Virginia Lacrosse: Schedules announced for men’s, women’s 2021 seasons

Virginia Athletics announced the 2021 schedules for the men’s and women’s lacrosse programs on Wednesday.

The men’s slate features 14 games, including nine home contests at Klöckner Stadium, beginning this weekend with Towson, on Saturday.

The women’s team will play 15 regular-season games, with nine at home, beginning on Feb. 13, with an opponent still to be determined.

Men’s lax

The 2021 home schedule also includes contests against High Point (March 3), Air Force (March 6), North Carolina (March 11), Robert Morris (March 20), Richmond (April 3), Duke (April 15), Utah (April 17) and Syracuse (April 24).

The Cavaliers will travel to Loyola (Feb. 20), Syracuse (Feb. 27), Notre Dame (March 27), North Carolina (April 10) and Navy (May 1).

The weekend of May 8 is an open weekend for any missed ACC games that were postponed.

The May 1 contest at Navy is contingent on that weekend remaining open for the Midshipmen. The Patriot League has designated the weekend of May 1 as a make-up weekend for any postponed Patriot League conference games.

“All of lacrosse has been dreaming of the day we would be back on the field competing,” UVA men’s lax coach Lars Tiffany said. “We are fortunate at Virginia to have an administration that has been tireless in discovering ways to create this reality. We are also grateful for our athletic trainers and team doctors who have paved the medical path.

“Our men are embracing each and every day we are together on the practice field and are eager to challenge themselves against the nation’s best, which our game schedule represents. We will find out early and often exactly where we stand with an arduous non-conference schedule and six ACC games,” Tiffany said.

The Cavaliers went 4-2 in a shortened 2020 campaign due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the last full season the Cavaliers played, they won the program’s sixth NCAA national title (eighth overall) in 2019.

The Cavaliers finished 17-3 that season, also winning the ACC championship and tying the program record for wins (17).

Tiffany enters his fifth season at UVA in 2021, returning a stable of talented letterwinners. Highlighting the UVA veterans are All-Americans Dox Aitken (Villanova, Pa.), Jared Conners (Pittsford, N.Y.) and Matt Moore (Garnet Valley, Pa.).

Aitken is a two-time first-team All-American and returns to UVA as a graduate transfer after attempting to play FCS football at Villanova last fall.

Conners is one of the most dynamic long-stick midfielders in the nation, sweeping the 2021 preseason All-America honors at the position.

Both Aitken and Conners return using the extra year the NCAA granted spring sport athletes due to the pandemic.

Moore, who broke UVA’s single-season point mark in the last full season (2019), returns as a preseason second-team All-American.

Women’s lax

The remaining home slate will include games against Virginia Tech (Feb. 27), Louisville (March 6), George Mason (March 10), VCU (March 17), Duke (March 19 & 21), Notre Dame (April 3) and Virginia Tech (April 24).

The Cavaliers will be on the road at Richmond (Feb. 19), Boston College (March 13), James Madison (March 26), Syracuse (April 10) and North Carolina (April 16 & 18).

The 2021 ACC Championships will be held at North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C. April 28-May 2.

The NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Championship will begin with first and second round games May 8 and 10 and quarterfinals on May 16 or 17. The Final Four will be hosted by Towson, May 22-24.