CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – After missing the NCAA tournament last year for the first time since 2017, Virginia lacrosse coach Lars Tiffany altered his program’s approach to fall practice.

The two-time national championship winning coach emphasized skills over schemes. He focused his fall on basics and fundamentals, working on a lot of individual skills.

“We did change our fall completely,” Tiffany said this week as his team prepared for Sunday night’s NCAA tournament game against Georgetown at Klockner Stadium. “We went back to the basics. We didn’t really play full-field lacrosse in the month of September.”

The revamped fall didn’t produce success early in the spring. UVA opened this season a disappointing 3-4.

But what the players’ took from the fall was an enhanced confidence in their abilities, a confidence that didn’t falter during the rocky start.

Tiffany credited the leadership of seniors John Schroter, Truitt Sunderland and Joey Terenzi, and the team’s work with UVA sport psychologist Dr. Jason Freeman with helping the Cavaliers stay the course and eventually get on track.

“When you’re at Virginia and you have a losing record halfway through the year, you’re way below expectations,” Tiffany said. “We did that last year. We were going to bounce back this year  and here we were 3-4. But this group would not be denied.”

Virginia played its best game to date in a 13-12 triple-overtime loss at Maryland on March 14, a game Tiffany has labeled the turning point of the season. 

And while online criticism of the team – and of Tiffany – swirled, the Cavaliers never broke stride.

They won four straight games after the Maryland, including knocking off No. 1 Notre Dame and No. 7 Duke in back-to-back weeks. 

Those wins were enough to get UVA into the ACC tournament, despite losses to Syracuse and North Carolina, the latter a 16-15 overtime loss. The team went to the league tournament understanding it likely had to win a game to make the NCAA bracket.

It delivered its best back-to-back games in years, drilling Notre Dame again, 15-10, and thoroughly dominating North Carolina, 16-6. 

“We went down there bubblish,” Tiffany said. “And we came back thinking ‘home game.’”

Indeed, UVA’s resume landed the Cavaliers (10-6) the No. 5 seed in the NCAAs and one more contest at Klockner. That comes Sunday under the lights against a Georgetown team they scrimmaged during that back-to-the-basics fall, the first step in what the Cavaliers hope will be a return to the final four, which will be held at UVA’s Scott Stadium later this month. 

Georgetown is 0-6 all-time against Virginia. Whoever emerges from this game faces the winner of Duke and Richmond’s first round game. The quarterfinal will be played May 17 at Delaware.

The Hoyas (10-4) handled Providence 14-6 on Saturday to win their eighth straight Big East championship.  

Sunday night’s matchup pits two of the nation’s best passing teams against each other. Virginia leads the NCAA with 9.7 assists per game. Georgetown ranks fifth at 8.8. Junior midfielder Liam Connor quarterbacks the Hoyas’ attack, dishing out 3.6 assists per game.

For UVA, it’s the Millon brothers – junior McCabe and freshman Brendan – who make the offense go. That duo has combined for 63 goals and 85 assists in 16 games.

“As a group we’re really finding our stride,” McCabe Millon said about the UVA offense. “We’ve got the utmost confidence in one another. That’s most important. … Our group just has amazing chemistry.”

Sunderland has scored a team-high 49 goals and Ryan Colsey has 34. Those two, along with McCabe Millon, endured 2025 and were determined to make 2026 different. 

With unselfish offense, a tightened-up defense and outstanding play over the last two months in the cage by Jake Marek, they’ll have the chance to do just that. 

It starts Sunday night against the Hoyas.