As Virginia held onto a 10-9 lead early in the fourth quarter last Saturday, freshman McCabe Millon fired a skip pass through the defense to find an open Payton Cormier at the top of the offense. The big lefty stepped into a shot as a Richmond defender closed out on him. For the 166th time in his career, Cormier found the back of the net.

With his second goal of the afternoon, Cormier set the new, all-time career goals record for the Virginia men’s lacrosse program. His 3 goals against Richmond pushed Cormier to 167 in his career, surpassing UVA legend Doug Knight who scored 165 in his four years with the team (1994-97). Cormier reached the mark in 57 games compared to Knight’s 60.

“We’re all thrilled for Payton,” Virginia coach Lars Tiffany said this week. “Maybe we were too thrilled for Payton, we kept feeding him the ball against Richmond and he kept shooting. … I think we were all relieved when he finally broke the record there in the fourth quarter. I wouldn’t have anticipated him taking 15 shots, but his teammates kept giving him the ball because we really want him to be the all-time UVA goal-scoring record owner, which he is now.”

Cormier has been with the Cavaliers for some time now. An injury followed by the Covid-impacted season caused the Canadian to stick around for a couple extra seasons. While it is his sixth season with Virginia, this year will only be his fourth full season. Let’s take a look at how Cormier has gotten to this point, and what has allowed him to be so dangerous for this Cavalier offense.

...