Elis Fall Short in Bid To Repeat

Yale fought valiantly, but ultimately came up short in its bid to repeat as
national lacrosse champions, falling to Virginia 13-9 in the title match.

PHILADELPHIA—Yale’s quest to win its second straight national lacrosse title ended on Sunday when Virginia completed its return to the top Monday by shutting down the second-best offense in the country with a beautiful defensive game, and turning defense into offense. Indeed, it took the Cavaliers three overtimes in two games just to reach to the national championship game, but they only needed 60 minutes to capture the 2019 crown with a 13-9 win over the Bulldogs and earn their sixth national championship.

UVA set the tone by playing a picture-perfect first 30 minutes. The Cavs kept Yale away from attacking the net, hustled in their own zone to force three failed Yale clears, and turned nine turnovers into instant offense. They also managed to keep the face-off battle against TD Ierlan at a reasonable mark.

And when Ierlan started winning his share from the X as the game wore on, Yale still wasn't able to generate its normal offense. A big part reason: the stellar performance from UVA sophomore goalkeeper Alex Rode, who was all over the place in goal. Rode finished the first half with eight saves, some truly astounding, and ended the game with 13 stops, including timely fourth-quarter saves as Yale tried to trim its deficit.

Yale, for its part, simply didn't let its offense breathe all afternoon. The Elis passed up good looks in search of perfect shots, managing just 26 shots through the first three quarters. In addition, they turned the ball over 20 times on the afternoon. The offense had motion, but it had very little purpose. The Cavs kept Yale attackers to the perimeter and out of the slot, where the Elis made a living against Penn State in the semis, and forced Yale to over-pass instead of attacking the net.

Virginia's offense, on the other hand, was smooth and powered by its best players. Matt Moore set a program record for points in a season, scoring four goals and adding an assist. Michael Kraus ran up a hat-trick of his own, while Dox Aitken and Petey LaSalla both turned in multi-goal efforts to round out UVA's balanced attack.

Virginia was simply the better team, and the final result showed it. The Cavs went out and took the national championship from a Yale team that was just a step too slow to defend its title.

CHAMPIONSHIP NOTES

• This marks Virginia's sixth national title, and its first since 2011. It was also Virginia's 10th national championship appearance, and Yale's second national championship appearance.
• Virginia goalkeeper Alex Rode (13 saves against Yale's 22 shots on goal) was named the championship game's Most Outstanding Player.
• The title game marked the seventh time this season that Virginia kept an opponent to single-digit goals. Yale had scored at least 10 goals in its first 18 games of the season, and entered the game with the No. 2 offense in the country, averaging 15.94 goals per game.
• This was the first time Yale and UVA have faced off in 28 years. In the last meeting, UVA's Andy Kraus scored three goals. On Monday, UVA's Michael Kraus, Andy's nephew, scored three goals.
• Yale's 68 goals during this year's tournament set a record for the most goals in a single NCAA tournament. The old record, 66, was set by Virginia in 2006 in Philadelphia.

—Staff Reports

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