/
.
No. 12 Virginia Uses Balanced Attack to Dominate Richmond, 23-13
Story Links
RICHMOND, Va. – The No. 12 Virginia women’s lacrosse team used a balanced attack, highlighted by 10 different players recording at least one goal, in a dominating 23-13 victory over in-state rival Richmond Wednesday evening at Robins Stadium. The scoring output marks the most goals Virginia has scored in a single contest under head coach Julie Myers, and the most since the Cavaliers defeated Dartmouth, 23-3, on March 22, 1987.
Virginia (1-1) was led offensively by junior Josie Owen’s game-high seven points on four goals and three assists, while classmate Julie Gardner had a career-best night contributing three goals and three assists for a personal-best six points.
Junior Charlie Finnigan tacked on four goals – tying a career high – and redshirt junior Ainsley Baker and sophomore Annie Thomas each contributed three – tying a career high for Thomas. Freshman Liza Blue notched the first multiple goal game of her career with two scores, while senior Molly McClintic, freshman Dana Boyle and classmate Maddy Keeshan all notched their first collegiate goals. Sophomore Caroline McTiernan rounded out the scoring with one goal.
For Richmond (0-4), Danielle Schaevitz contributed a team-high five points on four goals and an assist, while Sam Stevenson had four goals. Mary Flowers tacked on two goals and an assist.
Defensively, sophomore Kim Kolarik led the team with four ground balls, while Gardner and senior All-American Liz Downs each had three. Downs, senior Marghi Walters and junior Bailey Fogarty all caused two turnovers, and Owen won five draw controls.
The game started as a fast-paced shootout with the teams combining for 10 goals within the first 10 minutes of play and a total of 23 in the opening half. The Cavaliers got a hot start from Owen, who scored two of the games first three goals, including the opener just 42 seconds into play. Finnigan accounted for the other.
Richmond then got on the board with back-to-back goals by the 27:21 mark and Thomas made it 4-2 in favor of Virginia at 26:59.
The Spiders remained within one with a score at 26:18, but the Cavaliers rattled off five-straight goals to take a 9-3 advantage by the 19-minute mark, including three from Gardner and Keeshan’s first collegiate score.
Richmond responded to record three of the next four goals, but with a score of 10-6 at 14:37, that would be as close as the Spiders would get. Five different Cavaliers combined for Virginia’s next seven goals – McTiernan, Baker and Thomas each had one before Finnigan and Owen tacked on two each – giving the Cavaliers a 17-6 advantage at halftime.
Richmond opened the scoring in the second half, before Boyle scored her first collegiate goal at the 27:03 mark. Baker then converted a free position shot, before the Spiders fired off three-consecutive scores to bring the score to 19-10.
Blue notched back-to-back scores for the Cavaliers and Finnigan gave Virginia a 12-goal lead, 22-10, at 14:28.
Schaevitz scored her third for Richmond at 13:16, before McClintic fired her first career goal into the net with 5:18 remaining in the contest.
Richmond wrapped up the scoring with the game’s final two goals to bring the score to 23-13.
Virginia will return to action on Sunday, heading to No. 9 Syracuse for a 12:30 p.m., contest in the Carrier Dome. The game will be televised by Time Warner in the Syracuse area.