#11 UVa. men's lax closes regular season with rout of #13 Penn

Steele Stanwick matched his career high with five assists to lead the No. 11 Virginia Cavaliers (9-5) to a Senior Day win over the No. 13 Penn Quakers (8-5) on Saturday afternoon, 11-2, inside Klöckner Stadium.

“I thought it was the best full 60 minutes we have played the entire season,” said Virginia head coach Dom Starsia. “We picked a good time to do that. I have said before that there may be no big games in our season, but there are big wins and this is one of them.”

With the win, Starsia now owns 325 career victories, needing two more triumphs to pass Jack Emmer (326) for most victories by a head coach while at a NCAA Division I school.

UVa goalie Adam Ghitelman registered his 46th career win between the pipes, passing Cornell’s Matt McMonagle (2004-07) for No. 5 all-time in NCAA Division I history.

The game started as a defensive juggernaut before Chris Bocklet scored on Stanwick’s first assist with 5:51 left in the first quarter. The goal extended Bocklet’s goal scoring streak to a nation-best 32 games. Rob Emery and Garett Ince each followed with goals, giving UVa the 3-0 lead.

Will Koshansky put Penn on the board with a goal off a Corey Winkoff pass, nine seconds into the second quarter, cutting into UVa’s advantage, 3-1.

UVa scored the next seven goals to take a commanding 10-1 lead with 11:27 left in the game. Stanwick dished out three assists during the run, connecting with Emery, Bocklet and John Haldy. Matt White scored during the streak, as did Haldy for the second time and Mark Cockerton capped the run in the fourth quarter.

Winkoff scored on an extra-man possession for Penn, ending the Quakers’ scoring drought at the 8:34 mark in the final quarter, cutting the UVa lead down to eight goals, 10-2. Colin Briggs found Nick O’Reilly with 5:54 left in the game for the final score of the contest, finalizing the 11-2 win.

Virginia topped Penn in shots (36-25), ground balls (42-22), faceoffs (23-14), while the Quakers had more saves (14-10).

“Who could have predicted that playing Penn at the end of the regular season would prove to be so important?” said Starsia. “I am proud of the way our kids played today, and we got big contributions from a lot of different players.”

The win concludes the regular season for the Cavaliers. The NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Tournament announces its pairings on Sunday May 8, live on ESPNU. The selection show airs at 9 p.m.