Women's Lacrosse Plays at No. 2 North Carolina

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March 10, 2017

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Virginia women’s lacrosse team (2-3, 0-1 ACC) closes its road trip at No. 2 North Carolina (5-1, 0-0 ACC) on Saturday (March 11) with a noon opening draw at Fetzer Field in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Saturday’s game will be streamed live on the ACC Network Extra and can be viewed through ESPN3 or the WatchESPN app. Links for the stream, as well as live stats, are available on Virginiasports.com.

Virginia opened ACC play last weekend at No. 5 Syracuse. The Cavaliers scored four-straight goals to begin the game and held an 11-4 lead at the half. Syracuse came back and outscored UVA 12-4 in the second half to comeback and win.

Junior Kasey Behr (Northport, N.Y.) and sophomore Maggie Jackson (Alexandria, Va.) led UVA with four goals each and Behr added an assist for a team-high five points. Junior goalkeeper Rachel Vander Kolk (Severna Park, Md.) finished with a game-high 11 saves against the Orange.

Jackson leads UVA with 17 points (11 goals, six assists) and also has a team-high 21 draw controls and 13 ground balls. Senior Besser Dyson (Alexandria, Va.) ranks second in the ACC with 1.80 assists per game. Sophomore Kaitlin Luzik (Alexandria, Va.) is fourth in the league with 1.80 caused turnovers per game.

It’s the 36th all-time meeting between UVA and North Carolina. Virginia trails UNC, 22-13, in the series. North Carolina is 14-4 in games played in Chapel Hill, N.C. Last season’s meeting was a close game as Behr tied the game in the final seconds of regulation to send it to overtime, after UVA came back from being down 10-6. UNC scored with two seconds left in overtime to end the game. Virginia’s last win over UNC came on May 17, 2014 in the NCAA quarterfinals in Chapel Hill.

North Carolina defeated Albany, 14-5, and Canisius, 16-8, last week. The Tar Heels lead the ACC in draw controls, averaging 19.25 per game. Molly Hendrick leads the team with 20 points (18 goals, 2 assists). Ela Hazar ranks fourth in the ACC in assists (1.57/game). Sammy Jo Tracy is tied for the ACC lead in draw controls per game (9.00). Goalkeeper Caylee Waters is second in the league with 8.83 saves per game.

Virginia will be back home on Wednesday, March 15 when it hosts Loyola (Md.) at 7 p.m. at Klöckner Stadium. The Cavaliers will then host their ACC home opener against No. 8 Notre Dame on Saturday, March 18.