Women’s Lacrosse: Big first half pushes No. 8 Virginia past No. 13 Duke, 17-12

The No. 8 Virginia women’s lacrosse team (9-3, 1-3 ACC) picked up a 17-12 victory over No. 13 Duke (7-3, 2-1 ACC) on Saturday at Klöckner Stadium.

Senior Maggie Jackson (Alexandria, Va.) led the Cavaliers with four goals. Freshman Lillie Kloak (Ridgewood, N.J.) and sophomore Ashlyn McGovern (Phoenix, Md.) scored three goals apiece. Charlotte North led the Blue Devils with four goals. Junior goalkeeper Charlie Campbell (Lloyd Harbor, N.Y.) made nine saves for UVA. Virginia scored 14 of its 17 goals on Duke’s starting goalkeeper Gabbe Cadoux, who made three saves.

“This was a really important win,” said Virginia head coach Julie Myers. “I loved our first half more than our second half, but I give Duke a lot of credit. They won a ton of draws and they just played with pride in that second half and they made us make some stops. All in all, this was a great team effort for us.”

The Cavaliers jumped out to an early 6-0 lead, netting the half-dozen goals in the first 10 minutes of the game. Duke ended the run by scoring with 20:59 remaining in the first half, but Kloak reignited the offense with an unassisted goal with 15:17 remaining, the first of four-straight to put the Cavaliers ahead 10-1 with 12:51 remaining in the first half.

UVA went into the break with a 12-4 advantage, but duke came out firing in the second half, scoring three goals in the first five minutes to cut the deficit to 12-7. Back-to-back scores from Jackson and McGovern stopped the Duke run and gave the Cavaliers a seven-point advantage. A goal from North with 10:12 remaining pulled the Blue Devils to within four, 15-11, as close as they would come the entire game, but Jackson answered almost immediately, pushing the lead back out to 16-11 with 9:38 remaining.

Both defenses dug in with the teams scoring just a single goal apiece for the remainder of the contest and the Cavaliers’ picking up the 17-12 victory.