UVA Lacrosse: #7 ‘Hoos defeat Richmond

#7 UVA (7-2) cruised to a 16-7 victory over the Richmond Spiders (6-4) in men’s lacrosse action on Friday night at Klöckner Stadium.

The victory is the sixth in a row for UVA, giving the Cavaliers their first six-game winning streak since starting the 2014 season 6-0.

UVA started strong against the Spiders, as Richmond committed 12 first-half turnovers and only registered eight shots. Meanwhile, UVA scored early and often, owning an 8-2 lead at the intermission. In the first half alone UVA shot the ball 34 times, picked up 27 ground balls and won 10-of-12 faceoffs.

Ryan Conrad put UVA on the board 55 seconds into the game when Matt Moore found the UVA senior streaking toward the goal. The Cavaliers held the lead the remainder of the night. Dox Aitken, Ian Laviano and Conrad all scored two goals in the opening half. Michael Kraus and Moore also added scores to help give UVA a substantial lead.

In the third quarter UVA outscored Richmond, 5-3. Kraus’ second goal of the game, via a Petey LaSalla helper off a faceoff, capped the scoring in the third quarter as UVA led the Spiders by eight, 13-5. As the third quarter started to come to a close UVA head coach Lars Tiffany began to empty his bench. In the fourth quarter first-year Paul Rodriguez scored his first career goal on an assist by Mitch Gordon. Rodriguez, who made his collegiate debut in the game, gave UVA a 15-5 lead with 6:45 left.