Women’s Lacrosse: #16 Virginia wins 15-9 at #14 Richmond

Virginia scored seven free position goals and had seven different scorers in its 15-9 win at #14 Richmond on Friday afternoon at Robins Stadium.

#16 UVA (2-0) was led by Ashlyn McGovern and Annie Dyson, both finishing with hat tricks. Taylor Regan and Mackenzie Hoeg each had two goals with one assist.

Hoeg led the team with nine draw controls.

Lillie Kloak and Maggie Bostain added two goals apiece and Braeden Dial had one goal.

Goalkeeper Charlie Campbell made 12 saves. Meredith Chapman picked up three ground balls, had two draw controls and added an assist.

Dyson opened the game with a goal on a free position. Richmond quickly tied the game at 1-1. The Cavaliers then went on a 7-0 run to take an 8-1 lead over six minutes. Hoeg bookended the run for the Cavaliers, with Kloak, Dyson, Bostain, McGovern and Regan also scoring in the run.

Richmond (1-1) hit back-to-back goals before McGovern scored two straight followed by Regan to give UVA an 11-3 lead with 9:29 to play in the first half.

The Spiders used a 4-0 run to cut the UVA lead to 11-7 with 24:37 to play. Dyson completed her hat trick to stop the Richmond run. The Spiders scored another to make it 12-8. Virginia scored back-to-back goals by Kloak and Bostain to extend its lead to 14-8 with 14:24 remaining. Dial added a goal with 3:36 remaining to seal the win.

“Starting strong made a huge difference in the game. It energized everything we did,” UVA coach Julie Myers said. “I was very happy with our tenacity across the field and how we attacked in the first half in particular. Our defense worked hard to make stops and came up with extra possessions consistently.

“We had great play from some of our key players. Mackenzie Hoeg solid on the draw and in attack. Ashlyn McGovern played well in her ride and had a lot of determination to keep the ball on the attack. Meredith Chapman had a couple of huge knock downs and ran the ball well in transition when we really needed it. It was an all-out team effort and an important, quality win.”