said. “This is a group of thoughtful, respectful, hard-working young men who accomplished something quite memorable this spring.”
Virginia dominated the early part of the game and led 4-1 after the first quarter. However UMass (13-5), like in previous playoff games, rallied to tie the game at 5-5 following a goal from Brett Garber with 13:57 left in the third quarter. Virginia took over after that and scored 10 of the game?s final 12 goals.
“We have an unspoken bond that when someone makes a run on us we need to stop that and go on a run of our own,” Ward said.
Virginia also received solid defensive play as defender Michael Culver held UMass? star scorer, Sean Morris, to two assists. No player scored more than once for the Minutemen.
“I don?t chalk up anything to our mistakes,” UMass coach Greg Cannella said. “Plain and simple, we got beat by the better team.”
NCAA FINALS NOTES
» Virginia is 8-0 all-time against UMass.
» Virginia won its previous NCAA titles in 1972, 1999 and 2003. The Cavaliers also won USILA national championships in 1952 and 1970 in the pre-tournament era.
» Monday?s attendance of 47,062 sets an NCAA championship game record, beating last year?s record of 44,920. The combined attendance total for the three-day championship weekend was 144,688, breaking the record set last year of 133,801.
» Matt Ward was named the tournament?s Most Outstanding Player.
