Women’s lacrosse: Virginia falls 14-8 to Syracuse in ACC opener

The No. 7 Virginia women’s lacrosse team (4-2, 0-1 ACC) fell 14-8 to No. 2 Syracuse (6-1, 1-0 ACC) in the Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both teams on Saturday afternoon at Klöckner Stadium.

Trailing 8-3 early in the second half, Virginia used a 5-2 run to cut the deficit to two with 17:09 remaining in the game. However, Syracuse did not allow another goal and finished on a 4-0 run to take the 14-8 win.

“We did a lot of things really well today,” head coach Julie Myers said. “Our shooting in particular was good early on. We were getting touches and winning draw controls, which we knew was going to be a battle today, we just didn’t capitalize on those. I think we had Syracuse on the ropes. They were changing their goalie, so we had some momentum but we just didn’t take advantage of our opportunities. Syracuse is a very good team and offensively they are hard to stop.”

Sophomore Kasey Behr (Northport, N.Y) led UVA with three goals, junior Posey Valis (Baltimore, Md.) had two goals and junior Kelly Reese (Severna Park, Md.), senior Kelly Boyd (Baltimore, Md.) and junior Besser Dyson (Alexandria, Va.) each had one goal.

The Cavaliers were outshot 26-22. Syracuse also had the edge in draw controls (14-10) and ground balls (12-11). Virginia finished with 11 turnovers to eight for the Orange.

UVA recorded nine saves on the day, all by sophomore Rachel Vander Kolk (Severna Park, Md.). Syracuse had six, all coming in the second half. Junior Maggie Preas (Rockville, Md.) had three draw controls and senior Mary Alati (Glen Ridge, N.J.) recorded three ground balls and two draw controls.

Kayla Treanor scored a game-high six goals, had one assist and seven draw controls for the Orange.

Syracuse opened the game with two-straight goals to lead 2-0 at the 26:34 mark. The Cavaliers got on the board with a goal by Behr to make it 2-1 with 25:26 left in the first.

Virginia cut the lead to one two more times with goals by Valis and Boyd, but each time Syracuse responded. The Orange closed the first half on a 3-0 run to lead 7-3 at halftime.

An early goal in the second half put Syracuse up 8-3 with 28:54 remaining. The Cavaliers began to close the gap with back-to-back goals by Valis and Behr. The Orange scored to make it 9-5 when the UVA used a 3-1 run with a goal by Reese then back-to-back goals by Behr and Dyson to cut the lead to 10-8 with 17:09 to play.

Virginia was unable to get any closer as Syracuse finished with a 4-0 run to take the win, 14-8.

The Cavaliers will be on the road for a non-conference contest at Loyola Maryland on Wednesday, March 9before returning home to host No. 4 North Carolina on Saturday, March 12 in ACC action.