Virginia men’s lacrosse coach Dom Starsia is loathe to label anything “perfect,” but his team had him re-thinking his uneasiness with the word after winning the Division I Men’s Lacrosse Championship May 29 in Philadelphia.

Virginia’s 15-7 victory over Massachusetts  capped off an undefeated season with the Cavaliers’ fourth title.

“I’d hesitate to call anything perfect, but this is pretty darn close to a perfect season,” Starsia said. “It’s a group of thoughtful, hard-working young men that created the impression that we can all walk away with from the 2006 lacrosse season.”

Senior attacker Matt Ward, who scored five times in the championship game, said perfection was not expected at the beginning of the season, though the bar was raised as the wins accumulated.

“Going 17-0 is not something anyone expected to do. But once we got rolling this season, we really wanted to do that,” Ward said. “It was important for us to make Virginia lacrosse and the Charlottesville area proud.”

The Minutemen, unseeded in the tournament, made their first appearance in the championship game and kept pace with Virginia throughout the first half. The score was 5-4 at halftime, and Massachusetts was playing strong defense, including a dazzling performance from goaltender Doc Schneider, who had nine saves by the break.

Starsia said that while his team didn’t perform flawlessly in the first half, he knew that being a little more attentive on defense and more discriminating in shot selection would pay off in the second half.

“We’ve sort of stumbled in the second quarter lately, so there was no need for a big halftime speech,” he said. “I thought that we got a little careless on defense and bit stubborn shooting the ball.”

With the score tied, 5-5, in the third quarter, the Cavaliers took over. Virginia scored six consecutive goals to seal the victory, including three from Matt Poskay and two from Ward.

Virginia denied Massachusetts’ leading scorer, Sean Morris, from finding the net throughout the championship game. Morris was matched with the Cavaliers’ Michael Culver.

“When I was able to go at him, I was able to get some shots,” Morris said. “But I wasn’t able to get the ball much and he did a great job with their entire defense.”

Massachusetts coach Greg Canella said he had wanted to limit the face-offs to deny Virginia’s strength, but the Minutemen couldn’t get that job done.

“They are so strong that you kind of needed to hold the face-offs down. We weren’t able to do that, particularly early on in the game,” Cannella said. “They were a great team and a very consistent team all season — as they were today.”

The Cavaliers’ Poskay and Ward each tallied five goals. Seven Minutemen each scored a single goal in the game.

Ward was named the tournament’s most outstanding player. He broke the tournament record for most goals, scoring 16. The previous record was 15 from Syracuse’s Gary Gait in the 1990 tournament.

Ward’s teammates Culver, Poskay, Kyle Dixon and Danny Glading joined him on the all-tournament team. Morris, Jake Deane, Jack Reid and Schneider represented Massachusetts, while Syrcause’s Brett Bucktooth also was honored.

Quarterfinals

Virginia 20, Georgetown 8; Syracuse 13, Johns Hopkins 12; Massachusetts 11, Hofstra 10 (ot); Maryland 11, Princeton 6.

Semifinals

Virginia           8          2          2          5 — 17

Syracuse        2          5          1          2 — 10

Virginia scoring: Matt Ward 4, Garrett Billings 3, Matt Poskay 2, Danny Glading 2, Jared Little 2, Ben Rubeor 1, Drew Thompson 1, Kyle Dixon 1, Steve Giannone 1.

Syracuse scoring: Brett Bucktooth 2, Brian Crockett 2, Kenny Nims 2, Joe Yevoli 1, Dan Hardy 1, Matt Abbott 1, Nathan Kenney 1.

Shots: Virginia 42, Syracuse 40. Goalkeeper saves: Virginia (Kip Turner) 10; Syracuse (Peter Coluccini) 10.

Massachusetts          2          1          3          2 — 8 

Maryland        2          0          0          3 — 5

Massachusetts scoring; Sean Morris 3, Jim Connolly 2, Jake Deane 1, Rory Pedrick 1, Brian Jacovina 1.

Maryland scoring: Maxwell Ritz 1, Xander Ritz 1, Michael Phipps 1, Ryan Clarke 1, Dan Groot 1.

Shots: Massachusetts 31, Maryland 43. Goalkeeper saves: Massachusetts (Doc Schneider) 15; Maryland (Harry Alford) 10.

Championship game

Virginia           4          1          6          4 — 15

 Massachusetts          1          3          2          1 —  7

Virginia scoring: Matt Ward 5, Matt Poskay 5, Ben Rubeor 2, Kyle Dixon 2, Danny Glading 1.

Massachusetts scoring: Pat Larmon 1, Jamie Yaman 1, Jake Deane 1, Clay Stabert 1, Brett Garber 1, Jim Connolly 1, Rory Pedrick 1.

Shots: Virginia 55, Massachusetts 31. Goalkeeper saves: Virginia (Kip Turner) 6, Massachusetts (Doc Schneider) 17.