Lacrosse underwent a pretty significant format and classification change with regards to the postseason going into this year, adding a third state championship with the emergence of a Group 4A title in addition to the Group 6A and 5A titles that existed previously.
Previously, schools that were 5A or smaller competed for the 5A title championship, while now schools that are 4A or smaller will compete for the 4A title.
Locally, that means Albemarle will compete in the Group/Region/State progression with 5A schools, while Charlottesville, Fluvanna, Western Albemarle and Monticello’s girls and boys teams will compete on the 4A track.
That 5A track starts with the 8-team North/West Group playoffs this week for Albemarle, with the boys as the No. 1 seed and the girls No. 2. The boys face Freedom-Prince William while the girls will take on Brooke Point.
The top schools in the North/West group will advance to the 5A South Region tournament that also includes the South/East group out of Richmond, and then the region finalists will move on to the state tournament, held at Lake Braddock June 9-13.
For the 4A schools, the path is slightly different and starts this week in the 4-team Charlottesville Conference tournament.
On the girls side, Monticello is the No. 1 seed and Western is the No. 2. Both will host Wednesday games with No. 3 Charlottesville playing Western and No. 4 Fluvanna playing Monticello.
On the boys side, Western is the No. 1 seed and Monticello is the No. 2, with Western hosting No. 3 Fluvanna Wednesday while Monticello welcomes Charlottesville Thursday for the first round game.
From there, the finalists in the Charlottesville Conference will advance to the Region 4A South lacrosse tournament. That tournament includes two teams each from the Richmond and Roanoke conferences for six teams total, with seeding determined by the VHSL’s non-football power ranking.
The finalists in the region will advance to the state tournament with the semifinals and finals June 9-13 at Liberty.
