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Virginia Wins Top-Five Battle at BC, 15-13
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March 28, 2015
NEWTON, Mass. – The No. 5 Virginia women’s lacrosse team (8-4, 2-2 ACC) upset previously-undefeated No. 2 Boston College (10-1, 4-1 ACC),15-13, in a snowy Saturday (March 28) afternoon game in Newton, Mass., extending its win streak to five games.
Boston College outshot Virginia, 41-26, but freshman goalie Rachel Vander Kolk (Severna Park, Md.) made 18 saves for the Cavaliers, helping to secure the team’s second win over a previously-undefeated team in the last eight days.
“We knew that this was a huge game and we were going to need to really cross our t’s and dot our i’s, go hard to the goal and make the most of our opportunities, and clearly we were able to do that early on,” said Virginia head coach Julie Myers. “Even when we were up 6-0, we knew it was a good cushion, but wasn’t something that was going to last, because BC is so good with so many great attackers. At halftime, we told the team to true-it up, play the ball, play it loose, play good defense, move your feet and keep it clean because the conditions were so messy, we wanted to make our game as clean as we could.”
Senior Casey Bocklet (South Salem, N.Y.), the reigning ACC Player of the Week, was one of three Cavaliers to score a hat trick. Bocklet also added a pair of assists for five points. Senior Liza Blue (Butler, Md.) and sophomore Kelly Reese (Severna Park, Md.) also scored three goals apiece. Senior Courtney Swan (Vero Beach, Fla.) scored two goals with four assists, while also winning seven draw controls and causing two turnovers.
BC’s Mikaela Rix scored five goals while Sarah Mannelly scored four goals with an assist while picking up five ground balls.
Virginia scored the first six goals of the game, keeping the Eagles off the board until 12:10 remaining in the first half. The Eagles went on a 6-1 run, pulling to within a goal, 7-6, with 1:23 remaining. The two teams traded goals in the final 45 seconds of the half with Virginia going into the break leading 8-7.
Virginia built up a cushion on its one-goal lead with back-to-back goals from Reese and Blue. Reese had scored on a free position shot with 22:50 remaining when Swan won the ensuing draw control, setting up the Blue goal 27 seconds later to give Virginia a 12-9 lead. After a goal from Rix, Virginia scored three-straight, capped by Reese’s third goal of the game with 12:35 remaining. Mannelly scored with seven minutes left in the game. BC won the ensuing draw control, with Mannelly setting up a Rix score seconds later to make it a 15-12 game.
BC won the ensuing draw, taking three shots on goal, with Vander Kolk picking up a pair of saves. Virginia finally regained possession, clearing the ball but turning it back over in front of the Eagles’ goal. Rix scored on the opposite end to make it a 15-13 game with 3:19 remaining.
Blue battled through a scrum of players to win the ensuing draw control, putting momentum back on Virginia’s side. The Eagles took five shots in the final 2:18 of the game, including two free position shots, with Vander Kolk making three saves and the other two shots sailing wide of the target. Sophomore Wyatt Whitley (Alexandria, Va.) caused Rix to turn the ball over with 24 seconds remaining in the game with Vander Kolk picking up the ground ball. Vander Kolk passed the ball to midfield with seconds left on the clock to secure the win.
Vander Kolk picked up 11 of her 18 saves in the second half. It was only the second time since 2009 that a Cavalier goalie made 15 or more saves in a game, alongside Liz Colgan’s 22 saves in a loss to North Carolina on March 8, 2014.
Virginia and BC were tied, 15-15, on draws and 17-17 on ground balls. Both teams turned the ball over seven times in the second half.
The game was played in cold, wet conditions with a steady snow falling throughout the contest.
The victory was the second for the Cavaliers in the last eight days over a previously-undefeated team as Virginia upset No. 4 Duke, 13-10, in Charlottesville last Saturday (March 21). Virginia’s current five-game win-streak has included four wins over top-12 teams, three wins over top-10 teams and two wins over top-five teams.
Virginia returns home on Wednesday, April 1 to host Navy, a game now scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. The Navy game is the first of four-straight home contests to close out UVa’s regular season. The Cavaliers will also be hosting the ACC Tournament at Klöckner Stadium, April 23-26.
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 $4 each.