Men’s Lacrosse: No. 2 Virginia cruises past No. 9 Syracuse, 20-11, in ACC opener

No. 2 Virginia secured a big early lead and registered hat tricks from four different players en route to defeating No. 9 Syracuse, 20-11, at Klöckner Stadium Saturday afternoon.

Connor Shellenberger (3 goals, 4 assists) Matt Moore (3 goals), Griffin Schutz (3 goals) and Payton Cormier (3 goals) all tallied three goals apiece in the Cavaliers’ (4-0, 1-0 ACC) largest trounce over Syracuse (1-2, 0-1 ACC) in the all-time series.

With his first faceoff victory of the day, Petey LaSalla became UVA’s all-time leader in career faceoff wins. LaSalla (19-28 FO) passed Jack deVilliers’ previous all-time mark of 604 faceoff wins. With 12 victories at the center-X on Saturday, LaSalla now has 616 career faceoff victories.

Matthew Nunes (4-0) was in net for UVA for 56:46 and posted 15 saves, while former Cavalier Bobby Gavin (1-2) suffered the loss. Gavin finished Saturday’s contest with 12 saves.