TOWSON, Md. – Both sides had a strong offensive showing, but the Towson University men's lacrosse team fell to No. 6/5 Virginia 19-15 on a rainy Saturday afternoon at Johnny Unitas® Stadium.
 
Towson (4-3) had an early 5-2 lead in the first quarter and tied the game early in the third quarter, but a 9-0 run by Virginia (5-1) into the final quarter gave the visitors the lead for good.  Towson scored the final five goals but could not come back from the deficit.
 
Key Stats:

• Stats were close in almost all major categories, including shots being even at 44-44.  Towson had a slight edge in faceoffs 19-17 while Virginia committed three fewer turnovers with 14 to Towson's 17.
• Mikey Weisshaar led the team in goals with five off seven shots, adding two ground balls.  Nick DeMaio notched a goal and six assists while Joaquin Villagomez had two goals, one assist and two ground balls.
• The loss went to Luke Downs in net, who had 12 saves and 19 goals allowed.  SSDM Reece Potter had a caused turnover and seven ground balls.
• Towson split its faceoff crew: Matt Constantinides went 15-for-30 with six ground balls and two goals while Rocco Mareno was 4-for-6 with two ground balls.
• For Virginia, Payton Cormier tallied seven goals and two assists while Connor Shellenberger got three goals and seven assists.  The win went to Matthew Nunes, who had nine saves and 12 goals allowed in 54:25 of play.

How It Happened:

• Towson got off to a quick start after a Luke Downs save, firing away on net with two UVA saves.  The third attempt on the doorstep to Mikey Weisshaar got Towson on the board.  A minute later, Alex Roussel found Bode Maurer for the jumping shot and score for a 2-0 Tigers lead.
• UVA forced a turnover on a clear and scored from Griffin Schutz, following 30 seconds later with a Payton Cormier goal.  Towson responded with a quick faceoff win and Maurer scoring his second goal to give Towson back the lead.
• In the following minutes, Towson built its advantage as Weisshaar scored his second goal off a pass from behind cage then Austin Ducommun scored off a ground ball from Roussel as Towson led 5-2 with 5:09 left in the first.
• UVA went on a 4-0 run to take the lead with 10 seconds to go in the first quarter.  Reece Potter scooped up the next faceoff, got the ball back to Matt Constantinides who scored on the run with one second left in the period to tie the game at 6-6.
• Towson retook the lead 27 seconds into the quarter with a laser of a shot from Weisshaar.  The next couple of minutes, Virginia scored three straight to go up 9-7.
• The Tigers took advantage of a couple of man-up opportunities on Virginia penalties: Weisshaar scored on a second chance on a shot between the goalie's feet, then shortly thereafter, Joaquin Villagomez scored on a catch and shoot low shot off the pass from Nick DeMaio to tie the game at 9-9 with 6:41 left in the half.
• After UVA scored with 4:54 left in the second, each side fired away but held.  Downs made two saves in the final couple of minutes as Virginia had a 10-9 lead at the break.
• More quick offense from Towson led to a tied game as Chop Gallagher nailed the corner on a narrow angle to make it 10-10 2:24 into the half.
• Despite Towson having some good looks on cage on offense, UVA finished the quarter with six goals in a row to lead 16-10.
• Into the fourth, Towson had the first chance but sent two shots wide.  Virginia continued the offensive attack with the first three goals of the fourth to go up 19-10.  Towson stopped the bleeding with a Constantinides goal off a faceoff win, then Villagomez added a goal shortly off a restart to pull to 19-12 UVA with 10:44 to play.
• Downs turned back two UVA shots as Towson looked to come back in the game.  The strong Towson passing continued as DeMaio scored while falling on the goal circle from Villagomez, then Weisshaar added another from DeMaio 21 seconds later.
• The Towson defense held off UVA the rest of the quarter.  Gallagher scored in the closing seconds as Towson fell 19-15.

Inside the Numbers:

• Mikey Weisshaar has netted five goals in each of his last two games.  This was his fourth game in his last five where he had at least five points.
• Nick DeMaio earns Towson's first six-assist game since he himself had six assists at Hofstra on Apr. 8, 2023.
• Nick DeMaio extended his point scoring streak to 17 games while Mikey Weisshaar now has a 15-game point streak.  Chop Gallagher extended his streak to nine straight games.
• This was Towson's first defeat at home this season.  The Tigers have scored at least 15 goals in all four home games this year.

Next Game:

• Towson starts CAA play on Saturday, March 16 in Philadelphia with a match vs. Drexel at noon.

- TowsonTigers.com –