Gardner's Overtime Goal Sends No. 2 Virginia Past Penn State, 12-11

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va – Despite being down 11-5, the No. 2 Virginia women’s lacrosse team used a six goal rally late in the second half – and a game winning goal from freshman Julie Gardner with 52 seconds remaining in overtime – to come-from-behind and defeat Penn State, 12-11, on Sunday afternoon in Klckner Stadium.

“I think Julie was feeling it,” head coach Julie Myers said. “She’s a great first-year player who was in the right spot, she had a good look, her hands were free, so she took the shot and scored. It was a little bit earlier than we would have liked, but our whole team stood up after that, won the draw control and made a stance for the comeback win.”

The win bumps the Cavaliers to 5-1 on the season, while that was Penn State’s first loss, dropping the Nittany Lions to 4-1.

For the second consecutive game, the Cavaliers gave up the first goal of the contest, with Erica Mihm getting Penn State on the board faster than any opponent this season at 28:50. Senior All-American Blair Weymouth rallied for Virginia, winning the ensuing draw control and converted it into a goal, just 10 seconds later. Redshirt junior Whitaker Hagerman then made it two straight for the Cavaliers at 27:46, with a free position goal.

The Nittany Lions knotted the score at 2-2, before junior Kaitlin Duff’s free position score quickly pushed Virginia back ahead by one, with 20:39 on the clock. About a minute later, Penn State converted a free position goal of its own and after 10 scoreless minutes, tallied three more scores in a span of a minute to take a 6-3 lead with 8:16 left in the opening half. Penn State would not relinquish their lead until the overtime period.

Coming out of halftime with a four-goal advantage at 8-4, the Nittany Lions would extend their lead to six, at 11-5, by the 17:06 mark, before Weymouth and All-American Jenny Hauser led the Cavaliers in a six goal run to end regulation and force overtime.

Weymouth sparked the run, converting back-to-back free position goals, and senior All-American Ashley McCulloch and Hagerman tallied goals for the Cavaliers, bringing them within two with 4:43 to play.

Hauser notched her second score of the day at 1:47, bringing Virginia within one, before senior Katie Shannon gained possession for the Cavaliers following a Penn State turnover and heaved the ball up field to Hauser. Hauser ran the ball into the offensive end and fired a shot past Nittany Lion keeper Stephanie Ellis with just 15.3 ticks on the clock to force overtime.

“Blair, Jenny, Ash and Whit have all been in huge games before, as well as comeback games and blow out games,” Myers said. “They are our experience so we needed them to take over in order to take the pressure off our midfielders. We spent the majority of the game in our defensive end.”

Each team had a chance in the overtime period, with redshirt sophomore Lauren Benner coming up with a huge save for Virginia. Gardner then capitalized for the Cavaliers, giving them their first lead since 10 minutes into the contest with her game-winning goal.

Weymouth and Hauser led the Cavaliers with three goals on the afternoon, while Weymouth added an assist for a game-high four points. Hagerman notched two scores for Virginia, while Duff, Gardner, Kalkstein and McCulloch each tallied one. Freshman Josie Owen and Shannon each added an assist.

Kalkstein won six draw controls, while Shannon had three to go with three caused turnovers. Duff also caused three turnovers, while Benner had three ground balls. Freshman Bailey Fogarty had two ground balls and two caused turnovers.

Mihm led Penn State with three goals, while Ellis came up with 14 saves.

Benner had seven saves for the Cavaliers.

Virginia will return to action next Saturday, heading to Chapel Hill, N.C. for a noon contest against No. 9 North Carolina.