T

he last time Virginia stepped on a real lacrosse field, it saw an 8-2 lead slip away in a 14-13 loss to Brown on March 8. The loss dropped the reigning NCAA champs to 4-2, and the Cavaliers slipped to No. 11 in the Nike/US Lacrosse Division I Men’s Top 20 as a result.

The last time Virginia stepped onto a virtual lacrosse field, the US Lacrosse Magazine Twitter followers sent the Cavaliers back into the NCAA championship game with a semifinal victory over Yale.

What would have happened from mid-March to mid-May to turn a borderline NCAA tournament team into a national championship contender?

Three things, and we’ll start with 6-foot-5 defender Cade Saustad.

A Virginia defense already hit hard by the graduation of All-American defenseman Logan Greco and the majority of its defensive midfield unit took another blow with Saustad missing the first six games of the 2020 season due to injury.

Virginia gave up a combined 30 goals in its two losses as the defense struggled to find its footing. Saustad’s absence had a domino effect.

No feeling like winning in the DOME. Relive the 2019 OT winner during this week's Wahoo Wednesday. Watch the game via Facebook or Twitter tomorrow night at 7 p.m. #GoHoos pic.twitter.com/LY2JgmCVjt

— Virginia Men's Lacrosse (@UVAMensLax) April 28, 2020

“His injury took out our true No. 1 cover defenseman from the lineup,” said head coach Lars Tiffany. “That was a huge transformation.”

Third-year starting defenseman Kyle Kology stepped out of his normal role to try and match up with the likes of Michael Sowers and Asher Nolting. Tiffany considered moving All-American LSM Jared Conners to close defense but felt he was too valuable of a threat in his familiar role. Instead, freshmen Scott Bower and Quentin Matsui were both thrust into starting roles.

Saustad’s athletic ability — he helped Highland Park (Texas) win back-to-back state championships in football, and the tight end set school records for career receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns — was sorely missed.

He started 19 games in his rookie season, was named to the NCAA All-Tournament team and was selected as a freshman All-American by College Crosse, and more importantly for Virginia, was close to returning in 2020.

“We were close — a week or two away,” Tiffany said.

Reason No. 2? Petey LaSalla.

LaSalla won 58.7 percent of his faceoffs as a freshman and was at 58.9 percent through six games in 2020. Sounds pretty consistent, right?

Yes, but LaSalla really turned things on in the second half of 2019, and Tiffany felt that LaSalla, aided by veteran Justin Schwenk, was ready to take his game to another level again.

“We saw in mid-March of 2019, Petey LaSalla, in his first year at Virginia, raise the level of his game dramatically,” Tiffany said. “Not only could he win the clamp, he could put the ball where he wanted to, either for himself or the wings.”

Over the final 12 games last year, LaSalla won 62.4 percent of his faceoffs and the only game that he didn’t go at least .500, was against record-setting faceoff specialist TD Ierlan of Yale in the NCAA championship game. LaSalla went just 4-for-17 that day but made the most of his wins, scoring a pair of goals in Virginia’s 13-9 win.

LaSalla’s emergence reduced Schwenk’s workload the last two years, but the senior with over 900 career draws in his time at Virginia and Monmouth (he transferred after his freshman year) provided the experience and depth that would have allowed LaSalla to get over some nagging injuries for a championship push.

Reason No. 3 that the Cavaliers would be on the big stage in Philadelphia Memorial Day Monday? Alex Rode.

There’s no more important position for a championship team than the goalie. Rode, the MVP of championship weekend in 2019, was riding the momentum from that season-ending showing into 2020.

Tiffany saw the progression last fall — especially in the practice setting — and Rode had a 55.2 save percentage through Virginia’s first six games. Rode’s career save percentage coming into 2020 was exactly 50 percent.

In the Cavaliers’ first six games, Rode had double-digit saves in all but a 15-5 win over Air Force, when he made seven saves while allowing just two goals.

Keep in mind, that was happening behind a largely brand-new defensive unit missing one of the key pieces — Saustad.

“We knew there was going to be a learning curve this year,” Tiffany said. “The early part of the season wasn’t always easy, but the whole defense got some fantastic experience and is now better prepared.”

Prepared enough to make another run at bringing home some more hardware to Charlottesville.