Lars Tiffany saw it coming all along.
The University of Virginia men’s lacrosse team continued its hot streak Sunday when it captured the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championship with a 16-6 win over the University of North Carolina at American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte.
The victory was the Wahoos’ seventh in nine games, making an earlier statement from Tiffany, the veteran Virginia head coach, seem prophetic.
On March 14, following a triple-overtime loss to the University of Maryland that dropped the Cavaliers to 3-4, Tiffany said, “We’re going to remember this through the pain and hurt of this losing locker room right now. This is when we turned the season around. We took a huge step today.”
Some 50 days later, the Hoos are not only ACC champs for the first time in seven years, but they’re the No. 5 seed for the NCAA Tournament and will host a first-round game against Georgetown University on Sunday at Klöckner Stadium.
“I give so much credit to this team,” Tiffany said. “They just kept believing, kept trusting us coaches.”
Virginia goaltender Jake Marek was named the ACC Tournament’s Most Outstanding Player after finishing with a season-high 16 saves against North Carolina. The graduate student from the U.S. Air Force Academy also had 12 stops in UVA’s 15-10 semifinal win over the University of Notre Dame on Friday.
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