CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (CBS19 SPORTS) -- A year ago the ACC only sent one team to the NCAA Tournament in Virginia for what was perceived as a down year, but Lars Tiffany says the conference has firmly put any questions of their strength in the rear view mirror.

"It's here, we're back, that was an anomaly," Tiffany said, "What's interesting, I feel like here at Virginia we have just about our best team that we've had in my time here, yet we've got a couple losses because the competition within the league is so good. The elite teams right now, there's some powerhouses and we're certainly playing one of them this weekend."

For the fifth times this season, the third-ranked Cavaliers will face one of the top-five teams in the country when No. 1 Notre Dame visits Klöckner Stadium on Sunday. Tiffany sits on a committee which analyzes the selection criteria for the NCAA Tournament after some controversy a year ago, so he can confidently say UVA has locked up a top-eight seed in the field and will host a first round matchup.

But after suffering losses in three of their four top-five battles this season, a win over the top-ranked Fighting Irish could make things a little interesting on selection day.

"The key now is if we can get a win over Notre Dame we can make the NCAA selection committee's job really hard," Tiffany said, "How do you rank those top-three, so that's our job is to make their job hard."

So far this season the ACC's top-three teams have feasted on each other with Duke winning two over Virginia, Notre Dame beating Duke and the Cavaliers beating Notre Dame once already 15-10 in South Bend. The game was hotly-contested and despite having the edge in first go-round, UVA says round two is a whole new ball game.

"Pretty much a clean slate, playing an ACC opponent two times, not much is an advantage whether you won or lost the first time," senior midfielder Grayson Sallade said, "So I think it gets down to not so much the X's and O's, but more about just going out there and making plays."

After facing Notre Dame, Virginia will have a nearly two week break before opening play in the NCAA Tournament since the ACC no longer holds a conference tournament. The Cavaliers will be plenty tested already though after an ACC gauntlet that shows the conference is back to the height of their powers.

"Notre Dame, Duke, ourselves and even UNC and Syracuse really provide us with an opportunity to grow each week rather than playing some teams we might beat by 10 or 11 goals," Sallade said, "That competition atop the ACC should set us up pretty well in the tournament knowing we're battle tested and ready to go against the best."