Women’s lacrosse: No. 7 Virginia defeats William & Mary, 16-8

Ten different players scored goals to lead the No. 7 Virginia women’s lacrosse team (4-1) to a 16-8 victory over William & Mary (2-2) on Wednesday night at Klöckner Stadium.

Virginia scored the first five goals in the game, including four in just under seven minutes, and held William & Mary without a goal for nearly 15 minutes in the opening half. The Cavaliers never looked back as they led by as many as 10 in the game to earn their third-straight win at home.

“I really liked the energy and the speed we played with all day,” Virginia head coach Julie Myers said. “I think we made a few mistakes because of our speed, but I like that we are resilient. It was a great team effort tonight. We were able to rotate everyone through and had some young kids getting their first goals, first draws, first big plays so just a great team-night overall.”

UVA outshot the Tribe, 39-26, and finished with eight assists on the 16 goals. Virginia had the edge in ground balls (23-15) and draw controls (16-10). The Cavaliers also forced 15 turnovers, while only committing nine. William & Mary recorded 14 saves, all by goalkeeper Alex Lista, to eight for the Cavaliers.

Junior Posey Valis (Baltimore, Md.) led UVA with four goals on the night. Sophomore Kasey Behr (Northport, N.Y.), senior Kelly Boyd (Baltimore, Md.) and sophomore Daniella Kelly (Rumson, N.J.) each scored two goals. Seven players scored one goal apiece. Three players had two goals for William & Mary

Valis got the scoring started for the Cavaliers with a goal at the 28:14 mark. Junior Kelly Reese (Severna Park, Md.) and Boyd tallied goals to make it 3-0, then sophomore Lilly DiNardo netted the first goal of her career to put UVA up 4-0 with 23:05 to play in the first half.

Both teams had a scoring drought, with the next goal of the game coming from Behr at the 6:57 mark. William & Mary scored its first goal of the game to make it 5-1 with 5:38 remaining in the half. Valis added another goal to send the Cavaliers into the locker room with a 6-1 lead.

Valis scored two-straight goals and junior Besser Dyson (Alexandria, Va.) added one to open the second half and extend Virginia’s lead to 9-1. William & Mary fought back with a 3-0 run to cut the lead to five, but the Cavaliers used a 4-0 run that was capped off by Kelly’s first goal of her career to go ahead 13-4 with 11:40 to play.

After a goal by the Tribe, the Cavaliers scored two-straight from Kelly and Boyd to take their largest lead of the game, 15-5, with 7:20 remaining. William & Mary closed out the game on a 4-1 run to make it 16-8. During that span, freshman Avery Shoemaker (Wyndmoor, Pa.) scored the first goal of her career in her debut.

Seven freshmen made their collegiate debut in the win. Sophomore goalkeeper Rachel Vander Kolk (Severna Park, Md.) earned the win in goal, finishing with eight saves.

Virginia closes out its home stand on Saturday when it hosts No. 2 Syracuse at 12 p.m. to begin ACC play. The Cavaliers will then be on the road at Loyola Maryland on Wednesday, March 9.