The No. 8 UVa. women’s lacrosse team (2-0) held the Richmond Spiders (0-4) scoreless in the second half and cruised to a 13-7 triumph on Wednesday evening inside Robins Stadium.
UVa trailed 7-6 at the intermission, but its 7-0 run in the second half cinched the road win for the Cavaliers.
“Going into halftime, we knew we didn’t play great lacrosse in the first half,” said Virginia head coach Julie Myers. “I thought Richmond took it at us and they had us on our heels and did a nice job shooting. They had great looks at the cage and Kim [Kolarik] really didn’t have many chances at making saves. We told them at halftime that we were playing sticky and alittle bit tentative. We needed to move better. We needed to slide better and contest their shots and we needed to keep shooting. We moved the ball better and shot better in the second half and that certainly made a difference.”
The first half was a seesaw battle between the Commonwealth foes. UVa started the scoring when Casey Bocklet found a streaking Ashlee Warner at 27:04. Jennifer Zoltoski retorted by scoring unassisted to bring Richmond even, 1-1, at 23:29.
Virginia began a volley of goals with Richmond as Caroline McTiernan dipped and dodged for a goal on a pass from Bocklet. Richmond evened the game, 2-2, after Sam Stevenson found nylon at 15:10.
Goals by Morgan Stephens and Dana Boyle gave UVa a two-goal lead, 4-2, with 10:59 left in the first half. Richmond roared back with goals by Zoltoski and Caitlin Fifield to even the game at 4-4.
Bocklet’s dodge at 6:57 resulted in her first goal of the game and gave UVa the lead again, 6-5. Richmond closed out the half on an offensive spurt, using a 3-1 run to head into the intermission with a 7-6 lead.
The numbers were almost as even as the score at the break. UVa and Richmondwere knotted in ground balls (9-9) and turnovers (5-5). UVa had a slight edge on draw controls in the first half (8-6).
Virginia’s defense was potent in the second half, forcing Richmond into eight turnovers, while Kolarik was stellar in the cage, making six saves as her stick was a second-half magnet to all Richmond shots. The Spiders only managed nine shots in the second half due to a smothering UVa defense.
The UVa offense was efficient in the second stanza, scoring seven unanswered goals by six-different Cavaliers. Warner scored two of hergame-high three goals in the second half, while the Cavaliers also receivedscores from Sally Jentis, McTiernan, Bocklet, Courtney Swan and Lauren Goertz.
Warner led all players with three goals and five points, while Bocklet scored two goals and dished out two assists. Stephens and McTiernan round out the top UVa scorers with two goals and one assist apiece.
Virginia topped Richmond in shots (32-22) and draw controls (14-8), while Richmond bettered UVa in ground balls (20-18).
Virginia returns to action on Sunday when the Cavaliers travel to upstate New York to face No. 2 Syracuse. First draw is slated for 1 p.m. inside the Carrier Dome.
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Chris Graham
