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No. 8 Virginia Falls 14-10 to No. 1 North Carolina
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March 8, 2014
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 8 Virginia women’s lacrosse team (2-4, 0-2 ACC) suffered a 14-10 loss to No. 1 North Carolina (7-0, 2-0 ACC) on Saturday (March 8) at Klöckner Stadium.
“A lot of credit goes to Carolina,” said Virginia head coach Julie Myers. “They are a great team and are really deep. They ran us hard. They just played a really fast game and were able to execute better than we did.”
The defending-national champion Tar Heels opened up an 8-6 game by going on a 7-1 run in the second half to hold a 14-7 advantage with 6:42 remaining. The Cavaliers scored the final three goals of the game, including a pair in the final 2:08, to make it a 14-10 deficit.
“In the second half, North Carolina got a lot of momentum and discovered some holes in our defense and finally got their shots to go in,” Myers said. “Our defense and our goalkeeper, Liz, in particular, did a great job really holding them back for much of the game, but they had a short span where they actually found the back of the net. Our energy kind of deflated a little bit when they did that. It was nice to see that we sort of dug in deep after their run and we were able to score the last three of the game, so ending on a high note is a small consolation.”
The Tar Heels took 43 shots in the game and held a 26-9 shooting advantage in the first half, but only led by three goals, 7-4, at the break. In the second half, the Cavaliers nearly matched UNC’s shooting by tallying 17 shots to the Heels’ 18.
Virginia senior goalkeeper Liz Colgan (Cockeysville, Md.) made a career-high 22 saves. North Carolina’s goalkeeping tandem combined for 13 saves with Megan Ward, who earned the win, recording six.
Senior Liza Blue (Butler, Md.) and junior Casey Bocklet (South Salem, N.Y.) each logged a hat trick for the Cavaliers, with Bocklet also adding an assist.
North Carolina’s Abbey Friend, Aly Messinger and Taylor George all had hat tricks for the Tar Heels with Friend also adding a pair of assists.
Bocklet opened the game scoring a pair of goals in the opening two minutes. North Carolina scored four-straight to take a 4-2 lead. Blue netted her first goal of the contest with 15:23 remaining in the half to draw within one, 4-3. After North Carolina answered, senior Lauren Goerz (Danville, Ca.) again pulled UVa to within one, 5-4, with 8:07 remaining, but the Tar Heels scored the final two goals of the period including a goal by Messinger with two seconds remaining, to take a 7-4 lead into halftime.
Blue opened the second half with back-to-back scores in the first five minutes to pull within one, 7-6, with 25:06 left in the game. Carolina then went on its 7-1 run, including scoring five-straight goals in a seven-minute span, to take control of the game.
The Cavaliers will play a pair of road games next week, taking on William & Mary on Wednesday, March 12 at 7 p.m. in Williamsburg, Va. before heading to Princeton, N.J. to face the Princeton Tigers on Saturday, March 15 at 12 p.m.
The Cavaliers return to Klöckner Stadium on Wednesday, March 19 when they host James Madison at 7 p.m.
Single-game reserved seats are available for all women’s home games for $7. Single-game general admission adult tickets for women’s home games are $5, while youth (18 and under), seniors (60 and over), and UVa faculty and staff tickets are