Women’s Lacrosse: UVA women defeat Winthrop, 18-6, in NCAA Tournament first round

The UVA women’s lacrosse team (12-6, 4-3 ACC), the No. 7 seed in the 2015 NCAA Women’s Lacrosse Championship, earned an 18-6 victory over Winthrop (17-4, 6-1 Big South) on Friday (May 8) in the tournament’s first-round at Klöckner Stadium.

Four Cavaliers scored hat tricks with senior Casey Bocklet (South Salem, N.Y.) leading the squad with four goals with three assists. Freshman Kasey Behr (Northport, N.Y.), junior Kelly Boyd (Baltimore, Md.) and redshirt senior Liza Blue (Butler, Md.) each scored three goals. Senior Courtney Swan (Vero Beach, Fla.) scored a goal with three assists.

Katie Clark led the Eagles with two goals.

“I knew if we played really well, were sharp and were able to attack them from different areas and from multiple people, we were going to be in good shape,” said Virginia head coach Julie Myers. “I thought our defense did a good job of shutting down their drives to goal. I thought the girls did a good job of keeping it simple and playing together as a team while also executing a lot of pretty plays all over the field. Hopefully this gives us some good momentum heading into Sunday’s game.”

Penn State defeated Johns Hopkins, 14-11, in the day’s first game at Klöckner. The Nittany Lions and the Cavaliers will play an NCAA Tournament second-round game on Sunday, May 10 at 4 p.m. at Klockner Stadium with the winner of that contest advancing to next weekend’s quarterfinals.

Boyd scored the first two goals of the game, the start of a 6-0 start for the Cavaliers. After back-to-back Winthrop goals made it a 6-2 game with 12:28 remaining in the half, Virginia scored the final three goals of the period, including a third from Boyd on a feed from Swan with 1:10 remaining, to give Virginia a 10-2 lead at the break.

Bocklet opened the second half by scoring on a pass from Swan 30 seconds into the period. Virginia took its first double-digit lead, 13-3, on a free position shot from Blue with 23:38 remaining. After Winthrop narrowed the gap to nine, 14-5, with19:38 remaining, Swan won the ensuing draw control with freshman Meghan Heick (Centreville, Va.) scoring five seconds later to again give Virginia a double-digit advantage. The remainder of the game was played with a running clock as Winthrop never again managed cut its deficit to single digits.

The 12-point margin of victory was the largest for the Cavaliers this season. UVa scored its 18 goals on 28 shots while Winthrop scored six goals on 18 shots. Virginia held a 10-4 draw control margin in the second half.

Freshman goalkeeper Rachel Vander Kolk (Severna Park, Md.) had four saves while Winthop’s Alaina Girani made five stops.

Fans may purchase advance tickets for Sunday’s Second Round game online at VirginiaSports.com or Sunday afternoon at the Klöckner ticket booth. Reserved tickets are $7. General admission tickets are $5 for adults and $4 for youth 18-and-under and students of the participating schools with a valid student ID.

There will be a $5 cash parking fee for the University Hall, John Paul Jones Arena and McCue Center parking lots on Sunday. The parking charge does not apply to baseball fans holding a reserved parking pass for the University Hall parking lot. Free parking will be available in the Emmet/Ivy Garage and Culbreth Garage.