No. 11 Virginia Falls to No. 1 Maryland 17-6
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Box Score April 20, 2016
COLLEGE PARK, Md. – The No. 11 Virginia women’s lacrosse team (8-7) fell to No. 1 Maryland (15-0) 17-6 on Wednesday night at the Field Hockey & Lacrosse Complex in College Park, Md.
“Maryland is a very good team, they are loaded with talent and played a very good, well-executed game” Virginia head coach Julie Myers said. “I think we let their scoring in the beginning of the game get under our skin and it rocked our game a little bit. We certainly didn’t execute well, but I give a lot of credit to Maryland for making that happen. It is a disappointing performance on our end, but again a lot of credit goes to Maryland. It is the most complete, toughest team we have faced all year.”
Virginia trailed Maryland in shots (32-14), draw controls (16-9) and ground balls (14-11). Both teams finished with five saves and the Cavaliers had 14 turnovers to 11 for Maryland.
Sophomore Kasey Behr (Northport, N.Y.) led the Cavaliers with two goals. Senior Mary Alati (Glen Ridge, N.J.) and junior Posey Valis (Baltimore, Md.) each had one goal and one assist. Megan Whittle led the Terrapins with a game-high five goals.
Senior Sarah Gillespie (Mendham, N.J.) picked up two ground balls and two draw controls for the Cavaliers.
Sophomore goalkeeper Rachel Vander Kolk (Severna Park, Md.) had two saves on Maryland’s first two shots, but the Terrapins found their offensive power to take a 6-0 lead. The Cavaliers got on the board with a goal by junior Besser Dyson (Alexandria, Va.) on an assist from Alati. Maryland closed out the first half with two more goals to lead UVA 8-1 at halftime.
Maryland added to its lead with a 3-0 run to start the second half. The Cavaliers fought back with a 3-0 run of their own. Valis scored and Behr followed with a free position goal to cut the lead to 11-3 with 20:01 to play. Valis then found freshman Maggie Jackson (Alexandria, Va.) who scored to make it 11-4.
Two yellow cards on Virginia gave Maryland a man-up goal to halt the Cavaliers’ run and take a 12-4 lead. Maryland extended its lead to 15-4 when Alati scored on a free position to cut it to 15-5 with 8:31 to play. Maryland responded quickly with a goal and Behr scored her second of the game for the Cavaliers to make it a 17-6 final.
Virginia will close out its regular season at Virginia Tech on Friday, April 22 at 7 p.m. in Blacksburg, Va. Friday’s game is a Commonwealth Clash game as Virginia has a chance to clinch for the second-straight year with one point at stake. The Commonwealth Clash presented by Virginia529 is a head-to-head, points-based competition between the athletic teams at University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. The Commonwealth Clash encourages a friendly, statewide rivalry between the two schools across all school-sponsored sports with 21 individual event points on the line. The school that accumulates 11 points or more will be crowned the winner and take home the Virginia529 Commonwealth Clash trophy. This year’s current score is UVA – 10 and VT – 5.