By Pierce Bishop, Wahoo Wire
The Virginia Women’s Lacrosse notched their first ACC win of the season with a 12-10 victory over the Hokies from Blacksburg. The close score, which came from a flurry of goals in the second half to make UVA’s lead precarious, was uncharacteristic of the matchup historically between the two rivals in women’s lacrosse. The Lady ‘Hoos had never beaten the Hokies by a margin of less than ten goals in Charlottesville before, winning all 16 of the previous matchups home and away. Nevertheless, eleventh-ranked UVA was able to get an important ACC win.
Virginia’s Julie Gardner started off the scoring less than three minutes into the game and scored the second of her three goals on the night just about four minutes in. These bookended a goal by the Hokies, putting UVA up 2-1, giving the ‘Hoos a lead they would not relinquish for the rest of the game. After the second goal, UVA extended their lead to 7-1 over the next twenty minutes and did not allow another goal by Virginia Polytechnic Institute until only 3:30 remained in the first half. Yet, that would be all the ‘Hoos would allow in the first half as they scored two goals in the final 13 seconds, one by Jessie Owen and the other by Charlie Finnigan at the buzzer, to set the half time score at 9-2.
While it seemed UVA would have another double digit win against their in state rival that was not the case. The Hokies scored three goals in the first ten minutes of the second half to UVA’s one to cut the lead to 10-5. It could have been even worse but UVA goal keeper Kim Kolarik came up with a tremendous one-on-one save just over ten minutes into the half. With 17:26 remaining in the game, Gardner scored her third goal to put the Cavaliers in a seemingly comfortable spot of 12-5, but that proved to be there final goal of the match. In the next two and a half minutes, the Hokies scored three goals to close the gap to four. The ‘Hoos did stop the bleeding for the next seven minutes but the Hokies put the score at 12-9 with 8:27 remaining and 12-10 with 4:36 on the clock. At this point, the UVA fans and players both became quite restless, realizing the implications of another ACC loss and their first loss ever to the Hokies. It looked even grimmer with 1:45 remaining as the Hokies ripped a great shot but Kolarik came up with another much needed save. The ‘Hoos were then able to run out the clock and breathe easy.
For the Wahoos, Third Year Charlie Finnigan led the way with seven points on four goals and three assists. With her three goals, Gardner also added an assist. Third years Josie Owen and Ainsley Baker eash had two points as Owen had two goals and Baker had a goal and an assist. Completing the stat sheet, second years Caroline McTiernan and Annie Thomas each had a goal. On the Hokie side, Allie Emala and Morgan Widlake topped their team’s output with three goals apiece and Jessica Nonn had two of her own. Caitlyn Wier and Emile Hunter each added a goal as well.
With the ACC regular season now complete, Virginia will play once more before the ACC Tournament as they head to George Mason next Wednesday evening.
