“I loved the way Kyle Dixon played,” he said. “He was just a monster in the midfield.”

What was most impressive about the 2006 Cavaliers was how they fended off everyone who came at them. Virginia started the season No. 1 and finished No. 1, a feat that is hard to do in any sport — just ask the 2014-15 Kentucky Wildcats basketball team.

“People talk about our 2011 team where we sort of came out of nowhere in the middle of the year to win the championship,” Starsia said, “but I might argue that being No. 1 wire-to-wire is probably as difficult a task.”

Starsia said, in a way, the squad coached itself.

“There was such outstanding leadership,” he said. “I tell all the teams I’ve had that the [2006] team had a lot of guys who wanted to enjoy themselves during the course of their college career, but it never got in the way of the lacrosse — and that’s the piece of it that probably carried that team to its level of success at the end of the day.

“No matter what, they were willing to sacrifice whatever they needed to in order to not give away anything on the lacrosse field. It’s a lesson that I apply consistently to every group that I’m ever involved with.”

No team has gone undefeated since.