Virginia used a 9-0 run in the first half to cruise past No. 5 seed Georgetown in the NCAA Quarterfinal Round, 14-3, on Saturday afternoon at Hofstra’s James M. Shuart Stadium.
UVA (12-4) advances to Championship Weekend for the second tournament in a row. The three goals allowed ties a UVA NCAA single-game best. The 1972 NCAA title team beat Army 10-3 in the quarterfinals to set the standard.
UVA is now 24-8 all-time in the NCAA Quarterfinal round and the 11-goal win was UVA’s largest quarterfinal win since beating Johns Hopkins by 11 in 2009 (19-8).
Connor Shellenberger led UVA with six goals and one assist in the win. Shellenberger’s six goals tie a UVA NCAA single-game record for most goals. He matches Doug Knight’s 1995 game against Brown and Mikey Herring’s 2019 game against Robert Morris.
With the game tied, 1-1, early in the first quarter, the Cavalier offense went on attack to take a 10-1 lead into the intermission on a 9-0 run.
Shellenberger started things with an unassisted goal at 10:50 in the first. He scored five times during the Cavalier streak, capping the scoring with eight seconds left in the first half on a Jeff Conner helper. Georgetown finally pushed through 1:02 into the third, snapping a scoreless streak that lasted 28:32, easily UVA’s longest defensive shield of the season.
Georgetown (13-3) didn’t score again for another 23:04, during which the Cavaliers finished the third quarter on a 4-0 run with goals by Charlie Bertrand, Ian Laviano, Shellenberger and Matt Moore, taking a 14-2 lead into the fourth quarter. Moore’s goal came with five seconds left in the third quarter.
The Hoyas found nylon with 5:02 left to finish the game’s scoring. Georgetown’s Jake Carraway had the nation’s longest active goal-scoring streak entering the game at 44 games before it was snapped against the Cavaliers on Saturday.
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Chris Graham
