Virginia Men's Lacrosse Advances With 23-9 Win Over Albany

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May 15, 2005

Final Stats | Video Highlights

Charlottesville, Va. – Virginia used an 11-goal first half run to build a 15-3 halftime lead on the way to a 23-9 win over Albany in the first round of the NCAA men’s lacrosse tournament Saturday night at Klöckner Stadium. The Cavaliers’ 23 goals tie their most ever in an NCAA Tournament game and their most in six years.

With the win, Virginia improves to 10-3 this season, while Albany finishes the season at 10-6. The fourth-seeded Cavaliers face fifth-seed Navy in the quarterfinals next Saturday (May 21) at Homewood Field on the campus of Johns Hopkins University. Navy gained a 9-7 win over Delaware to advance.

The game was held up for 45 minutes due to thunder storms in the area, but the delay didn’t seem to bother the homestanding Cavaliers. Prone to slow starts this season–the Cavaliers scored just 19 goals in the first quarter prior to tonight–they scored early and often against the America East champions. Junior midfielder Kyle Dixon scored in the opening minute and was followed by sophmore middie Drew Thompson a short time later.

Albany’s Frank Resetarits put the Great Danes on the board with his 28th goal of the season at the 9:43 mark of the first quarter, but that was as close as Albany would get as the Cavaliers erupted for 11 unanswered goals over the next 21-and-a-half minutes to build a commanding 13-1 lead with 3:18 left in the first half. Eight different players scored during the run, including John Christmas, Hunter Kass and Thompson who scored twice each. Virginia needed just 28 shots to score the 11 goals. Strangely, the run featured a scoreless stretch of more than five minutes, the longest period with no scoring in the game.

The teams traded goals the rest of the half as Virginia took a 15-3 lead to the locker room. Thompson and Christmas both had hat tricks in the first half. Thompson’s three goals are a career-high.

The teams continued to trade goals through the early part of the second half. Albany junior Chris Martocchia scored the first of his two goals 37 seconds into the third quarter, but Virginia’s Matt Poskay scored his second goal of the contest to answer. Albany senior Luke Daquino notched his second of the game midway through the third quarter, but Great Danes got no closer than the 16-5 third quarter. Dixon notched his third goal of the game on extra man as the Cavaliers closed the third period with a four-goal run.

Virginia head coach Dom Starsia substituted liberally in the fourth quarter and all 32 players in uniform played.

The Cavalier defense was outstanding in holding Albany, the nation’s fifth-leading offense, under 10 goals for only the sixth time all season. Junior Michael Culver shut out Merrick Thomson, the nation’s leading goal scorer, holding him scoreless for the first time all season. Thomson, who entered the game with 54 goals, didn’t take his first shot until late in the third quarter and managed only two in the game. The Cavaliers forced 29 turnovers, while allowing Albany to be successful on just 17 of 31 clears. Virginia also won the ground ball battle by a 66-47 margin.

Virginia’s senior faceoff specialist Jack deVilliers snared a career-high 12 ground balls and won 15 of 21 faceoffs as the Cavaliers won 22 of 33 draws overall.

Sophomore goalie Kip Turner recorded three saves in three quarters of action before giving way to Bud Petit and Doug Brody in the fourth quarter.

Daquino scored a season-high four goals and added an assist to lead Albany. Kevin Rae went the distance between the pipes for the Great Danes and finished with 17 saves, his second-highest total of the season.

#13 Albany 1-2-2-4–9 record: 10-6
#6 Virginia 7-8-5-3–23 record: 10-3
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Scoring (G-A)–UVa: Kyle Dixon 3-3, Matt Ward 3-1, John Christmast 3-0, Drew Thompson 3-0, Eric Pittard 2-1, Hunter Kass 2-0, Matt Poskay 2-0, Will Barrow 1-1, Jack deVilliers 1-1, Ben Rubeor 1-1, Drew Garrison 1-0, J.J. Morrissey 1-0, Brendan Gill 0-4, Rob Bateman 0-2, Kip Turner 0-1. ALB: Luke Daquino 4-1, Chris Martocchia 2-1, Frank Resetarits 2-0, Brendan Russell 1-2, Jordan Levine 0-1.

Goalie Summary: UVa: Kip Turner 45 mins., 3 saves, 5 goals allowed; Bud Petit 11:37, 2 saves, 4 goals allowed; Doug Brody 3:32, 2 saves, 0 goals allowed. ALB: Kevin Rae 60 mins., 17 saves, 23 goals allowed.

Shots: UVa–64, ALB–33

Ground Balls: UVa–66, ALB–47

Clearing: UVa–21×25, ALB–17×31

Faceoffs: UVa–22, ALB–11

Penalties: UVa–3-3:00, ALB–5-4:30

EMO: UVa–2×5, ALB–1×3