No. 9 Virginia Falls at Boston College, 10-7
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March 30, 2013
NEWTON, Mass. – The No. 9 Virginia women’s lacrosse team dropped its fourth ACC contest of the season, falling 10-7 at Boston College.
After a pair of early second-half goals from Caroline McTiernan (Sr., Garden City, N.Y.) tied the game, 4-4, Boston College scored five straight to take control of the contest.
“It is definitely disappointing to come up short against BC,” Virginia head coach Julie Myers said. “I think they are a good team with some strong attackers, but we didn’t score when we needed to. We worked hard, but we didn’t execute the simple things. We had lots of shots, but we couldn’t hit the cage.”
For just the third time this season, Virginia had fewer draw controls than its opponent, with BC winning 10 to the Cavaliers’ seven. BC dominated the draw in the second half, 8-3. BC also won the ground balls, 14-8, including a 7-3 second-half advantage.
With the loss, the Cavaliers drop to 6-6 and 0-4 in the ACC with only one regular-season conference contest remaining, the season finale on April 17 against Virginia Tech. Boston College improves to 5-6 and 2-2 in the ACC.
The game began as a tightly-contested see-saw battle with neither team scoring for the first six minutes of the game.
Trailing 1-0, Ashlee Warner (Jr., Corning, N.Y.) ran around from behind the goal to tie the game, 1-1, with 21:40 left in the first half. Dana Boyle (R-So., Londonderry, N.H.) knotted the game a second time, 2-2, after running the length of the field and firing off an on-target shot.
Liza Blue (So., Butler, Md.) had a chance to break the tie with a free position attempt with 4:30 left in the first half, but BC’s Calie Ceglarski came up with the save, dishing the ball off to put the Eagles on attack.
Kate Rich converted a free position attempt for BC with 1:23 left in the half to give the Eagles a 3-2 advantage.
After winning the ensuing draw, Virginia raced down the field, trying to score the equalizer with a minute left in the half. Boyle drew a foul with 24 seconds remaining, setting up another free position attempt. Ceglarski came up with another save, getting the ball back to the Eagles with 20 seconds left in the period. BC sprinted down field with Moira Berry zipping a pass to Mikaela Rix right in front of the net. With time expiring, Rix got off a strong shot, finding net to send Boston College into the break leading 4-2.
McTiernan scored the first two goals of the second half, a free position shot through the goalie’s legs followed by a bounced shot from the right side with 21:46 remaining, to tie the game, 4-4.
Just over a minute later, BC took back the lead on a shot from the left side from Sarah Mannelly. Thirteen seconds after that, BC had its two-goal advantage back after winning the draw and getting fouled on the fast break with Rix scoring on the free position shot.
BC added three more goals to go up, 9-4.
Taylor Ranftle (Fr., Hauppauge, N.Y.) checked into the game and almost immediately earned back-to-back free position attempts. She couldn’t convert. Warner was awarded the third free position attempt of the possession, scoring on hers to end the Eagle run.
BC won the ensuing draw control and took back the five-goal advantage, 10-5, 1:20 later.
Virginia tallied two scores in the final two minutes of the game. Morgan Stephens (So., Olney, Md.) created her own opportunity, picking up a ground ball at midfield. Stephens passed the ball off to Courtney Swan (So., Vero Beach, Fla.) who got it back to Stephens for the score. Blue took a pass from Brooke Boyd (Fr., Baltimore, Md.), netting the final goal of the game with three seconds remaining.
McTiernan and Warner each scored two goals. Casey Bocklet (So., South Salem, N.Y.) was held without a goal or an assist for the first time this season.
Virginia is 9-2 all-time against Boston College with Virginia losing on each of its last two trips to Newton. In 2011, Virginia trailed 6-1 at the half and, despite a second-half rally, fell 12-6, which dropped the team to 0-4 in conference play that season as well.
“We need to get back to the drawing board and change some things about how we are preparing for teams,” Myers said. “We are looking forward to the second part of the season starting up in April.”
The Cavaliers conclude their current three-game road trip on Tuesday, April 2, when they take on American at 4 p.m. in Washington, D.C.
The Cavaliers close out the regular-season with three home games against Northwestern (April 7), Johns Hopkins (April 11) and Virginia Tech (April 17).Single-game tickets to Virginia lacrosse games are $8 (adult general admission) and $6 (youth, senior, faculty/staff general admission). Tickets may be ordered in person at Bryant Hall with a major credit card, by phone at (800) 542-8821 or online. Advance ticket sales end three hours prior to the game. Tickets are also available on game day at the Klöckner Stadium ticket windows beginning one hour prior to the game.