No. 9 UVA Upends No. 15 Johns Hopkins and Reclaims the Doyle Smith Cup
The No. 9 Virginia Cavaliers (6-2) walked away with an impressive 16-11 triumph over the No. 15 Johns Hopkins Blue Jays (4-4) on Saturday night at historic Homewood Field, returning the Doyle Smith Cup to Charlottesville for the first time since 2016.
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 9 Virginia Cavaliers (6-2) walked away with an impressive 16-11 triumph over the No. 15 Johns Hopkins Blue Jays (4-4) on Saturday night at historic Homewood Field, returning the Doyle Smith Cup to Charlottesville for the first time since 2016.
The game began as a see-saw battle that boasted seven ties and five lead changes, but the Cavaliers trailing 8-7 early in the third quarter went on a 9-2 run to take a commanding six-goal lead with 7:36 left to play. The five-goal win was also UVA’s largest all-time win over the Blue Jays at Homewood Field. The previous best was four goals in 1997 (16-12).
HOW IT HAPPENED
Michael Kraus scored an unassisted goal after dodging from X to tie the game at 8-8 with 7:50 left in the third quarter. The Kraus goal started a 3-0 UVA run that gave the Cavaliers the lead for good. Ryan Conrad continued the run when he took the ball to the rack in transition with 7:26 left in the third quarter. Dox Aitken capped the spurt when he dodged to space and got his hands free with 5:01 left in the third, giving UVA its first two-goal lead of the game (10-8) since the Cavaliers led 2-0 to start the contest.
Johns Hopkins narrowed its deficit to one goal, 10-9, after Evan Zinn found nylon at 4:40 in the third. However, UVA quickly reeled off four-straight goals to take a commanding 14-9 lead. Aitken capped the streak when he completed his hat-trick on an Ian Laviano pass, scoring an extra-man goal with 9:51 left to play.
#SCTop10 as Petey LaSalla scores the behind the back goal after navigating rush hour traffic!! His second of the game. UVA leads 15-10 with 8:45 left to play. #GoHoos pic.twitter.com/Fi7Sx6RIEg
— Virginia Men’s Lacrosse (@UVAMensLax) March 23, 2019
UVA STAT LEADERS
• A Michael Kraus
3 goals, 2 assists
• A Ian Laviano
2 goals, 1 assist
• A Matt Moore
3 goals, 2 CTs
• M Dox Aitken
3 goals
• M Ryan Conrad
2 goals, 1 assist
NOTES
• Saturday’s game was the 94th meeting between UVA and Johns Hopkins and the 73rd season in a row the Cavaliers and Blue Jays have met in lacrosse.
• The game is the 14th annual battle for the Doyle Smith Cup, a spoil since 2006 that goes to the regular season winner in the series. UVA is 9-5 all-time when the Doyle Smith Cup is at stake.
• UVA owns its first five-game winning streak since opening the 2014 season 6-0.
• UVA owns wins at Johns Hopkins and at Syracuse for the first time since 2009.
• Michael Kraus extends his streak of games with at least one point to 40, which ranked No. 4 in the nation entering the weekend among active streaks.
• With three goals, Dox Aitken moved into a tie with Matt Poskay (2003-06) for No. 4 all-time at UVA among midfielder career goals with 88.
• Aitken now has 113 career points, which gives him sole possession of fifth-place all-time by a UVA midfielder, passing Kyle Dixon’s (2003-06) 112 points.
• Petey LaSalla scored a career-high two goals.
FROM THE LOCKER ROOM
“This is a group that truly believes in each other. The fact we are coming out of the halftime locker room playing our best lacrosse is a reflection of our conditioning. We have really tried to focus on training with purpose. Everyone works hard, but are you training with a purpose? I think we have doing a better job of balancing our training in the weight room, but we are also doing more sprints and you are seeing us not deteriorate as the game goes on, but get stronger. What I was really happy with in the second half was our ride. We challenged our attackmen at halftime and we take a lot of pride in the way we ride. At halftime Hopkins was perfect and I told Ian [Laviano], Michael [Kraus] and Matt [Moore], we need more pressure and create some more errant passes. That was a big part of our ability to surge ahead in the second half the way we did.”– Lars Tiffany
UP NEXT
Virginia returns to action on March 29 when in-state foe Richmond comes to Klöckner Stadium for a Friday night tussle. Faceoff is set for 7 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra.