Stick with it
UVA men’s lacrosse wins second straight title
The UVA men’s lacrosse team won its second consecutive national championship on Monday. The Hoos topped Maryland 17-16 in the final match, with a last-second save from goalie Alex Rode making the difference. Redshirt freshman Connor Shellenberger and junior Matt Moore each had four goals and two assists in the title game.
UVA entered the tournament as the country’s fourth-ranked team, and dispatched Georgetown and top-ranked UNC in its run to the final.
It’s the seventh title for the Cavaliers since the first NCAA lacrosse tournament was held in 1971. Only Johns Hopkins and Syracuse have more wins than the Hoos. Coach Lars Tiffany was hired in 2016, and has already picked up two national championships.
The core of the current Cavaliers’ team has been through a lot together, winning the 2019 national championship, sitting through a canceled COVID season, and then going on another run in 2021. “At the end of the day, it just came down to our chemistry,” said star midfielder Jared Conners. “Being able to look at each other and knowing that we could rely on each other.”
“We can see in real time that the more people get vaccinated, the fewer people get COVID. It is very simple math.”
Governor Ralph Northam, speaking alongside Joe Biden at a press conference in an Alexandria climbing gym last week.(Props, Gov, for resisting making a “climbing out of the pandemic” pun. We wouldn’t have had the same restraint.)
News Briefs
Memorial Day cemetery cleanup
A group of Charlottesville volunteers spent Memorial Day in Oakwood Cemetery, reflecting on the service of our veterans through acts of service of their own—the volunteers spent the morning cleaning the gravestones of the roughly 400 veterans buried there. Do Good Cville and The Chris Long Foundation helped coordinate the effort, and Hathaway Paper, Packaging and Janitorial donated the cleaning supplies.
Northam lifts restrictions
All of Virginia’s social distancing and indoor capacity restrictions were lifted by Governor Ralph Northam on Friday. “With #COVID19 vaccines now widely available, it is time to begin our new normal,” Northam tweeted. The state government continues to urge people to wear masks, especially in schools where most young students have not yet been vaccinated.
Let’s talk about land use, baby
Charlottesville has extended the public comment period on the Future Land Use Map to June 13. The map, a non-binding, advisory document, lays out which neighborhoods in the city could be considered for increased housing density when the city rewrites the zoning code in the coming months. To learn more about it, read our cover story from last week, and to submit a comment, email engage@cvilleplanstogether.com.
They’re doing what with the cicadas?
Central Virginia has been spared of this year’s cicada swarm, and it’s a good thing, too—northern Virginia has cicada fever. One Leesburg chef started serving cicada tacos in his restaurant, reports the Loudoun Times-Mirror…until the health department put the kibosh on it. Apparently, you’re only allowed to serve cicadas if they’re sourced from an inspected and certified farm.
TV station apologizes
A Richmond TV station formally apologized to Delegate Sam Rasoul for asking an Islamophobic question during a lieutenant governor forum last week. A moderator asked Rasoul if he could “represent all Virginians regardless of faith or beliefs” after having received significant campaign contributions from Muslim groups. The question was widely condemned by VA politicos. After the debate, Rasoul tweeted a photo of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which hangs in the House of Delegates.