While championship weekend did not finish the way that the Virginia men’s lacrosse team hoped it would, the 2023 season should not be considered a failure. With a record of 13-4, those four losses by a combined 5 goals, the Cavaliers continuously demonstrated resilience and loads of ability every week on the way to their third Final Four appearance in the past four tournaments.

“You’re right, because if we define life based on National Championship or bust, that’s a bit daunting, isn’t it, when in the NBA only one out of 32 teams or in the NFL wins the Super Bowl or the NBA Finals. I hope the rest of the athletes and teams don’t look at the season as a failure,” Virginia coach Lars Tiffany said. “It certainly does right now because we have these expectations and we’ve build this program to where it is, and the men who are next to me and in that locker room had a lot to do with that. But your question is a really poignant one because we want to make sure our men know that this season wasn’t a failure. It feels like a failure right now, temporarily, but man, we had a lot of fun this year. We scored a bunch of goals, broke the UVA record for assists, so we’re sharing it, we’re being unselfish, and we got to come back here. … I’m glad you brought it up because it’s something I’ll go reinforce with the men. As much as it hurts right now, this was a successful year.

Coming into the season ranked No. 2 in the nation, there were high expectations for this Virginia team. Besides Matt Moore, the Cavaliers returned essentially all of their key contributors. With this in mind, they seemed destined to make another run toward a National Championship.

Starting the season 6-0, Virginia’s offense, which was averaging just over 20 goals a game in that span, looked like the most dominant in all of college lacrosse. The offense was simple: Connor Shellenberger dodges from X and finds an open cutter for an easy step down or dunk right on the crease. It was beautiful lacrosse and it looked like nobody was going to be able to slow this team down. Then came the rematch with Maryland.

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